On the advice of Bee who runs the hostel we are staying in , we decided to visit the house of Jim Thompson, and we are so glad we did as it was absolutely beautiful to see and we also learnt more about Thai culture and beliefs.
Jim Thompson was an American who was born in 1906, he was an architect before World War II and as part of his military service he was sent to Asia. He was sent to Bangkok as a military officer and there he fell in love with Thailand and decided to live there after leaving the army.
He became interested in the silk making industry and helped to develop its growth and worldwide recognition. He decided to build a house close to the Muslim community which made the silk, I say build a house but what he did was to combine six existing Thai style houses from around the country and bring them to the one spot. Most of the houses were at least two centuries old , they were dismantled and reassembled to make up his house.
Before moving into his house Jim had an astrology chart made up to see which would be a good day to move in, this chart told him a date but also said that he should be very careful in his 61st year. The house and his art collection attracted a lot of attention so even in his lifetime the house was open to the public, at that time only for two days a week.
In his 61st year , he went on holiday staying with a friend in the Cameron highlands of Malaysia. While there he went for a walk one day and he has never been seen since or any remains found, to this day it was a mystery as to what happened to him.
We were shown around the house by a guide who was very informative and spoke very good
English and she explained a lot to us.
The traditional houses have a raised bit at the doorways this has two purposes, one it stopped babies crawling out of the area but also they believe in bad spirits that can only go straight along the ground , when the spirits meet the raised bit they are stopped from entering. Every door has this raised bit not just the entrance to the house.
This is the living room, there is a day bed in the centre.
The house on the left was the kitchen and the one on the right was the garage.
The main living quarters.
This is Oscar the fish he is a bit mean and will bite, maybe that is why he is in a bowl by itself.
The woodcarving on the wall is actually a printing block, bits of wood can be removed to add colour. The pottery in the front has designs on it which are replicated on the wood. The big vase type one are all over the place in the house and are used as fish bowls. I mentioned this to Bee and she showed me ones outside the hostel which were full of little fish, she said they were good for keeping mosquito numbers down as the fish eat the mosquito grubs.
The smaller pots either side are stools, these have holes in the pottery and when it is cold, burning charcoal is put in the pots to warm the seat up. Good idea!
Then we saw the silk making process.
Silkworms, these were all squirming around.
The cocoons, these have a yellow cocoon some silkworms have white cocoons.
Here the cocoons are soaked in hot water to get the threads.
This is a little house, which is a house for the guardian spirits. Offerings are made to it of flowers, water and food.
Another fish bowl.
A turtle in one of the ponds.
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