Jim Thompson: Thailand's Silk Savior

We spent a really interesting morning touring the home of Jim Thompson, American ex-pat who fell in love with Thailand at the end of World War II.

Jim Thompson, a New York architect, enlisted in the Army when the U.S. entered the war. He became a member of the intelligence services (OSS) and was sent to South East Asia in 1945 to be parachuted into northeastern Thailand to work with Thai insurgents against the Japanese. However, the atomic bombs dropped on Japan brought an unexpected end to the war and Jim's mission was changed. He was appointed the OSS Station Chief in Bangkok and spent the next year reestablishing the American embassy. He fell in love with Thailand and when he was discharged in 1946 he remained in the country as his adopted home.

Thompson became fascinated by the intricate colors and patterns of hand-woven Thai silk which had all but ceased to exist due to competition from machine-made  silk cloth. He learned that a community of Muslim silk weavers lived along a canal on the outskirts of Bangkok; and it was here, across the canal from the weavers, that he built his home.

Jim Thompson's home is actually a combination of six Thai houses that he purchased, had disassembled, barged down the canal, and reassembled according to his own design. The buildings are all hand-wrought Thai teak and face the canal. 

One of the home's buildings was actually assembled inside-out because Thompson wanted the intricately carved exterior paneling to be seen whenever anyone was in the room.

Thompson wrote a friend saying that he lived in a jungle because the gardens in and around his home were native plants allowed to grow naturally. Walkways weave throughout the gardens and give those using them a sense of being far away from citylife (even though Bangkok surrounds the home today).

 

Over a period of twenty years, in addition to almost single-handedly saving the Thai silk industry, Thompson developed a fascination for ancient Buddhist religious art. Priceless sculptures, paintings, weavings, and carvings are displayed throughout the home and its open air pavilions. There are even a pair of wrought iron gates that once guarded the entrance to a Chinese pawn shop but which Thompson bought for the entrance to his library.

 

In March of 1967, while on holiday with friends in the highlands of Malaysia, Jim Thompson went for an afternoon walk - and was never seen or heard from again. His disappearance remains a complete mystery to this day.

The James H. W. Thompson Foundation maintains his home as a memorial and museum to this unique American ex-pat's Thai connection.