Thawee Buranakhet — known across Thailand simply as Ja Thawee — has died at the age of 92. The Nakhon Pathom Provincial Cultural Office announced his death on Monday, closing the book on a career that shaped Thai craftsmanship for more than half a century and earned him the title of National Artist in 2023 for his work in visual arts, specialising in sculpture and casting.
Born in Nakhon Pathom on 9 October 1932, Thawee learned drawing and sculpture from his father, himself a craftsman and art teacher. After secondary school he painted in Bangkok and other provinces before joining the army's Third Army Area in 1955, serving 23 years. Military life turned out to be the making of him: he was selected to train in sculpture and metal casting in the Fine Arts Department under celebrated artists such as Silpa Bhirasri, the Italian-born sculptor regarded as the father of modern Thai art. He later created a statue of King Naresuan the Great, a career landmark.
His best-known work is the casting of a Phra Buddha Chinnarat image, prized for its refined proportions in the distinctly Nakhon Pathom artistic style. In 1978 he left full-time service to set up the Buranakhet Buddha Casting Foundry, devoting himself to sculpture and casting.
But bronze was only half the story. Thawee became a tireless guardian of local heritage, founding the Ja Thawee Folk Museum in Mueang district of Nakhon Pathom — widely considered Thailand's first folk museum — filled with traditional tools and household objects that document how earlier generations lived. He also established the Major Thawee-Pim Buranakhet Foundation, which awards scholarships to financially disadvantaged students.
The honours stacked up over the decades: the 2017 National Artist award, the 2022 Silpathorn-style honour, several honorary doctorates, and the Sai Diamond for craftsmanship in 2023. Statues he cast still stand at his workshops in Nakhon Pathom, alongside the wooden buffaloes displayed outside the folk museum.
For travellers, this is a reminder that Nakhon Pathom — barely an hour from Bangkok and usually reduced to a day-trip photo of the giant Phra Pathom Chedi — has a deeper cultural layer. The Ja Thawee Folk Museum offers a rare, hands-on look at rural Thai life, and the casting foundry nearby shows a craft tradition still alive in the very district where he spent his life. If his death brings a new wave of visitors to these workshops and museum halls, that may be the tribute he would have appreciated most.
Reported by Bangkok Post Life.
