Baan Dam Museum - The Famous Black House in Chiang Rai

Baan Dam Museum (Google Map) is about 12 km (7.5 miles) north of Chiang Rai city center in the Nang Lae District. It is in a residential area and set on massive grounds of approximately 160 000 m² (over 100 rais). The museum boasts over 40 structures, predominantly constructed from black wood and decorated with animal skins, animal bones, and horns.

The exhibition doesn’t fit the typical image of an art museum. Instead of displaying all shapes and sizes of bright and colorful artworks, it is full of dark, eerie pieces, sculptures, and installations that expose the darker side of life. Often called Northern Thailand’s most disturbing tourist attraction and the counterpart of the White Temple a short distance away, visitors won’t leave the museum unaffected.

Location: 414, Moo 13, Nang Lae, Chiang Rai, 57100
Google Map: Find Routes
Plus Code Map: 7MFXXVR6+R6
Latitude: 19.9920625
Longtitude: 99.8605625
Opening hours: from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., everyday
Entrance fee: 80 THB

Visitors exempt from entrance fees:
• Children below 12 years old or not taller than 120 centimeters
• Students in uniforms or have verified student IDs
• Government officials in uniforms or have verified IDs
• Tour guides with verified IDs
• Monks or religious figures of all beliefs
• Pregnant women
• Elders; 60-years-olds and older
• Handicapped persons or people with disabilities

Founder: Thawan Duchanee
Year built: 2009

The Origins And Architecture Of Baan Dam Museum

The museum is the realization of Thawan Duchanee’s dream, a dream that grew and took decades to finish. This massive property served as a residence and studio for the late National Artist and architect, Duchanee. He began to develop it as early as 1975, eventually turning it into the impressive yet haunting attraction it is today.

Boasting an eclectic blend of typical Northern Thai architecture and strange contemporary designs. The first building erected in the 70s was the triangular house. In 1992 Duchanee built the Small Temple, characterized by its Lanna-style wood carving, tiered roof, and apex gable. Two years later, in 1994, Duchanee erected the Eastern Pavilion.

Thawan Duchanee designed the largest building, known as the Cathedral. It’s an enormous wooden structure supported by 44 pillars, with a steeply-pitched, 4-tiered, Lanna-style roof. Baan Dam Museum’s engineers built the Cathedral over seven years, and it was finally ready for the public in 2009.

Many of the structures are built in temple style, made of teakwood and painted black, while others have a more contemporary appearance. Some look like igloos or yurts, and there is a very odd building resembling something similar to a whale or a fish, where Duchanee slept while on the premises.

Artworks And Collections

Aside from traditional Thai décor, the overwhelming medium and inspiration for Duchanee’s art at Baan Dam Museum seem to be animal remains. As you enter the Cathedral, a gargantuan table and benches take center place in the room, which is a work of art on its own. True to form, enormous snake-skin table runners decorate the table. For some strange reason, visitors often pop money into the snake’s mouth.

Another building resembling a Buddhist stupa also has a reptilian table runner – an enormous black crocodile encircled by candles. It’s situated in a circular room with many chairs made from buffalo horns and skins lining the walls.

Several buildings contain paintings, sculptures, animal bones, horns, skins, and skulls, intricately arranged to convey the artist’s somber messages. Although the museum assures visitors that all animals died naturally, it can be upsetting for animal lovers to be surrounded by these remains. Thawan Duchanee depicted suffering, sickness, and old age using the bones and skins of animals in his collections.

However, not everything at Baan Dam Museum is eerie or morbid. Some magnificent wooden carvings hang from the rafters in the main building, with intricate details that must have taken years to complete. Exquisite tapestries and stunning carved furniture adorn the rooms, which even non-art-savvy visitors can appreciate.

Almost all the huts are painted black, Thawan’s favorite color, hence the name Baan Dam, which means Black House in Thai. Each place is decorated with lovely wooden sculptures and animal horn mounts, such as over 100 pieces of buffalo horns, deer horns, crocodile skin, large sea shells, and animal bones such as elephant bones. As most of the buildings are painted in black, which is a complete contrast to Chalermchai’s Wat Rong Khun, which has a dominantly white color, the locals tend to allude that “Chalerm created heaven while Thawan created hell.”

The areas within Baan Dam are surrounded by many big and small trees and have a calm atmosphere. There are a total of 40 huts, each with its own different characteristics. Only 2-3 huts can be entered, while you can only peek inside through the front doors for others. The collectibles and objects displayed in each hut reflect a different concept. The huts were not created as dwellings but to keep various collectibles of Thawan. However, there are only a few of Thawan’s paintings in Baan Dam.

The first point of interest is the small temple in the front, followed by the cathedral, which looks like a large and grand black traditional Thai house. Inside the cathedral is a wide-open hall with various collectibles and works of art from paintings, sculptures, animal mounts, etc. There is also a huge black crocodile skin on a really long table.

If you go traveling to Chiang Rai, don’t forget to visit Singha Park.

Behind the cathedral are several huts, each with its own unique artistic style and shape, from Ruen Lhong Khao, Sala Phra Si Ariyabot, Ruen Sung Sumarn, Baan Dam Ka Lae Keaw Fah, Sala Tawan Ok, Hong Taem, etc. You can tour each house and immerse yourself in Thawan’s works of art.

Ruen Lhong Khao can be translated to “Barn Hut”, Sala Phra Si Ariyabot can be roughly translated to “Four Postures of Buddha Pavillion”, Ruen Sung Samarn can be translated to “Crocodile Hut”,

Baan Dam Ka Lae Keaw Fah is a bit tricky. “Ka Lae” is a name for a unique Lanna roof attachment that is believed to be able to ward off crows (“Ka” in Thai) because they brought bad luck. “Keaw Fah” means “Hooked to the Sky”. I suppose it’s to mean that the “Ka Lae” piece of this building is “hooked to the sky”, hence the name. So, the full name could be roughly translated to “A black house with a Ka Lae that’s hooked to the sky”.

Sala Tawan Ok means “East Pavillion”, and Hong Taem is roughly translated to “Marked Room”

Even though Thawan has passed away, Baan Dam continues to open for visitors to experience the unique artistic beauty.

The Symbolism And Themes Of The Museum

Baan Dam Museum is home to more than 4000 artifacts and antiques Duchanee collected over the years. But they are not typical museum material, and there’s a good reason for that. The museum is a representation of the dark and macabre side of life.

Thawan Duchanee was a devout Buddhist, but instead of devoting his art to the peace-loving side of the religion, the art collections focus on the suffering and hell of Samsara – the circle of life, death, and rebirth.

The collections in each building at Baan Dam Museum focus on different themes relating to mortality and undesirable characteristics of the human race, like greed and lust. Many artworks represent the suffering and pain that the Buddha witnessed on his travels.

Some artwork focuses on sexual desire and cravings, with some very explicit phallic statues and paintings. Although, as adults, we understand that viewing art comes with the understanding that the artist is conveying a message with his piece, these collections may not be suitable for children, so a quick run in the garden may be in order to distract them.