THE THAI HOUSE
One of the most remarkable and best preserved traditional Thai houses in the country and founded by Mr. Jim Thompson, the American entrepreneur who came to Thailand in the Second World War period and revived the Thai silk industry. Thompson was an avid collector of antiquities and artworks from all over Southeast Asia. His distinguished array is attractively displayed and left much as it was when he mysteriously disappeared in 1967. Unlike many other local museums, this feels like a lived-in home. The House is opposite National Stadium on Rama I Road.

http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v296/odonto/jim6.jpg

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http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v296/odonto/jim3.jpg

That guy had great taste.. I couldn't imagine a more pleasant place! Okay it could be situated on a mountainside or near a beautiful beach but..

When it first built, I believe it was in a prime location, along the canal and garden. But now,the national stadium and a main road are next to it. :bash:

When it first built, I believe it was in a prime location, along the canal and garden. But now,the national stadium and a main road are next to it. :bash:


nah, not really next to it. The House located at the end of Soi which approximately 70-80 metersfrom the main road, and it'ss still very quite around the house area it's self...:)

Since it's located a little bit inside that small soi I think the location is still relatively peaceful :)

That guy had great taste.. I couldn't imagine a more pleasant place! Okay it could be situated on a mountainside or near a beautiful beach but..

unfortunately it's located next to Sanseab Canal...:D

Yeah heheh... well just perfume it a bit and add some artificial color to the water then :)

Here is the Jim Thomson Museum on Surawongse Road, SILOM !!!

http://img56.photobucket.com/albums/v171/chady/paragose_204.jpg

I always love to go there.Good looking Thai style:)

Same building as that shop, right? I didn't know they had a museum there also.

That building is also a nice one, but nothing can beat Jim's home itself! ;)

True, I bet if he's still alive he would be one of the richest guy in Town since his business is such a world class fashoin industry right now.....

Same building as that shop, right? I didn't know they had a museum there also.

That building is also a nice one, but nothing can beat Jim's home itself! ;)


Yes, on the 2nd floor is now use as a museum on the 1st floor as a shop...:)

Here are some "small" pics of the Jim's house

http://www.jimthompsonhouse.com/museum/images/drawing1.jpg

http://www.jimthompsonhouse.com/museum/images/drawing2.jpg

Original architectural drawings for the house, prepared by Thompson and his Thai architect.
During construction, carpenters were brought from Ayutthaya to assemble the old structures.

http://www.jimthompsonhouse.com/museum/images/plan.gif

The Jim Thompson House Floor Plan

The Jim Thompson House is the home of James H.W. Thompson, a self-made American entrepreneur who was the founder of the world renowned Jim Thompson Thai Silk Company. Thompson's achievements during his 25 year stay in the Kingdom of Thailand have won him much fame as the "Legendary American of Thailand".

For his contribution to the development of the Thai Silk industry, Jim Thompson was awarded the Order of the White Elephant, a decoration bestowed upon foreigners for having rendered exceptional service to Thailand. Thompson's success story in Thailand has become one of the most popular postwar legends of Asia.

In 1967, Jim Thompson went on holiday with friends to the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. There he set out for a walk in the surrounding jungle but never returned. Thus began the Jim Thompson legend.

Since his disappearance in 1967, little has changed in the home that was the 'talk of the town' and the 'city's most celebrated social center'. Even today, the charming Thai style house continues to be a key stop for visitors to Bangkok.

The house consists of a complex of six traditional Thai-style houses, teak structures that were purchased from several owners and brought to the present location from various parts of Thailand. Construction of the Thai house was completed in 1959.

Too bad photography is not allowed in the house because I really want to document it into the smallest details.

I wonder what happened to Jim in Cameroon Highlands. Seems likely it was a kidnapping or other crime related to his business imperium.

Too bad photography is not allowed in the house because I really want to document it into the smallest details.

I wonder what happened to Jim in Cameroon Highlands. Seems likely it was a kidnapping or other crime related to his business imperium.


