Last Updated on June 24, 2019 by PowersToTravel
From the White Temple in Chaing Rai we traveled to the Black Museum, nearby, also in Chiang Rai. Both privately funded by artists, both disturbing. The Black Museum was the brainchild of Thawan Duchanee, a national Thai artist.
At least the White Temple, with its grotesque depictions of hell, led to Paradise. Here in the Black Museum, Baan Dam Museum, only death surrounded us.
Perhaps sportsmen would have enjoyed it, however I did not. The motif of the black museum, other than the blackness, was the Skin and Bones of animals. In numerous teak temples, some enclosed, others open-air, we viewed our fill of snake-skins, cowskins, antlers. Designed into chairs, tables, beds even, some may have thought it creative. I simple saw sadness.
Stark colors here enveloped us: brown, both on the walls of the buildings and the wood of various objects, white, but not in an uplifting fashion, rather the white of bone and spotted skins, and lastly, black, the color of darkly stained wood and died reptile skin. A single golden rooster welcomed us to the museum.
True, the overcast skies didn’t add any color to the experience.
The setting for the museum was calming though, in a glade of trees. The buildings reminded me of the stave churches in Norway, but I tried not to think of what these Thai buildings contained.
Other buildings were strangely shaped – a weird submarine, an odd stupa. Why?
I was not sorry to have visited the Baan Dam museum, for it was extraordinary, but I longed afterward for a colorful Thai temple to lift my spirits – with red and green and blue, and every color in-between!
Related Links
Chiang Mai Tour Center, who took us all around Northern Thailand
What do you think?
Have you visited the Baan Dam Museum in the sunshine? Did you get a happier vibe?
Check out this article of mine too:
Thailand Travel Blog – Itinerary, Impressions and Diabetic Travel Tips
