Traditional Thai Designs
Traditional Thai designs can be seen in almost every aspect of Thai life. Most Thai designs are influenced by traditional customs and religion. For example, you can find some exquisite pewter show pieces that depict village lifestyle in Thailand. The architecture in Thai temples has influenced many designers, the intricate carvings and paintings on many temples in Thailand has impressed renowed artists from all over the world. The elephant has been a symbol of power might, it is also respected as a clever animal. Silk scarves and neckties can be seen with elephant based designs. Many luxury homes are decorated with wood or stone carved elephants. In this article on Thai designs we have put together some interesting and stunning Thai designs.
The 'hong' board pronounced like 'hoang' is a special bird that finds place in Thai mythology. The bird is depicted on some lamposts and has even been made into exquisite gold or silver pendants. This image shows the hong bird made with folded and assembled leaves. Seen at an exhibition organized to promote the sale of Thai products made in villages across the country.
A stupendous hand carved wooden show piece. Included in this wood carving are images of Lord Buddha statues in the sitting and standing position. Most wood carvers have their skills developed with traditional Thai designs, this wood carving was seen in a temple in Bangkok. It is around 20 feet long and adds grace and beauty to the wall.
Traditional Thai ceramic designs are done in the 'benjarong' style and the above urns and jars do not have the color of benjarong. While the designs on these ceramic pieces are distinctly Thai, the presentation in just two or three colors has been influenced (recently) by the Chinese ceramic craft. The technic used to produced these ceramics will not be very different from those used to produce benjarong ceramics.
A very artistic lamp post, seen in a historic temple in Nakhon Pathom Thailand. There were around 30 to 40 such decorative lamp posts throughout the temple premises. If you have seen the royal boats that are displayed on important occassions, you will notice that this lamp post has a similar Thai style design.
Traditional Thai fabric designs, not silk though. Such Thai fabrics are worn by the villagers in the northern provinces of Thailand. Notice how the designs are bright colored but, seem to have a very earthy appearance. In the ancient days, various natural sources like mud, fruits and even leaves were used to produce colors, that dyed fabric. These traditional Thai fabric designs show the horizontal running designs, something that can be seen in many Asian countries.
A typical design for a Thailand, this temple has been recently constructed and is situated around 70km from Bangkok city. The details in this architecture are very intricate and clearly influenced by Thai customs and religion. In most cases, various parts of the temple included stone carvings, wood carvings etc are brought from different provinces and assembled together at the temple site.
This is a photograph of traditional Thai ceramcis called 'benjarong'. The paintings on these Thai ceramic designs are typical and need to be done completely by hand. Benjarong pottery has it's roots in the royal palaces of the country. Today, you can find many places offering dazzling ceramic vases, cups, plates and even entire tea or dinner sets.
The province of Ayuthaya in Thailand has significant importance in the tradition, culture and history of the country. The above temple windows are stunning pieces of art. Skilled craftsmen spend several months to ready such artisitic objects that are used to make temples. Not many temples are being built in recent years, so preserving the existing ones should be given priority.
You can recognize this temple roof from the artistic temple design shown above. For this Thai temple design image, we zoomed into the temle top. All the objects that are put together to make this design are based on traditional Thai designs. Observe closely and you will notice, pretty angels and fierce looking gaurds in the design.
Exhibited at the annual gems and jewelry fair in Thailand's Chantaburi province, this fish is studded with small yellow sapphires. The fish itself is around 1.5 feet long and cast in gold. Thai jewelry designs are another case where traditional jewelry designers get influenced by traditions and customs.
A stupendous display of artistic skills, this is not an odrinary wood carving. Several craftsmen worked for many months to carve the traditional design on the bark of a tree. The bark is around 10 feet tall and the design goes all around it. It is quite likely that the wood used to do the carving came from Burma. The greenish piece of stone on the bottom right is a huge piece of jade.
We do hope that you have enjoyed viewing this collection of Thai designs. Expect to find a lot more information on this website, so do browse around and share links that you think would be of interest to your friends and family.
