Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
TOP SIGHT
JIM THOMPSON HOUSE
In 1959, 12 years after he single-handedly turned Thai silk into a hugely successful ex-
port business, American Jim Thompson bought a piece of land next to Khlong Saen
Saeb and built himself a house. It wasn't, however, any old house. Thompson's love of
all things Thai saw him buy six traditional wooden homes and reconstruct them in his
garden. Although he met a mysterious end in 1967, today Thompson's house remains,
both as a museum to these unique structures and as a tribute to the man.
The Man
Born in Delaware, USA, in 1906, Jim Thompson served in a forerunner of the CIA in Thai-
land during WWII. When in 1947 he spotted some silk in a market and was told it was
woven in Baan Krua, he found the only place in Bangkok where silk was still woven by
hand.
Thompson's Thai silk eventually attracted the interest of fashion houses in New York,
Milan, London and Paris, and he gradually built a worldwide clientele for a craft that had,
just a few years before, been in danger of dying out.
By 1967 Thai silk had annual sales of almost US$1.5 million. In March that year
Thompson went missing while out for an afternoon walk in the Cameron Highlands of
western Malaysia; his success as a businessman, background as a spy and the fact that his
sister was also murdered in the same year made it an international mystery. Thompson has
never been heard from since, but the conspiracy theories have never stopped. Was it com-
munist spies? Business rivals? A man-eating tiger? Although the mystery has never been
solved, evidence revealed by American journalist Joshua Kurlantzick in his profile of
Thompson,
The Ideal Man,
suggests that the vocal anti-American stance Thompson took
later in his life may have made him a potential target of suppression by the CIA.
The House
Traditional Thai homes were multipurpose affairs, with little space for luxuries like separ-
ate living and sleeping rooms. Thompson adapted his six buildings, joining some, to create
a larger home in which each room had a more familiar Western function. One room became
an air-conditioned study, another a bedroom and the one nearest the
klorng
(canal; also
spelt
khlong
) his dining room. Another departure from tradition is the way Thompson ar-
