When we arrived at Le Meredien Resort last week at the end of our four hour scooter trip through the hills and valleys north of Chiangmai, we really had no idea what sights around the city we wanted to see. As we were walked towards our room by one of the young, female employees at the resort, she told us we should check out Black House, if we were looking for something interesting to see. Black House? I had never heard of it but decided to do a little research once we got settled in our room.
After ten minutes on my computer, I decided that the place was definitely worth trying to hunt down. It is basically the residence of Thawan Duchanee as well as a collection of over forty unique structures that house his own work along with a large personal collection. Born in Chiangrai and educated in Thailand and Europe, Duchanee is Thailand’s most celebrated artist and one of the foremost representatives of Thai and Asian art. Duchanee has been working on this project for over thirty years and only recently opened his property to visitors. I managed to find some rough directions to the place on one of my favorite travel blog sites and off we headed the next day.
Black House is not easy to find. Not that many foreigners know about the place but I am sure that is changing as more people seek it out and write about it. It is not on the top list of things to do for most visitors to Thailand! We headed north on Highway 1 out of the city and headed towards the university. This was supposed to be our first landmark. We turned left where we thought we were supposed to turn and ended up riding down a narrow dirt road, seemingly to nowhere. Lo and behold, just as we were about to turn around at the end of this dead-end, I noticed a small, hand-painted sign on a wooden fence that said Baan Dam, with an arrow pointing through a narrow opening and a path leading through a small group of Thai country houses. This was definitely an adventure!
I parked the scooter and looked around. To our left were two or three Asian cattle grazing nearby in the field and straight-ahead, on the other side of the fence, were several dogs waiting for our next move. Not a good sign for Nancy, who doesn’t like animals at the best of times, especially big cattle and strange Thai dogs. After a little convincing and a little cussing, we headed out along the path that wound its way through this run-down group of houses. Just as we wondered where the hell we were going, we broke out onto a small road with a guy sitting in a little booth that waved us ahead onto the property.
Straight ahead, I recognized the structures that I had seen during my internet searching. The first thing that came to mind was how huge the place was. There were many different buildings visible; a group of concrete hemispheres, a huge metal animal of sorts, and many more traditional looking Thai wooden buildings. The galleries stretched into the distance with no end in sight. It was hard to believe that one man was responsible for this much stuff! Most of the buildings are open to the public and house his own work as well as a large personal collection. The buildings that are closed to the public are used by Duchanee as his residential structures. Other than the locked doors, it is hard to tell where the galleries end and his personal space begins. One blends into the other. The amount of detailed architectural works and ornate wood carvings that were randomly but carefully scattered across the property was enough to boggle the mind.
There are over forty small galleries of different architectural design and each one is stuffed with Duchanee’s own creations along with his huge collection of artwork he has gathered over the years. There are no explanations, there is no signage anywhere and there were very few other visitors. Some of the displays are meticulously arranged, others seemed to be randomly thrown together. There are a lot of skins, skulls, bones, and various vessels of wood and clay. It is definitely one of the most bizarre, eccentric collections of things I have ever seen but fascinating to visit. Scattered throughout the peaceful grounds were standing stones, rock gardens and large pottery vessels. It is very easy to spend a couple of hours walking around and looking at all the displays, although vegetarians beware! Hopefully, all the skins, skulls and bones were found objects and not created specifically for exhibition purposes!
By the time we arrived at the far end of the property, we realized there actually was a real entrance complete with a parking lot and large art gallery that houses many 2D artworks. This was where we were supposed to have started our sojourn! We had obviously come in a back way. For those that actually make it to this incredible collection, there are several places you can purchase food and drink near the main entrance. Here are the directions verbatim from another site on how to get there. You might have better luck than us ending up at the main entrance!
Follow Highway 1 north of Chiang Rai and look out for the University. 2km past the University keep an eye out on the left for a purple sign with the name Thawan Duchanee. 100m past that there is a brown wooden sign with 13 on it (for Moo 13), go left here and follow the road until you get to a blue sign with four places on it written in Thai. Turn left here and look for the Black House a little further along on the left.
The Black House is open from 9am to 12pm and from 1pm to 5pm every day. Entry is free.
For some great, high-resolution photos of Black House exhibits visit this site
You can find out more about Thawan Duchanee at the following sites.
http://www.sombatpermpoongallery.com/thawan-duchanee/
http://thawanduchanee.blogspot.com/2009/02/some-pictures.html
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