Black Silk Mans
Thai silk weavers in Ban Krua are an old Cham Muslim community in Bangkok. They wove the silk for Jim Thompson when he started his Thai silk company in 1948 and revived the Thai silk industry. What's Ban Krua like today?
Although I've visited the Jim Thompson House several times before, I've never been to Ban Krua which is just across the Saen Saab canal from the Jim Thompson House. I was under the impression that the Thai silk weavers in Ban Krua were long gone after Thompson's disappearance in the Cameron Highlands Malaysia in 1967. Well almost but not quite.
On 2 June 2009, I finally got my chance to find out more about Ban Krua. A Thai friend who lives in the area suggested, after a visit to the Jim Thompson House, that we cross the canal to visit Ban Krua.
We walked along the narrow footpath along the canal till we came across a sign overhead which read "Jim Thompson Thai silk". The sign pointed to a narrow soi.
As we walked into the narrow soi, we passed neat and tidy rows of houses with very warm and friendly residents. Along the way, we met a man who invited us into his house which had several weaving looms and spools of Thai silk thread. This is the home and silk factory of Khun Niphon Manuthat, a silk weaver himself.
The warm and hospitable Khun Niphon was more than willing to share with us the history of his community and experience with Jim Thompson. Here is Khun Niphon's story.
The BanKrua community is made up of Chams Muslims from Kampong Cham province in Cambodia. The Chams originate from the ancient kingdom of Champa in Vietnam. The kingdom was conquered by Vietnam in the 15th C and ceased to exist by 17th C. Many Chams dispersed to Laos and Cambodia. Later some of them migrated to Thailand.
The Chams in the Ban Krua community are as old as Bangkok itself, having arrived in Thailand in the reign of King Rama I. They fought on the side of Siam during the Burmese-Siamese wars and for their loyal service they were granted land outside the old city.
The site is in present day Ratchathewi district just north of the National Stadium skytrain station. Silk weaving was a traditional craft of the Chams and they brought these skills with them to Ban Krua.
When Jim Thompson started taking an interest in Thai silk in the late 1940s, he visited Ban Krua often and convinced a group of Thai silk weavers to produce a sample batch of silks which he took to New York. The silks hit Vogue magazine and from then on Jim Thompson silk took off.
Back then Thompson worked a group of eight Cham families who produced the silk for his Thai silk company. Khun Niphon was a boy when Thompson first came to Ban Krua. Khun Niphon's father was one of the eight silk weavers who worked with Thompson.
Fond memories of Jim Thompson linger on. An old black and white photograph of Khun Niphon's parents taken with Jim Thompson hangs from the wall of the room together with another old photo of Thompson working with one of the weavers.
Today Khun Niphon is the only descendant from the original eight families of silk weavers. Most of the members of Ban Krua have left the community for other jobs and only about 40% of the original residents or their descendants remain.
Unlike his father, Khun Niphon doesn't supply the Jim Thompson stores as the Jim Thompson Thai Silk Company has its own factory in Korat.
It's hard to tell if the traditional craft of this old community of Thai silk weavers can survive for another generation. Or will it be another vanishing cottage industry?
Thai silk weavers of Ban Krua are part of an old Bangkok community which was closely associated with Jim Thompson the man who popularized Thai silk after World War II and disappeared mysteriously in the Cameron Highlands, Malaysia in 1967.
The author Eric Lim lives in Bangkok Thailand and writes for this do-it-yourself historical travel guide for independent travelers.
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