Sgt. Maj. Thawee Folk Museum

Sgt. Maj. Thawee Folk Museum Review

Phitsanulok also has a little-known museum, the Sgt. Maj. Thawee Folk Museum, that alone would justify a visit to the city. In the early 1980s Sergeant-Major Khun Thawee traveled to small villages, collecting traditional tools, cooking utensils, animal traps, and handicrafts that were rapidly disappearing, and crammed them into a traditional house and barn. For a decade nothing was properly documented; visitors stumbled around tiger traps and cooking pots, with little to help them decipher what they were looking at. But Khun Thawee's daughter came to the rescue and now the marvelous artifacts are systematically laid out, all 10,000 of them. You can now understand the use of everything on display, from the simple wood pipes hunters played to lure their prey, to elaborately complex rat guillotines. Thawee was honored with two university doctorates for his work in preserving such rare artifacts. He also took over a historic foundry, which casts brass Buddhas and temple bells. The museum is a 15-minute walk south of the railway station, on the east side of the tracks, and the foundry is directly opposite.