Monastery museums in Thailand: a brief history
By Paritta Chalermpow Koanantakool
(Unless stated otherwise, photos are taken by the author)
Monastery museum is a term used here to refer to small museums that are located within the space of Buddhist monasteries or wat in Thai. They may be termed folk museums, monastery museums, ethnic museums, or cultural centres. There is a diversity in what they collect and display, and the reasons for establishing them, but in general we can say that they are closely connected with the monasteries, and with the surrounding lay communities. Broadly speaking, the aims of the museums are to enable the continuity of their cultural heritage, and express their local identity.
Buddhist monasteries have always been sites where material objects are deposited. Royal sponsored monasteries in cities are adorned with gold-plated Buddha images and richly decorated with precious gems, as well as an array of ritual objects, gold and lacquered scripture cabinets, and many gifts donated by patrons. In more modest places, monasteries may house wooden Buddha images, and wood carved ritual paraphernalia, as well as antiquities and objects of curiosity presented to the monasteries. In Theravada Buddhist Thailand, the practice of presenting gifts to monks and monasteries is a source of merit-making in the hope of a better life now and in the future.
Muang Khun Khuan Cloth Amulets Museum, Payao province.
How do monastery collections become museums? The museum as an institution in Thailand is a modern notion that began around the latter half of the nineteenth century when the kings’ collections in palaces were displayed and shown to foreign guests. In the twentieth century, when the state became the guardian of heritage, national museums were established from royal collections and collections in some major monasteries. From the outset national museums were designed to be an instrument of cultural nationalism that affirms the civilizing process of the nation. It is also worth noting that apart from the royal collections, some of the first batch of national museums were established inside major monasteries, and made use of the monastery collections. So, monasteries and museums were closely connected from the very beginning.
However, the social movement that brought about the proliferation of small monastery museums came many decades later. In the 1980s, the movement of alternative development – as opposed to economic, material-based development – focused on local knowledge and identity and awareness of cultural roots, especially among the rural population who felt the impact of agrarian transformation on their way of life. Coupled with the direction from the Department of Religious Affairs to upgrade and modernize Buddhist monasteries as a place of cultural and moral learning, a large number of monastery museums were established to house and display religious and ritual collections, together with folk artefacts, antiquities, and curiosities.
Monastery museums are located in the space of a monastery, usually in a building transformed from a hall, an unused library, or other monastery architecture. If resources permit, they may have been built specifically as museums. A museum may take many shapes, from a modest single room to a cluster of buildings. Its display can range from showing things in rows of glass cabinets, a clutter of all kinds of things, to a chic space organized as a tour designed like a computer game, reflecting different types and phases of curatorial practice in the past three to four decades since its inception.
Folk Museum at Wat Nantaram, Payao province.
Sim Na Ko Monastery Museum, Kalasin province.
Collections
There is a great diversity in the museum collections and themes, depending on the locality, local culture, and history of the collection. At the risk of oversimplification, monastery museum collections may be classified into a broad typology as follows.
Religious objects: These are objects that belong to Buddhist monasteries and become primary objects in museums. The most common ones are Buddha images. Most monasteries have a principal Buddha image in their ordination hall, where monks gather for practices such as ordination into monkhood, and praying on holy days. In addition, there are numerous images that are presented to the monasteries with different purposes. Each locality has its own tradition. In the northern region, wooden Buddha images are presented on the festival of yipeng, the celebration of the end of Buddhist Lent which corresponds with the end of the rainy season. Some are presented in place of a person when he leaves the monkhood. In time, the collections of wooden Buddha images grow, and they become museum collections.
Hall of the Thousand Buddhas, Si Donkham museum, Phrae Province.
Display at Wat Saen Muang Ma Museum, Payao province.
In other regions, Buddha images may be votive tablets made from clay mixed with other substances, or metal alloy. These are usually deposited inside stupas which over time collapse, leaving these images to be stored in museums.
Votive tablet, Mahachai Monastery Museum, Mahasarakham province.
Buddha images may be exhibits, but they are also sacred and treated according to traditional local practices. In one museum, the cabinet has to have apertures in the walls as ventilators for the Buddha images “to breathe”.