"some" say it was the CIA who catched him...but we dont know exactly lah....

very beautiful Traiditonal Thai-style house. Its brand is getting popular now.

very popular I can say...:cool:

Do you guys own anything of that brand? I always wanted to buy a necktie but couldn't decide on pattern.... awwh decisions decisions :dizzy:

I have a pillow...:)

Do Thais reallyt decorate their houses with Buddha's head like this?

http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v296/odonto/jim3.jpg

Do Thais reallyt decorate their houses with Buddha's head like this?

http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v296/odonto/jim3.jpg


some......:)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v171/chady/21214889.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v171/chady/28453741.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v171/chady/28453747.jpg

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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v171/chady/31753716.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/joprb/07/50.jpg

Blowup on the details
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/joprb/07/58.jpg

Messages to the man
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/joprb/07/57.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/joprb/07/59.jpg

Modern/traditional mural
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v515/joprb/07/56.jpg

those murals are cool!
one is made to look like movie posters from the 70s. I like the last one too.. :)

oh the location is right in the middle of the city huh. never knew that....I really feel ashamed:)

Very interesting exhibition and the animation movie is the good one.
those murals are cool!
one is made to look like movie posters from the 70s. I like the last one too.. :)
I like this kind of movie poster, I think it used to have a huge poster like this somewhere in Siam Square.

oh the location is right in the middle of the city huh. never knew that....I really feel ashamed:)
same for me.....i stayed at a hotel in the right same soi all the time but never got the chance to go to the house............
btw: thanks jo........very interesting exhibition.........

Why wait? Go there :)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/54/158942715_e79ca7f3c3_b.jpg

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All from Flickr

JT's House is indeed an oasis in concrete jungle as those wonderful photos from Jo testify. But some of you who are unaware of an unsolved riddle, you might be interested to know that JT simply vanished from this earth exactly 40 years ago. Here's a recent report from the BBC...:cheers1:


Mystery of missing Thai Silk King
By Jonathan Kent
BBC News, Kuala Lumpur


It was an Easter Sunday on 26 March 1967. At around 3pm that day Jim Thompson, already well known as the "Thai Silk King", walked out of Moonlight Cottage where he was holidaying with friends in Malaysia's Cameron Highlands and was never seen again.


It was not simply Thompson's fame and wealth that guaranteed his disappearance would become one of South East Asia's greatest modern mysteries - it was his past.

He had spent World War II with the OSS, the US intelligence agency that was the precursor to the CIA.

After the war he settled in Bangkok and in 1948 started the Thai Silk Company.

In doing so Thompson played a pivotal role in reviving the Thai silk industry.

He introduced modern dyes, better looms and oversaw production and marketing while allowing his weavers, most of them women, to work from home and share in the company's profits.

It made Thompson a millionaire.


I've never accepted the theory that he could have been lost in the jungle
Tristan Russell
Tea plantation owner


But it was also rumoured that Thompson maintained his links with American intelligence.

So when he vanished it was front page news and the theories about his disappearance started to multiply.

"I got a call from a friend that an American millionaire was missing, jungle walking," remembers Chou Chuan Sheng, who at the time managed a local hotel and acted as a Cameron Highlands stringer for much of the Malaysian press.

"I got all the story from Jim Thompson's close friend, Mr TG Ling, Mrs Ling and Mr Thompson's friend Mrs Mangskau."

The Lings owned Moonlight cottage and Mrs Mangskau had travelled to the Highlands as Thompson's companion.

For the first couple of days Mr Chou had unimpeded access to the group.


"Thompson went for a walk that Sunday alone without telling anybody. Dr Ling, from his room adjacent to the hall, could hear footsteps and he took it that it was Thompson's footsteps and that he went out for a walk."

He was expected to return for tea but when he failed to appear Dr Ling went to the police station at the nearby town of Tanah Rata that evening and reported Thompson missing.

But then the security net closed around Thompson's friends, and reporters were prevented from speaking to them.

Meanwhile, the search was stepped up with British troops and two Royal Army Air Corps helicopters joining their Malaysian colleagues.

Brigadier General Edwin Black, a long-standing friend of Thompson's and commander of US support forces in Thailand flew in to assist, as did some of his senior colleagues.

Conspiracy theories

This was the 1960s in South East Asia.

Vietnam was 10 months away from the Tet Offensive and while the Communist Party of Malaya had been driven north over the Thai border its reach still extended to the Cameron Highlands.


The most common rumour up here is that he was abducted, but I've come across a couple of other stories
Phil Rivers
Former Malayan police officer

Despite there being a manhunt on an unprecedented scale, with 400 or more people involved in the search, no trace of Thompson was found.

The official explanation was that Thompson had probably become lost in the jungle or had fallen down a ravine while out walking.

Tristan Russell, whose family has run tea plantations in the Cameron Highlands since the 1930s, does not believe it.

"He apparently only went for a short walk. There's no deep jungle there so how one could be lost in the jungle and not be found I can't see. I've never accepted the theory that he could have been lost in the jungle."

As the days and weeks passed the search began to attract rather more unorthodox helpers, including Malay bomoh (traditional magicians) and Chinese mystics.

