Baan Dam Museum (Black House)

พิพิธภัณฑ์บ้านดำ

The home, studio and private museum of Thai National Artist Thawan Duchanee. Over 40 black Lanna-style buildings display animal bones, hides and snakeskins, creating 'black' art about death and desire.

Baan Dam Museum, the Black House, lies about 12 km north of Chiang Rai city, in Nang Lae. It is the home, studio and private museum of Thai National Artist Thawan Duchanee (1939 to 2014). He built it over more than 30 years on about 100 rai of land. The grounds are scattered with more than 40 buildings made of black teak and black brick. They include Lanna-style halls, round white egg-shaped houses, boat-shaped houses, a whale-bone house and various unusual small huts, all in black tones. This forms a 'black and white' contrast with the White Temple built by his teacher Chalermchai. Thawan's art explores death, desire, violence and the Buddhist concept of impermanence. The displays include buffalo horns, crocodile skins, python skins, whale bones, animal-head specimens, and table runners made of snakeskin laid across long tables. Together with his wild, bold large paintings, the atmosphere is gloomy and striking. Some people call it the Black Temple, but it is not a temple.

The main hall is the largest building, and visitors can enter to see the long tables and carvings. Most of the other buildings can only be viewed from the doorway. Foreigners pay 80 baht for entry. The grounds take about 1 to 1.5 hours to walk through, and there is a café and souvenir shop at the exit.

Game plan: this is the final stop of the White-Blue-Black one-day tour, about 15 minutes from the Blue Temple. You can also combine it with the nearby Wat Huay Pla Kang, the Great Guanyin Temple. Arrive at 9 am when it opens for fewer people.

Getting there: a Grab from Chiang Rai city takes about 20 minutes and costs about 200 to 250 baht. Alternatively, take a local bus toward Mae Suai from the First Bus Terminal, get off at Nang Lae, and walk 10 minutes.

Note: the displays of animal specimens and bones may be disturbing for children and some visitors. Some buildings are off limits. There are mosquitoes on the lawns. Some buildings close from 12:00 to 13:00.

Baan Dam Museum (Black House)

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