Apertures for Buddha Images to breathe at Wat Si Don Kham Museum, Phrae province.
Ritual and ceremonial objects: Several museum objects are components of ceremonies or rituals performed in monasteries, or of everyday practice of Buddhist monks. There are, for instance, wood-carved candlesticks, manuscript cabinets, palm-leaf or paper manuscripts, wooden banners, palanquins or ornamented platforms for carrying Buddha images.
Amulets of many types are often found in museums. They may be private collections of some senior monks who give them to the museums, as in the case of Ban Khun Khuan monastery where the abbot-cum-curator has inherited a collection of cloth amulets from his uncle who was a monk renowned for his knowledge of magic incantation. Together with other amulets presented to him by his network of disciples and patrons, they found their way into the recently established museum.
Wooden candlesticks, manuscripts cabinets Wat Don Tao Museum, Lampang province.
Cloth amulets at Muang Khun Khuan Museum, Payao province.
Some material items are believed to be charged with magical forces so powerful that they need to be treated properly, otherwise they may become dangerous and cause unfortunate happenings. When the owners pass away, it is common for their family to present them to the monasteries where the religious sacred space can neutralize the dangerous power. Nang Yai shadow puppets are one example of such artefacts. They are large puppets, made from buffalo hide, carved into exquisite shapes that depict characters from the Ramakien, the Thai version of the Ramayana. Before they fell into disuse, puppet performances were staged during cremation ceremonies of high-ranking monks and officials. These puppets are believed to be imbued with potency. Once the master of a puppet troupe who owned the puppet set passed away, it is common for the puppets to be donated to, and deposited in monasteries.
Nang yai shadow puppet at Wat Ban Don museum, Rayong province.
Folk artefacts: In the process of establishing monastery museums, community members often donate ‘old things’ in their household to be exhibited. Some of them are agricultural tools no longer in use: ploughs, wooden cow bells, baskets, fishing gear and many others. Some are household utensils: handwoven textiles, oil lamps, items of crockery, pieces of furniture, typewriters, radio and television sets, guns, cooking tools, carpenter’s tools, textiles, newspapers etc. In addition, monasteries usually preserve old pieces of folk art that used to decorate religious architecture such as ornamental gable tops and roof eaves. All these, and many others, find their way into the museums.
Wooden ploughs at Wat Si Donkham Monastery Museum, Phrae province.
Wat Nantaram Monastery Museum, Payao province.
Hand woven textile belonging to the ethnic Phuan community at Wat Fang Khlong Museum, Nakhon Nayok province.
Kitchen utensils belonging to the ethnic Phuan community at Wat Fang Khlong Museum, Nakhon Nayok province.
Antiquities: Many monastery museums are located near archaeological sites where objects of antiquity – potteries, beads, stone axes, bronze artefacts – are excavated, often illegally. They are considered collectibles, and are highly sought after. Some of them are donated to the museums. Some were acquired by abbots or senior monks who fear that the antiquities would be bought up by foreign collectors, leaving nothing for the younger generation to appreciate.
Antique potteries at Wat Mahachai Monastery Museum, Mahasarakham province.
Antiquities donated by community members at Wat Saen Muang Ma Monastery Museum, Payao province.
Other collectibles: In addition to the above, many other collectibles are displayed. Some are donated to the museums by community members, or visitors, some bought. These include: old or foreign banknotes and coins; sea shells, animal bones, stuffed animals; curios such as sawfish noses or embryos of deformed animals. Some are believed to be charged with power to bless bring fortune or ward off danger.
Collection of banknotes and coins that belonged to the former abbot, Wat Si Don Kham monastery museum, Phrae province.
Stuffed turtle with coins dropped by visitors for blessings, Wat Nantaram, Payao province.
From collections to museums
Since small monastery museums began to grow in large numbers in the 1980s, these community-based institutions have become a space where local identity is represented by their material culture. Each one has its own story about local history, sense of place, local heroes, and ethnic identity. Here are some specific cases to show that museums have different life histories.
