Rattanakosin Cultural Goldsmith at Wat Koh Community in Phetchaburi: Transformation and Safeguarding Strategy

Abstract

             The appealing beauty of nature, cultural diversity, and heritage of Thailand are well known features in the tourism industry globally.  Heritage places are visited by many tourists each year.  With the aggression of industrialization on the other hand, intangible cultural heritage and the crafts culture goes into a transformation whereby the craftsmanship tradition appears to have turned to commercial, mass production and the adoption of modern techniques.  Under these circumstances, the craftsmanship tradition may be replaced and finally some of its traditions and skills vanish. 

               In the great Thai heritage, the goldsmith has played a significant role throughout its history.  The creativity of innovation began more than 200 years ago that still continue to influence the movement of the arts and crafts in Thailand today.  The heritage has presented and explored the meaning of life force and the way of living in a Thai context.  As gold has always been representing prosperity, wealth, art and culture, crafting gold was subject to exquisite craftsmanship in the ancient tradition.  The broad aim of the research reported here is to engage with the dilemma of the decline of the great tradition of Thailand’s arts and crafts, thereby the fading of significant aspects of the nation’s heritage and, indeed, of the nation’s identity linked to that heritage.  This task will be pursued through an in-depth study of what may be the impending demise of an emblematic component of the heritage, namely the Rattanakosin goldsmiths’ craft and its surviving traces in the Wat Koh community of Phetchaburi city.

                This study seeks to analyze the transformation of the goldsmith craft, propose a community approach to the idea of preserving and re-interpreting its tradition in a contemporary context.  The tradition will be evaluated through a diversity of sources and forms of data, to yield insights which can be a benefit to the community.