1. traditional Thai architecture of Thai house
    Sereechai puttes
  2. Jim Thompson's House
    hansfonk
  3. Jim Thompson's House
    Fruitfull
  4. Jim Thompson's House
    Fruitfull
  5. Jim Thompson's House
    Fruitfull

Review

Jim Thompson's House

4 out of 5 stars
  • Museums | History
  • Siam
  • Recommended
Advertising

Time Out says

The revival and global fame of Thai silk owes much to Jim Thompson, a US architect who came in Thailand at the end of World War II with the OSS (now the CIA) and settled. Thompson spotted the marketing potential of the declining silk weaving industry, then still practised by the Muslims of Baan Khrua, and used it to create a lucrative company selling luxurious fabrics and home decor. In 1959, he adapted six reassembled teak houses into a modern living compound. Now a museum in lush grounds, it exhibits Thompson's Asian artefacts and looks much like it did when he disappeared in Malaysia's Cameron Highlands in 1967. Conspiracy theories surround his unexplained disappearance. After taking a short guided tour through Thompson’s former abode, relax in the canalside bar/restaurant Thompson, browse the onsite silk shop or view the Jim Thompson Center for the Arts, which holds world-class exhibitions on regional textiles and culture. Nearby, the William Warren Library, named after Jim's friend and biographer, also hosts talks.

Details

Address
6
Kasemsan Soi 2, Thanon Rama I
Bangkok
10330
Opening hours:
Open daily 9am-5pm

What’s on

The Shattered World

50 years on, the James H. W. Thompson Foundation isn’t celebrating so much as excavating. In a region where war never fully ends – just recedes, reshapes – this exhibition gathers 13 international artist collectives to unpick the Cold War’s quieter aftermath. Spread across four venues – the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, William Warren Library, Jim Thompson House Museum and Jim Thompson Art Centre. Not the chest-thumping headlines, but what lingered: the unease, the absences, the memories that don’t quite sit still. Here, history isn’t recited but felt. Each work unearths personal, often peripheral stories that slip through the cracks of official accounts. The result is a constellation of perspectives – messy, emotional, unresolved. Across painting, video and installation, the pieces gesture towards grief, survival and the strange elasticity of memory. A reminder that what we inherit isn’t just fact, but feeling. And sometimes, fiction is closer to the truth. Until July 6. Free. Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, William Warren Library, Jim Thompson House Museum and Jim Thompson Art Centre.
Advertising
You may also like
You may also like