Jim Thompson House

The Jim Thompson House is a museum of traditional Thai teak houses and South-East Asian art at 6 Soi Kasemsan 2, Rama I Road, in Pathum Wan, central Bangkok, Thailand. It was the home of Jim Thompson, the American who revived Thai silk, and it is seen on guided tours daily from 10 am to 5 pm. It suits visitors interested in architecture, art and a famous unsolved mystery.

The American who revived Thai silk

Jim Thompson was an American businessman and architect by training who settled in Bangkok after the Second World War. In 1948 he founded the Thai Silk Company, which helped revive Thai hand-woven silk and made it known abroad. He was also a keen collector of South-East Asian art.

In 1967 Thompson went for a walk while on holiday in the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia and was never seen again. No trace of him has been found. The house passed to the James H. W. Thompson Foundation, under the royal patronage of Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, which runs it as a museum.

Six wooden houses beside the Saen Saep canal

Thompson built his home on one rai of land, about 2,000 square metres, beside the Saen Saep canal, opposite Bangkrua, where the weavers who made silk for his company then lived. He gathered six traditional Thai wooden houses and other old structures from around the country. Most of these 19th-century houses came from Ayutthaya, the former capital. The largest, a weaver's house that became the living room, came from Bangkrua itself. The work was finished in 1959.

He combined the houses into a single home while keeping their raised floors, steep roofs and teak panelling. The joined houses face a tropical garden that runs down to the canal.

Buddhist art, Jataka paintings and Chinese porcelain

Inside are Buddhist sculptures and traditional Thai paintings on wood, cloth and paper, including scenes of the Buddha's life and the Vessantara Jataka. Secular art from Thailand, Burma, Cambodia and Laos sits alongside blue and white Chinese porcelain from around the 16th and 17th centuries. Many pieces stand where Thompson placed them. A silk loom shows how the fabric was woven.