"In Malaysia we have these temple medium people and they claimed they could tell where Thompson was," Mr Chou recalls.

"Because of the reward for Thompson alive or dead, four or five of these temple mediums formed themselves into a band with cymbals, drums and so on and went into the jungle. But they didn't reappear so the police had to send people to rescue them."

Then there was Peter Hurkos, a renowned TV "psychic" and entertainer, who was accompanied to Malaysia by Lt Denis Horgan, a member of Brig Gen Black's staff.

His explanation fell into the group of theories that stemmed from the belief that Thompson was working for the CIA.

"He has been abducted to another country but is not being held for ransom," Hurkos told Mr Chou at the time. "I stake my neck on this."

Hurkos claimed he "saw" 14 men in dark green uniforms; Communists, abducting Thompson and bundling him into an army truck.


Others claimed that he had staged his own disappearance possibly because he feared being exposed as either gay or as a double agent.

Phil Rivers, a former officer in the Malayan police and a long-time resident of the Cameron Highlands, says the conspiracy theories became more and more outlandish.

"They had convoys of Thai cars racing up and down the hills, they had mysterious strangers showing up saying they'd been told he was hidden nearby in a bungalow, or in a cave or he was on top of a mountain somewhere."

There were further theories that Thompson had been taken by a tiger.

Some believed he had fallen into an animal pit dug by the indigenous people of the area, known generically as orang asli.

Mr Rivers thinks his end may have been rather more mundane.

"The most common rumour up here is that he was abducted, but I've come across a couple of other stories.

"One of them is that he was knocked down by a timber lorry and that his body was taken away and run through a buzz saw and another one is that he was knocked down by another chap who was doing some work locally and was buried."

Mr Rivers says he is investigating reports that a local man made a deathbed confession to this effect.

Forty years on and the mystery of Thompson's disappearance seems no closer to being solved than it ever was.

However the Thai Silk King's name lives on - used by silk shops and restaurants and in the annals of modern Asian mystery.

wow excellent pics Jo! :okay: Jim Thompson's house is sooo nice...what a nice luxurious spot....in the shop I got a cool old map of Siam (with French wording) and framed it

I also like MomRajawong Kukrit Pramote's house and grounds near Soi SuanPluSathorn :) also nice green grounds, and traditional Thai houses, etc. we recently had a party there, with dancers, jugglers, contest games, cool craftspeople making Thai candy animals and other things, it was fun :dance2:

ooh.......
reading about the mystery is fun...........

“ต้มยำ ปลาดิบ”

http://www.jimthompsonhouse.com/events/images/tomyum_pladib-b.jpg

ศิลปินร่วมแสดงในนิทรรศการ: จารุพัชร อาชวะสมิต, ยาสึมาสะ โมริมูระ, โยชิโตโมะ นาระ, สึโยชิ โอซาว่า, วิศุทธิ์ พรนิมิตร และ วชิราภรณ์ ลิมวิภูวัฒน์, เรียวตะ ซูซูกิ, อภิชาติพงศ์ วีระเศรษฐ-กุล
คัดสรรผลงานโดย กฤติยา กาวีวงศ์
ผู้ช่วยภัณฑารักษ์: เพ็ญวดี นพเกตุ มานนท์ และนันท์นรี พานิชกุล

หอศิลป์บ้านจิม ทอมป์สันภูมิใจนำเสนอ “ต้มยำ ปลาดิบ” นิทรรศการศิลปะจากศิลปินไทยและญี่ปุ่นอันมุ่งสำรวจและนำเสนอการอยู่ร่วมกันของประเพณีนิยมและความสมัยใหม่ นิทรรศการจะเผยให้เห็นถึงทัศนคติอันหลากหลายซับซ้อนต่อศิลปะแบบดั้งเดิมและร่วมสมัย ผ่านสายตาและการตีความของศิลปินญี่ปุ่นและไทย ผู้ซึ่งเคยมีประสบการณ์ทั้งระยะสั้นและระยะยาวของการทำงานแลกเปลี่ยนวัฒนธรรม นิทรรศการจะแสดงผลงานของศิลปินญี่ปุ่นซึ่งเคยพำนักและแสดงนิทรรศการในกรุงเทพฯ ซึ่งบางท่านได้ตกหลุมรักกรุงเทพฯจนตัดสินใจพำนักและทำงานที่นี่เป็นการถาวร นอกจากนี้ ยังรวมถึงงานของศิลปินไทยที่เคยพำนักและทำผลงานในญี่ปุ่นอีกด้วย

