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History & Culture Museums in Thailand

The history & culture museums in Thailand cover every possible subject the country’s monarchs, hill tribes there is even a forensic museum in Bangkok housing corpses of infamous murderers. Of course the serious history and culture buffs will want to visit Bangkok’s National Museum, but it is worth noting that almost every province has a National Museum covering important aspects of that area’s past. Thailand has an abundance of museums for you to discover. Here are some of the more important history & culture museums in Thailand.

Of all the players in Thai history, Jim Thompson is probably the most mysterious. An American serviceman attached to the Office of Strategic Services , he settled in Thailand after the second world War and was fascinated by the art of hand silk weaving. Thompson put his efforts into revitalizing what was fast becoming a forgotten craft and played a major part in the growth of the silk production in Thailand and raising the profile of Thai silk around the world. The site of Jim Thompson’s House comprises six wooden (teak) buildings that were brought to Bangkok from various parts of the country including one from Ayutthia.

Everything about the site was designed with authenticity in mind, and Thompson brought in antiques where he could and employed traditional craftsmen to offer other refinements. Thompson moved into the house in late 1959 on a date deemed auspicious by a Thai astrologer. The site housed a fine art collection and the site generated so much interest that Thompson opened his house to the public and gave proceeds to trusts and charities dedicated to preserving Thai design, art and culture. What added to Thompson’s fame in Thailand was his sudden disappearance in 1967. Thompson disappeared in Malaysia without leaving a trace and what happened to him remains a mystery to this day. Certainly it is a ‘must see’ attraction.

The national museum is one of the history & culture in Thailand for people interested in getting a good feel for the history of Thailand, the museum is very much a ‘must see’ destination. Initially established as a palace by King Rama V, the building underwent a number of transformations before becoming what is now called the National Museum in 1887. Housing a definitive presentation of Thai history, the museum has a variety of different sections, each focusing on the history of specific topics like Thai musical instruments, masks, armaments, Thai clothing and much more.

The displays cover Thailand’s ‘prehistory’, move through the Lanna, Sukhothai, and Ayutthaya periods, and bring you right up to the modern Thai kingdom. Certainly worth a visit is the chapel "Phra Thinung Phutthaisawan" which features ‘Phra Singh’ Buddha images and the ‘Throne room’ which caters for numerous special exhibitions put on by the museum. The Tamnak Daeng or ‘Red House’ is also worth a look. In fact, as with other world-class museums, the National Museum is a place visitors can spend many hours just wandering through exhibitions and looking at displays.

The Hell Fire Pass Memorial Museum in Kanchanaburi is another witness to history & culture in Thailand. Hellfire Pass is a 500 meters long and 26 meters deep section of rock that was dug out by prisoners of War intended to allow the ‘Death Railway’ to continue its route from Bangkok to Rangoon. Soldiers were forced to remove the rock using no more than picks, hammers and their bare hands. Of the 1,000 Australian and British soldiers who took 12 weeks to clear the stretch of mountain, 700 died. The Hellfire Pass Memorial and Memorial Museum were set up to commemorate these fallen. The memorial comprises a trail where visitors follow the old railway track into the jungle and a museum. The museum contains pictures and tools alongside video exhibitions and showing of documentaries about the events. Like elsewhere on this trail, the memorial and museum are extremely moving places. If you are connected to the events through relations who were imprisoned here, or any other fashion, the experience can be quite wrenching. This site is of particular importance to Australians.

Another history & culture museums in Thailand is the the Jeath Museum which bears witness to the suffering of those that fell during its construction. The ‘open-air’ Jeath Museum was built in 1977 by a Thai abbot in the style of the huts used to imprison prisoners of war. This museums in Thailand contains bunks and pictures of actual soldiers who died alongside articles on the site and other authentic items. The result is a picture of cramped squalor which gives visitors a genuine insight into the suffering the soldiers went through.

These numerous galleries and museums housing the treasures of bygone ages offer visitors a genuine visual delight and unique experience of Thailand to the visitors who come here.

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