The Baandam Museum is the result of more than 50 years work by celebrated Thai artist Thawan Duchanee. The museum houses a large variety of folk arts, past and present and is situated a short distance from the town of Chiang Rai in Northern Thailand, not far from the famous ‘Golden Triangle’ where the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos converge. We used the services of a local ‘tuktuk’ driver to visit the museum on a recent visit to the area and are pleased to share the experience with you.
In Thai, ‘baan’ means home or house and ‘dam’ means black. We had heard of the black house before, indeed it was a large part of our reason to visit Chiang Rai, but we had no idea of the scale of the enterprise until we arrived. It took us about 40 minutes on the back of our tuktuk, an experience we can recommend in itself. While there are cheaper means of transportation in Thailand the tuktuks are very reasonable compared to any taxi, or indeed uber, in New Zealand and are probably the most fun way to get anywhere. During our visit we made use of them extensively and really, why wouldn’t you? I believe it cost us about 300-400 baht (approx. $15-$20NZ) on this occasion for a trip which took us to the Baandam Museum, a visit to the truly glorious Blue Temple (of which we will share some pictures and impressions later), while our driver waited patiently, and then back into town for lunch. Not bad for a morning tour, right?
But back to the Black House. The title gives you the impression of a single building, and indeed when you arrive that is what you discover. On paying the entrance fee (100, 150 baht per person I think?) you are greeted with the sight of a single structure. But what a structure! A huge, imposing barn of a building, entirely black, looms over you.
And then you enter….
Having been overwhelmed by our first impressions of the place we hadn’t even opened the brochure we received on arrival. But once we had completed a tour of the building we had a look, only to discover the Black House is not one single house but a collection of over 40 individual structures. Made of wood, glass, concrete, brick or terracotta in various unique styles and designs scattered around the area. All smaller than the main building but no less impressive for it, these smaller outbuildings accommodate Thawan’s collections of paintings, sculptures, animal bones, skins, horns, silver, gold and many unique items from around the world. There are bedrooms, galleries, meeting houses, apartments and even toilets and bathrooms.
Nothing in this place was not embellished, carved, sculptured and painted and if we had stayed all day I’ve no doubt we would have discovered more with every new look. But our time was limited and our driver was waiting so eventually we had to leave. But we left astonished and inspired and will never forget our visit to the incredible Baandam Museum and the art of Thawan Duchanee.
(photos)
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