Jim Thompson House

{{Short description|Museum in Bangkok}}{{Infobox museum | name = Jim Thompson House | image = Main House of Jim Thompson photo Don Ramey Logan.jpg | location = [[Pathum Wan district|Pathum Wan]], [[Bangkok]], [[Thailand]] }} [[File:Silk Loom Jim Thompson House photo D Ramey Logan.jpg|thumb|upright|Silk loom, Jim Thompson House]] [[File:Jim Thomson M3.jpg|thumb|Sales outlet of Jim Thompson House]]The '''Jim Thompson House''' is a [[museum]] in central [[Bangkok]], [[Thailand]], housing the [[art collection]] of American businessman and architect James Harrison Wilson Thompson or simply [[Jim Thompson (designer)|Jim Thompson]], the museum designer and former owner.<ref name="Rangan">{{cite news |last1=Datta |first1=Ranga |title=Silk, secrets and splendour: Explore the enchanting Jim Thompson House Museum in Bangkok |url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/my-kolkata/places/jim-thompson-house-museum-a-hidden-gem-in-the-heart-of-bangkok-thailand/cid/1982037 |access-date=4 December 2023 |agency=My Kolkata |publisher=The Telegraph |date=23 November 2023}}</ref> Built in 1959, the museum spans one rectangular ''[[Rai (unit)|rai]]'' of land (approximately half an acre or 2023.43 square meters).<ref name="Jim">{{Cite web|url=http://www.jimthompsonhouse.com/museum/index.asp|title=Thai House & Museum|website=www.jimthompsonhouse.com|access-date=2016-11-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171109193841/http://www.jimthompsonhouse.com/museum/index.asp|archive-date=2017-11-09|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Following his relocation to Bangkok and the establishment of the Thai Silk Company Ltd. in 1948, Thompson also became a major collector of [[Southeast Asian art]], which was not well known among Westerners at the time. Attracted by the subtlety of their craftsmanship and expression, he built a large collection of historical [[Buddhist statue]]s and traditional [[Thai paintings]] made of wood, cloth, and paper that depicted the life of [[Gautama Buddha|Buddha]] and the legend of [[Vessantara Jataka]]. He collected secular art not only from Thailand but from [[Burma]], [[Cambodia]], and [[Laos]], frequently travelling to those countries on buying trips. His collection also consisted of white and blue [[Chinese porcelain|porcelain from China]], which made its way into Thailand around the 16th and 17th centuries.<ref name="Jim"/>

In 1958, he began what was to be the pinnacle of his architectural achievement, a new home to live in and to showcase his art collection. The museum was planned to consist of a complex combination of six traditional [[Thai architecture|Thai-style houses]], primarily constructed of wood, and various old Thai structures that were collected from all parts of [[Thailand]] in the 1950s and 1960s.<ref name="Jim"/> His home sits on a ''[[klong]]'' ([[canal]]) [[Khlong Saen Saep|Saen Saep]] across from Bangkrua, where his company's weavers were then located. Most of the 19th-century houses were dismantled and moved from [[Ayutthaya (city)|Ayutthaya]], but the largest, a weaver's house (now the living room), came from Bangkrua.<ref name="Rangan"/>

After Thompson's disappearance in [[Malaysia]] in 1967, the house came under the control of The James H. W. Thompson Foundation under the royal patronage of Princess [[Maha Chakri Sirindhorn]]. The house is at 6 Soi Kasemsan 2, Rama 1 Road, Pathumwan, one block away from [[National Stadium (Thailand)|Bangkok National Stadium]]; guided tours are available.<ref name="Jim"/><ref name="Rangan"/>

== Literature == *{{cite book | title=Museums of Southeast Asia| last=Lenzi| first=Iola| year=2004| pages=200| publisher=Archipelago Press| location=Singapore| isbn=981-4068-96-9}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

== External links == {{Commons category}} * {{Official website|https://jimthompsonhouse.org/}}

[[Category:Museums in Bangkok]] [[Category:Art museums and galleries in Bangkok]] [[Category:Historic house museums in Thailand]] [[Category:Pathum Wan district]]