Traditional Thai Manual Arts.

During the Ayuthaya period, writers, painters, dancers, sculptors, architects, musicians, and skilled craftsmen came under the royal patronage of kings and the nobility. Thai architects and artists were responsible for building and decorating palaces, monasteries, and shrines in conventionally acceptable forms and styles. Unlike their Western counterparts, they were not expected to display revolutionary originality or inventiveness. Thus art and craftsmanship were transmitted from generation to generation according to rigid discipline.

In an attempt to provide general training to Thai craftsmen, especially those who worked in the palaces, the Krom Chang Sip Mu (Organization of the Ten Crafts) was established. According to Prince Pradit Worakarn, who was given charge of the Chang Sip Mu Department during the reign of King Rama V, the original organization in fact covered at least 13 different craftsmen: drawers, paper-makers, engravers, figuremakers, modellers, plasterers, lacquerers, metal beaters, turners, moulders, wood-carvers, sculptors, and carpenters.

In the Bangkok period, these were grouped into 10 divisions; drawing (whi ch included draughtsmen, painters, muralists, and manuscript illustrators), engraving (woodcarvers, engravers on metal, precious metal inlay), turning (lathe-workers, carpenters and joiners, glass mosaic workers), sculpting (paper sculptors, decorative fruit and vegetable carvers), modelling (beeswax moulders and bronze casters, mask and puppet makers), figure making (dummy and prototype maker), moulding (craftsmen in bronze and metal casting), plastering (bricklayers, lime plasterers, stucco workers and sculptors), lacquering (masters of lacquerware and mother-of-pearl inlay), and beating (meatal beaters and finishers of metal articles).

Contemporary Thai arts and crafts, though modernized to some extent through improved technology are still very much inspired by tradition. Ranging from delicately wrought silverware to numerous utilitarian items of everyday life, they are part of the kingkom's rich cultural heritage.