Khlong Saen Saep

This morning after breakfast we took a cab to Jim Thompson Museum.

Jim Thompson was an American architect who ended up in Thailand shortly after the end of World War II. He founded the Thai Silk Company, a business that soon prospered and employed thousands of workers producing hand woven silk items.
Jim Thompson revived the Thai silk industry.

On display around the house are items used in the production of silk as well as boards with information about the process of silk worm harvesting, spinning and weaving.

The Museum is the former house of American Jim Thompson. Jim bought six houses in Bangkok and Ayutthaya in the traditional Thai architecture teak wood and were built on high poles to protect the houses form flooding. They were dismantled and taken to this location in Bangkok, Jim had chosen and rebuild there. The buildings do not have nails so the buildings were easy to dismantle and rebuild at their new location.

In 1959 the houses were completed and Jim moved in.

The house t is surrounded by a well kept tropical garden and on display in the houses is a collection of mostly South East Asian art brought together by Jim Thompson.

The house is now managed by the James H.W. Thompson Foundation which aims to preserve the house and its art collection.

Jim Thompson had an appreciation for Asian art and after moving into his house he started an art collection. He often strolled around the markets in Bangkok where he would buy art pieces at often very low prices, since there was not much demand for them back then. Soon he had acquired a sizeable art collection of mostly Asian Buddhist art, now on display in the various buildings. There are Buddha images from various periods in Thai history like Dvaravati, Khmer, Lopburi and Ayutthaya as well as paintings, porcelain items and old photos. Among the most treasured items are several very old Buddha images, including a 13th century sandstone image. The oldest images date back to the 7th or 8th century, the Dvaravati Mon period.

In 1967 while on holiday in Malaysia Jim Thompson disappeared without a trace taking a walk in the jungle. To this day it remains a mystery what happened to him.

No photo's inside which was a shame the art work and porcelain was really lovely.

We then took the train back to the Hotel.Read more