Thai Silk is produced from the cocoons of Thai silkworms raised from caterpillars on a steady diet of mulberry leaves. Thai silk is hand woven so each design is unique and cannot be duplicated through commercial means which makes Thai silk more expensive that other kinds of silk.
Jim Thompson or James Harrison Wilson Thompson is an architect from Greenville, Delaware and a World War II veteran. His last post was in Bangkok, Thailand. According to Time Magazine 'he singlehandedly saved Thailand's silk industry from extinction'. After discharge from war, he returned to Bangkok to buy and restore the Oriental Hotel with some investors. He quit from the venture citing some differences with his associates and partnered with George Barrie to start the Thai Silk Company. The business got their break when a famous designer made use of Thai silk for the musical, The King and I. From then on, Jim Thompson had created an international demand for the glamorous Thai silk. He was able to raise many of Thailand's poorest out from poverty because of his 'cottage industry'. The manufacturers of the silk that he sell to the market are the individual homes in the countrysides thus giving them an adequate source of income because of the high demand.
The Jim Thompson House is located on Soi Kasemsan (2) Song in Bangkok City. He built a traditional Thai house using his expertise as an architect. Antique pieces of ceramics, glass, paintings and sculptures are all over the house since he was also a notable antique collector. The wood used for the house itself came from other hundred year old houses that time. It was completed in 1959. in 1967, Jim Thompson went for a vacation in Penang, Malaysia with some friends. He took an afternoon stroll to a trail in the forest but never came back. A major search was done but he was never found. Until today, no one knows what happened to Jim Thompson - a major loss to Thailand but his legacy and the Thai Silk Company is alive until today.
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