Jim Thompson House

Six traditional Thai wooden houses, most of them 19th-century buildings dismantled and moved from Ayutthaya, make up the home that American businessman and architect Jim Thompson designed for himself and his art collection. Begun in 1958 and built in 1959, the complex stands on about half an acre beside the Saen Saep canal, facing Bangkrua, where weavers for his Thai Silk Company once worked. The largest house, a weaver's house brought from Bangkrua, now serves as the living room.

Inside is the collection Thompson assembled after settling in Bangkok in 1948, when Southeast Asian art was little known among Westerners. It includes historical Buddhist statues and traditional Thai paintings on wood, cloth and paper depicting the life of the Buddha and the Vessantara Jataka. There is also secular art from Thailand, Burma, Cambodia and Laos, and Chinese blue-and-white porcelain.

After Thompson disappeared in Malaysia in 1967, the house passed to the James H. W. Thompson Foundation, under the royal patronage of Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.