The National Discovery Museum Institute (NDMI) was established in 2004, with the intent of creating several new learning based institutions along the lines of “living” museums or “discovery” museums. The goal is to build on the cultural capital of Thailand. While the concept of a museum is being pursued, these are not to be just repositories of artifacts, specimens and works of art in the traditional museum sense. Rather, these museums are to be more open-ended places of learning and self-discovery, where artifacts, specimens and works of art are used to enhance the learning process and to reinforce Thai identity and cultural development. The primary audience for the NDMI museums are Thais, and secondly tourists.