Phetchaburi is historically recognized as the city for handycraft schools since the Late Ayutthaya Period. In the first half of the twentieth century, temple craftsmanship evolved due to changes in local temple culture, which served to transmit skills from Central Thailand. As Bangkok art and cultural trends spread, Phetchaburi became an economic hub because of expanded rice cultivation and trade. The bourgeoisie emerged as art consumers who patronized craftspeople and backed the formation of student apprenticeship groups led by Buddhist monks and laypersons at major urban temples. Buddhist monks first became involved in crafts in Phetchaburi around 1907, with Rit, the abbot of Wat Plapphlachai, leading. Five temple crafts groups provided sites for art study and creation. Major projects included painting, wooden carving, and stucco work, forming a network of relationships among temples, craftsmen, and patrons. These craft schools gradually began to recede as the municipal rice trade declined economically. By around 1957, the crafts schools had disappeared, and as wealthy patrons aged, their support for craft activities diminished. Today, craftspeople in Phetchaburi are no longer associated with temple crafts schools.

Online-Lecture & in English

Friday, 17 January 2025 14h—16h (CET)

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https://uni-hamburg.zoom.us/j/64563521222?pwd=OEdSbENCOUV2Ynl5ZUdnNG5mM1pwQT09

Meeting-ID: 645 6352 1222 || Passcode: hgtlecture

Chanan Mekmok (Ph.D.) is a lecturer in the Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Silpakorn University in Thailand. He earned his doctorate in Integrated Science (Anthropology) from the Thammasat University College of Interdisciplinary Studies in Bangkok. His primary research interests in anthropology are in material culture, museum studies, sociocultural change, and Buddhist amulet culture. From January to June 2023, he worked as a museum studies apprentice at the Linden Museum, Stuttgart, Germany. His field research focuses on the development of local craft schools in the socioeconomic context of Phetchaburi, particularly during the first half of the twentieth century.