The Hero of Thai Silk (Bangkok)

Member Name: ultras67

Product:	Bangkok
Date:	27/06/03 (205 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fine Artifacts, The Architecture, Peaceful surroundings

Disadvantages: Some may say a little on the light side

Hidden away down a side street or Soi there is a hidden gem of a one of the best private collections of Asian art and artifacts in Thailand. Welcome to the Jim Thompson House Museum.

James HW Thompson is the man who is generally recognized as the man who saved the then dwindling Thai silk industry and created the Jim Thompson Silk Company that is world famous today.

About 10 minutes walk from National Stadium BTS station and Mahboonkrong ( MBK ) shopping centre on Soi Kasemnan 2 – off Rama 1 - hides the tranquil Jim Thompson House Museum. House museum? Well, yes, because this museum used to be his home. Using the profits from the silk company he bought as many old paintings, statues and porcelain as possible when the market did not appreciate the beauty and value of Asian art.

In 1967 on holiday in the Malaysian Cameron Highlands, he disappeared. What happened to him remains one of the great Asian mysteries. Was he killed by smugglers, business partners ( he used to work for the forerunner of the CIA ), merely got lost or killed in an accidental fall? Nobody knows. After his death, his home was turned into a museum, one of the few that is easily accessible in the centre of Bangkok. It is also right beside a stop on the Klong Maha Nag, one of Bangkoks’ river bus routes.

Admission to the house is 100B which includes a free tour in English, French, Japanese and of course Thai. Whenever you arrive, you will not have long to wait for the tour as they are around ever 15 minutes or so. The tour itself is around 45 minutes long and is informative although depending on the guide you may need good ears to hear them.

As you may gather, Jim Thompson became a lover of all things Thai and Asian. As a result, when he wanted to move house, he had one built specifically in the traditional Thai design with the main living areas raised on stilts that allows air to flow freely and act as air conditioning. In fact, he only fitt
ed one room to have air conditioning. The interior has been left exactly as it was during the time he lived there.

Although I have called it a house, it is actually a collection of 6 houses including former gardener and servant quarters. The main house obviously holds the main collection; there are antique paintings, furniture, porcelain and statues from Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Burma, China and other countries. Amongst the highlights are one of the oldest known teak Buddha images, a 7th Century Buddha statue, a 19th Century Chinese dining table and a Chinese mouse house!

The other buildings hold just as exquisite but slightly less important artifacts.

The rest of the compound is given over to the garden that holds tropical plants like palms, fiscus, flowering banana and red ginger.

Once you have finished with the tour you can pop into the museum shop to buy that silk tie for dad or scarf for mum or other silk souvenir. There are branches of the Jim Thompson shop all over Bangkok though. There is also a restaurant that will provide either a cup of refreshing coffee or something a bit more substantial. There is also a web site www.jimthompsonhouse.com that you can visit before you come to visit in person.

Overall, well worth a couple of hours of your time.

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