The first one, and probably the best-known monastery-cum-ethnic museum established in the early phase of the museum movement, was Wat Muang Museum, in Ratburi province in the western part of the country. The area is populated by communities of the Mon, an ethnic group who migrated here from Myanmar some three hundred years ago. Though they are integrated into Thai culture, the Mon community preserve their own language, foodways, beliefs, and Buddhist practices that are unique. The museum was established as a result of a collaboration between the monastery, the elders in the community, and a university in Bangkok that helped raising funds for the construction of the museum building and installing the display. Exhibits include religious manuscripts beautifully written in Mon scripts, religious objects, and folk artefacts from the community.
Gold and lacquered religious manuscript at Wat Muang Monastery Museum, Ratburi province. Photo courtesy of the Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre.
The second case is the museum of Lai Hin monastery in Lampang province in the north. The idea of establishing a museum began when villagers felt that the material collections in the community were fast depleting because of the antiques trade that brought dealers to each household and bought up silver jewellery, textiles, wooden artefacts and agricultural tools which are left unused as many villagers became to migrant labourers or factory workers. So, members of the monastery committee went round and asked villagers to donate their household artefacts, so that they could be preserved for the younger generation to appreciate the way their forefathers lived. Together with collections of the monastery, they became exhibits of the museum.
Artefacts donated to Wat Lai Hin Monastery Museum, Lampang province.
A pung, a local basket made of woven bamboo and lacquered, donated to Wat Lai Hin Monastery Museum, Lampang province.
The third example is the museum of Wat Tha Phut in Nakhon Pathom province. This monastery is located on the bank of a major river in the central Plains. Many former abbots were renowned for making amulets, but the most distinguished was the first abbot who was also the founder of the community some two hundred years ago. Legend has it that the monk travelled with a group of people southward from the old capital of Ayutthaya that was sacked by the Burmese troops, and settled in this location.
As the spiritual leader of the community, he encouraged them to work in the fields, build houses, and establish a monastery. As an appreciation of his efforts, the king at that time bestowed on him some honorary objects such as a boat, a wood-carved palanquin, and an ornamental spittoon. When the museum was established to honour the late abbot who had a large collection of items, the palanquin and spittoon were restored and placed as the centre pieces of the display.
The royal palanquin at Wat Tha Phut Monastery Museum, Nakhon Pathom. Photo with courtesy of the Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre.
The Mission of Monastery Museums
From the modern and western perspective of the museum as an institution that collects, researches, and communicates knowledge to the public, monastery museums may perform rather limited functions.
The basic task of acquiring, displaying, and managing is done by a collaboration of monks, lay members of monastery committees, and community members. There is no professional curator, and their displays are quite simple. More recently, outside agencies such as educational institutions, state museums, and research institutes have become partners of the museums, and give support mainly in cataloguing and preserving the collections. Visitors to the museums are mainly school children in the neighbourhood who come with organized school visits. General visitors may visit the museums as part and parcel of their visit to the monasteries. Some that have links with educational or research institutions may serve as places for study visits and research facilities for students. Community members do not visit museums regularly, but they visit during temple festivals and celebrations, sometimes to check if their donations are still well kept.
However, from the local, indigenous point of view, monastery museums serve primarily two functions.
Firstly, they are repositories of collective religious and cultural valuables that are considered their material heritage. They are placed in the museums to keep them safe from neglect, theft, or the antique trade. That is why some precious Buddha images are locked behind steel bars for security reasons, even if these may be eyesores for museum professionals.
To quote the venerable Phra Ariyanuwat, the former abbot of Wat Mahachai in Mahasarakham province who dedicated his life and career to protecting and preserving the local heritage:
Foreigners take away our belongings,
We, Lao people, do not recognise good things.
In the near future when children and grandchildren ask, We would have only drawings to show them.
(The author’s translation)
Words and signature of the Venerable Phra Ariyanuwat, displayed at the Wat Mahachai Monastery Museum, Maha Sarakham province.
That is the reason why he collected manuscripts, antique potteries, Buddha images, folk artefacts, which have become the bulk of the collections in the museum. Some collected items are able to facilitate the transmission of living heritage, and thereby ensure the continuity of the traditions. A case in point is the collections of shadow puppets in three monasteries. Though the performing tradition had stopped, elderly artists, musicians, and singers still had the body of knowledge. Initiations by the monks and community members led to the revitalization of the puppet tradition by using the collected puppets as templates to create new sets, and training youth to be the new generation of performers. Currently two such monastery troupes are well-known, and have performed nationally and internationally. In this regard, monastery museums have had a significant role in safeguarding cultural heritage, material and living.
