Sathorn Golden Textile Museum

Ban Had Saew has long been known as a famous weaving village. Its people, mostly Tai Puan descendents, are believed to have migrated from Lao and settled down towards the end of King Rama II’s reign. With them came the hand-weaving household industry, a culture handed down through several generations.

The woven textiles originally were only for household use, but once gaining the interest of other people elsewhere it has since then become a flourishing trade - as one can see along the highways, with over 10 shops selling the locally woven materials.

The Sathorn Shop on the Sawankalok-Srisajchanalai highway also houses the “Sathorn Golden Textile Museum,” owned by Khun Sathorn Sorajprasobsanti, well-known among collectors of old fabrics. This museum was manifestation of Khun Sathorn’s appreciation of the value of old woven textiles - dated back to the time he had been a broker of old-fashioned fabrics. The appreciation also meant an awareness that those rare handmade textile pieces, formerly not much appreciated by the local Had Saew people including himself, were much sought after by outsiders, academicians, and collectors. So unless the rare pieces had been saved, soon they would have vanished, or would have been sold out, because even ornate “teen jok” pieces were selling very well. The collection thus started was continued until Khun Sathorn was able to put it in a museum, which was opened in 1988.