Tourism
Chiang Rai’s Baan Dam Museum (The Black House) Now Charging Entrance Fee
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CHIANG RAI – The iconic Baan Dam Museum (The Black House) created by the late master artist Thawan Duchanee has begun charging all visitors an 80-baht admission fee for the first time in 40 years.
Doytibet Duchanee the late artists son and managing director of the Black House Museum said that since Baan Dam was built more than 40 years ago, they had never charged visitors, expenses were met by the family, from my father’s generation to my generation.
However expense of running Baan Dam are nearly one million baht per month, so for the museum to survive, they needed to impose an entry fee to cover operating and maintenance costs.
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Baan Dam Museum, also known as Black House Museum, is one of the top 10 tourist attractions in Chiang Rai. It is a collection of almost 40 houses, reflecting the architectural cosmology of Thawan’s philosophy while providing a museum setting for his love of the dazzling as well as the macabre.
The houses, built on a 100-rai plot in tambon Nang Lae of Muang district, are made of wood, glass, concrete, brick and terracotta and they house Thawan’s collections of paintings, sculptures, silver, gold, animal bones, skins, woodwork carvings, and buffalo horns.
The venue was also home to the late National Artist before his death in September 2014.
On Oct 1, Wat Rong Khun, better known as the White Temple, in Muang district began to charge foreign visitors 50 baht, while there were no entry fees for Thais.