Jim Thompson House

 In the middle of the chaos that is Bangkok is the Jim Thompson House Museum-- a beautiful house and garden museum.

Jim Thompson was an American born in  Delaware in 1906.  He attended Princeton and became an architect, studying at the University of Pennsylvania. He was a practicing architect in New York City until 1940, when he joined the U.S. Army. 

During the Second World War, Thompson was assigned to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). At the end of the war, Thompson and the other OSS men were en route to Bangkok, where he fell in love with Thailand and the Thai culture.He was discharged from the army in 1946 and returned to Bangkok to live.  He created a combination of western and Thai house by building together old Thai houses to create different rooms: dining rooms, bedrooms, etc.  He started collecting Thai and Chinese Art and sculpture.  And, most importantly, became interested in the process of handmade silks. 

waiting for the tour to start

the living room

Thompson became very interested in reviving the tradition of handmade silks and was successful in creating an international business and demand for the gorgeous fabrics. 

During the Easter weekend in 1967, Thompson disappeared while on holiday with friends in Cameron Highlands, a northern Malaysian resort. An extensive and extended search failed to reveal any clues about his disappearance. 

His nephew, his heir, turned the house and gardens over to the Thai government, which opened the museum.  The house is stunning and the gardens even more so.  There is also an excellent gift shop and delicious restaurant. 

looking into the open living room from the front door/deck area

a beautiful display of orchids in an ancient Chinese porcelain pot

We watched the process of how the silk is gathered from the silk worms: boiled off the cocoons.  The worms are cooked in the process (and I am betting served up later as an appetizer!).  I am not sure how, but the tiny fibers of silk are fed through a small hole in an apparatus that winds the fiber together.   The fiber is then turned on a spinning wheel of sorts that make large bail of raw silk that looks and feels like straw.  After that, I am not sure of the process, but it is dyed, smoothed out, and then ready to be woven into gorgeous fabrics. 

boiling the cocoons to get the silk

boiled worms and tiny threads being turned into one long string of silk

spinning the silk in the bails of thread

at the restaurant

a view of the garden

an ancient Chinese porcelain table, the pattern was used for inspiration on some of the silks

pond after pond of koi

which way to go?