Secondly, monastery museums are closely connected with, and almost indistinguishable from, monastery space. They are perceived as ‘fields of merit’, a ground where merit can be cultivated by acts of donating and contributing. In many museums the selection of objects to be displayed, and where and how they are displayed, are decided by the donors who are community members. It is customary for them to have captions that proudly show the names of the donors. This practice is often seen by museum professionals as amateurish and unsightly, but from the donors’ point of view this practice resonates with the practice of announcing the name of the donor to confirm that merit has been made. In some region, there is a system by which villagers take turns to keep watch over the monastery and museum space by which merit can be gained by rendering services.
The ‘State-of-the-Art’ Museum
Though the museums’ missions are primarily lodged in the notions of local heritage and merit making, through the years they have adopted new vocabularies and new ideas, from Western museology and other fields of knowledge to which they are exposed. Such dynamics may be seen in the recently revamped museum of Wat Fang Khlong, in Nakhon Nayok province. The main external player in this project is Museum Siam, a national agency whose mission is to promote the idea of the ‘discovery museum’, that is, to make museums a site for playing and learning. A few city museums have followed this new model. Recently Museum Siam has initiated a project to remodel some local, monastery, and folk museums in the discovery museum style. Wat Fang Khlong museum is one among a few that has joined the project.
The old version of the museum arranged artefacts into shelves or cabinets of textiles, fishing gear, chinaware, kitchen utensils, and so on in one open continuous space. In the new design the space is segmented into sections connected by a route for visitors to follow, rather like walking in a cave. Visitors are invited to assume the role of a hero in an invented folk story who has to learn many folkways – represented by spots of exhibits - of the Phuan ethnic community before he can be reunited with his sweetheart, who is hidden by magic in a cave. The new appearance relies heavily on gamification (creating an experience like a computer game), use of graphics, lighting, and interior designs. Emphasis is given to visitors who are children under the assumption that children will find it exciting and stimulating. As the new museum has just been opened, it is too early to gauge its impact. But this may certainly be one novel direction that some monastery museums will follow.
The museum of Wat Fang Khlong, Nakhon Nayok province.
Graphics of the newly invented love story, Wat Fang Khlong, Nakhon Nayok province.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful for the financial support from the Thailand Research Fund for the Research and Capacity-building Programme of the Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre from 2004-2010. I would also like to acknowledge the contribution of ideas and information to this essay from my former colleagues, namely, Jutamas Limrattanapan, Nuanphan Boontham, Panita Sarawasee, Rungtawan Aum-in, Sarynya Khammuang, and Siriporn Srisinurai.
Bibliography
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McCarthy, C. 2018. “Indigenisation: reconceptualising museology”, In The Museum in the Global Contemporary: Reshaping the Museum of Now. Knell, S.J. ed. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 37 – 54.
Peleggi, M. 2013. “From Buddhist icons to national antiquities: cultural nationalism and colonial knowledge in the making of Thailand’s history of art”, Modern Asian Studies. 47: 1520-1548.
Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre. 2008. Final Report of the Local Museums Research and Development Project, Year 2 Phase 2. (Rai Ngan Wichai Chabap Sombun Khrongkan Wichai Lae Phatthana Phiphithaphan) Submitted to the Thailand Research Fund, April 2008. (in Thai).
Siriporn Srisinurai. 2021. Curating the Sacred, Enchanting the Ordinary: Things, Practices and Local Museums in Northeast Thailand. Phd. Dissertation submitted to the Humboldt University of Berlin.
Paritta Chalermpow Koanantakool was lecturer of anthropology at Thammasat University, Thailand, from 1981 to 2002. From 2002-2010 she was Director of the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre where she initiated research and capacity-building programme for community-based museums all over Thailand. Her interests include dance, folk theatre, art, and community museums. She is currently enjoying a quiet retirement with her cat and her painting.
