Fodor's Expert Review Sgt. Maj. Thawee Folk Museum
This fascinating museum of traditional tools, cooking utensils, animal traps, and handicrafts alone would justify a visit to Phitsanulok. In the early 1980s, Sergeant-Major Khun Thawee traveled to small villages, collecting rapidly disappearing objects of everyday life. He crammed them into a traditional house and barn, and 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 elaborate rat guillotines. Thawee was honored with two university doctorates for his work in preserving such rare items. 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,... READ MORE
This fascinating museum of traditional tools, cooking utensils, animal traps, and handicrafts alone would justify a visit to Phitsanulok. In the early 1980s, Sergeant-Major Khun Thawee traveled to small villages, collecting rapidly disappearing objects of everyday life. He crammed them into a traditional house and barn, and 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 elaborate rat guillotines. Thawee was honored with two university doctorates for his work in preserving such rare items. 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.
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