“ต้มยำ ปลาดิบ” มีจุดมุ่งหมายเพื่อแสดงความซับซ้อนของศิลปะและวัฒนธรรมร่วมสมัยทั้งจากไทยและญี่ปุ่นด้วยงานศิลปะหลากรูปแบบของศิลปินจากทั้งสองประเทศ ที่จะมาร่วมกันค้นหาและสำรวจการมีอยู่ร่วมกันของสิ่งดั้งเดิมและร่วมสมัยในแต่ละวัฒนธรรม ผ่านการนำเสนอด้วยงานศิลปะหลายแนว ทั้งวิดีโอ อาร์ท งานศิลปะจัดวาง สื่อสิ่งทอ และแฟชั่น รวมไปถึงงานด้านการประพันธ์ ผลงานส่วนใหญ่มีต้นกำเนิดจากความทรงจำ ความร่วมมือทางวัฒนธรรมและเรื่องราวในชีวิตประจำวันทั่วไป

ชื่อนิทรรศการ “ต้มยำ ปลาดิบ” ได้รับแรงบันดาลใจมาจากนักเขียนญี่ปุ่นที่พำนักอยู่ในประเทศไทย เรียวตะ ซูซูกิ ผู้ทำหน้าที่เป็นสะพานเชื่อมความสัมพันธ์ระหว่างวัฒนธรรมญี่ปุ่นและวัฒน-ธรรมไทยมาเป็นระยะเวลานาน ในคอลัมน์ภาษาไทยรายเดือนที่เขาเขียนให้กับนิตยสาร อะ เดย์ ซูซูกิได้แบ่งปันความคิดความรู้สึกในฐานะชาวญี่ปุ่นที่มีต่อวัฒนธรรมไทย และภาพสะท้อนของชีวิตประจำวันในเมืองใหญ่อย่างกรุงเทพ นอกจากนี้ เขายังเขียนคอลัมน์รายปักษ์ให้กับหนังสือพิมพ์ญี่ปุ่นโยมิอุริ ชิมบุน เกี่ยวกับวัฒนธรรมไทยและทัศนคติของไทยทีมีต่อชาวญี่ปุ่นอีกด้วย

ชื่อนิทรรศการ “ต้มยำ ปลาดิบ” ได้รวมอาหารขึ้นชื่อของสองประเทศเข้าด้วยกัน ได้แก่ ต้มยำ อาหารประเภทน้ำแกงเผ็ดร้อนของไทย และ ปลาดิบ ภาษาไทยสำหรับเรียกซาชิมิ กลุ่มคำที่สร้างขึ้นใหม่นี้สะท้อนให้เห็นถึงความเข้าใจอันดีระหว่างชาวไทยและชาวญี่ปุ่นผู้คุ้นเคยเป็นอย่างดีกับทั้งสองภาษา และยังเป็นสัญลักษณ์ถึงความสัมพันธ์ที่พิเศษของไทยและชุมชนชาวญี่ปุ่น ชื่อนิทรรศการเป็นการรวมสุดยอดประเพณีอาหารของทั้งสองชาติ ซึ่งจนถึงปัจจุบันนี้ ยังไม่เคยมีใครนำมารวมกันมาก่อน

นิทรรศการ “ต้มยำ ปลาดิบ” จะอุทิศให้กับการแลกเปลี่ยนความคิดเห็นทางศิลปะและกระชับความสัมพันธ์ทางวัฒนธรรมกับญี่ปุ่น เพื่อร่วมเฉลิมฉลองวาระครบรอบ 120 ปี ความสัมพันธ์ทางการฑูตระหว่างไทยและญี่ปุ่น และวาระครบรอบ 30 ปีของสมาคมอาสาสมัครชาวญี่ปุ่น ณ พิพิธภัณฑ์บ้านไทยจิม ทอมป์สัน นอกจากนี้นิทรรศการยังจะกิจกรรมพิเศษต่างๆ อาทิ การเสวนากับภัณฑารักษ์และศิลปิน กิจ-กรรมการสัมมนารวมถึงกิจกรรมการอบรมเชิงปฏิบัติการตลอดระยะเวลาของนิทรรศการ

สำหรับข้อมูลเพิ่มเติม กรุณาติดต่อ:
คุณเพ็ญวดี (ผู้ประสานงานฝ่ายนิทรรศการ) ที่เบอร์โทรศัพท์ 02-612-6741, 02-219-2911
อีเมล์ penwadee@jimthompsonhouse.com หรือ artcenter@jimthompsonhouse.com