Kamthieng House Museum

The Kamthieng House was built around 1848 on the Ping river in Chiang Mai for a Lanna family, and in 1963 a descendant gave it to the Siam Society, which dismantled and re-erected it in the garden of its Bangkok headquarters. It is a raised teak house on posts in Lanna style, with the kalae carved gable finials, an open verandah and a rice barn, and the presentation is deliberately ethnographic rather than decorative: the rooms are laid out to show how a northern farming household actually lived and worked, with agricultural tools, fishing traps, textiles, cooking equipment and objects relating to spirit belief, and interpretation covering the household spirits, the rules governing who could enter which part of the house, and the agricultural year. The Siam Society itself, founded in 1904, is a scholarly organisation with a substantial library. It is small, quiet and rarely busy.

What to look for

• The Lanna house - a raised teak building of about 1848 with kalae gables.
• The ethnographic layout - tools, textiles and equipment showing a working household.
• The spirit belief material - household spirits and the rules around the house.
• The Siam Society - the scholarly organisation and its garden setting.

When to go

November to February. Closed Sundays and Mondays. An hour covers it. It is a short walk from Asok and Sukhumvit stations.

Good to know

Small - an hour at most. Closed on Sundays and Mondays, which catches people out. Ticketed. It is a scholarly presentation rather than a picturesque one, which some visitors find dry.

Nearby

Sukhumvit and Asok are at the door; the Jim Thompson House is west.

Key facts