Baan Kang Wat, the village of selective crafters

Chiang Mai, a warm and cozy province surrounded by green nature and a pleasant atmosphere. This province gathers both wonderful civilization and Lanna culture in one place. There are many creative crafters living here.The design of crafted works is very unique. As crafting continued to develop, a community of crafters was established to satisfy people who are interested in crafts. This place has become one of the best destinations for both Thais and foreigners.

Baan Kang Wat, a small hidden craft community located nearby Rum Poeng temple in Soi Wat Umong. There are thirteen shophouses and one outdoor theatre at the center of this village. This place looks like a small quite modern village, where several facilities like shops, galleries, studios, restaurants and coffee shops come together.

The atmosphere at Baan Kang Wat

I will bring you to meet this little community in Chiang Mai seeing how interesting and warm this place can be through the view of Bungee - Siripong Wongjinda, a crafter within Baan Kang Wat and one of the community’s administrators. If we mention crafters, the kind of person many may picture will be an old man wearing simple clothes like a local artist. They would be mistaken as the images of crafters here are different from what I have thought. They are not old-fashioned people; they are a new generation of crafters who have a passion to do crafts.

The beginning of Baan Kang Wat

Starting with an empty area many kilometres from town, the craft village was created by Big - Nattawut Rakprasit, a man who graduated from Chiang Mai University’s Faculty of Fine Arts. He is passionate about doing crafts and the idea of building a craft community so as to share space for crafters or people who have the same preferences and using this area to earn money from their hand crafted products. With the help of an investor, his project Baan Kang Wat was initiated. Big designed this community by himself making it the craft community called “Baan Kang Wat”

Big, the owner of Baan Kang Wat

The new lifestyle

The first picture that might come to people's mind about craft villages is probably represented by local craft communities that tourists can visit to see crafters just doing crafts for show with crafters going back home at the end of the day. Not so with Baan Kang Wat. This place is different from other craft villages that crafters live here, create crafted work here and are responsible for all areas in the village together. This place can give emotion to all visitors that they are visiting such a village where crafting is lived. This idea is referred to by what Bungee said that “This is the new lifestyle which is not elegant or local, but it is the life of half-modern, half-craft.” Crafters here live together like a big family based on what I experienced there. Baan Kang Wat can be compared as a village where crafters are villagers and neighbors at the same time. They live their lives supporting each other in almost everything, especially taking care of the community and offering ideas on how to make their community better and well-known.

A shophouse made by cement and wood

Crafted works not for the old generation

This new design of crafted works will be inherited by a new generation, who we can call as early income professionals. One thing that Bungee said about craft products at Baan Kang Wat is that “Crafters from Baan Kang Wat will continually develop making their products distinct from normal crafted communities.” This might be the reason why people from overseas and Thais are interested in crafted works from Baan Kang Wat. Before going to this place, I used to think that crafting is boring, and a group of people who are interested in it might be from the older generation. But, it’s not like that because the style of crafting here is modern and unique as it is developed annually by a new age of crafters. They increase the value of the products and also raise awareness of people in my generation who come to know and be more interested about crafts through their craft works. To make it more clear by what this community means by modern crafts, let me list some workshops held here. The first one is Bookoo Studio, which is the workshop that is owned by Big, the founder of Baan Kang Wat. Big’s shophouse holds a ceramic workshop in which the identity of his work is mainly used between the combination of soil and wood from Chiang Mai. Other craft works are things like watercoloring, book binding, dying shirts by natural colors and arranging terrarium. What is common among Baan Kang Wat’s products is that crafters use natural resources that can be found in Chiang Mai, which I think causes the style of products to look minimal. This style serves to indicate that these products are not made by normal craft communities, but by the Baan Kang Wat community.

Several design of crafted products

Visitors’ impression

For the 5 years that Baan Kang Wat has been open, they have let visitors take part in all activities. It can be said that happiness and peacefulness here are imprinted on me and other visitors. As I have visited Baan Kang Wat with my family, this place gives me unbelievable happiness. The happiness started from when I first stepped into this wonderful place. The jazz music that makes me feel relaxed.The warm welcome from crafters and all the staff. The peaceful atmosphere seen through the green, brown and grey colors of the shophouses, trees and other decorations gave me the emotion of happiness and peacefulness that make me enjoy this wonderful place unconsciously. No matter if they are Thais or foreigners, I know that they have the same emotions in this place. Believe it or not, my mom said to me that “I don’t know there is a place like this in Chiang Mai, and I think your aunt or people in my generation will like it so much as this place changes my mind about local crafted villages.”

She is enjoying the environment at Baan Kang Wat

The happiness of crafters

“Feels like I am one part that surrounds customers’ lives with a playful and colourful atmosphere from the handcrafts that I have made,” Bungee said. This sentence impressed me so much when I was interviewing him. It made me realize that crafters don’t want anything much but to have the products they make please their customers and be useful in their lives. As Bungee has been a crafter here since the beginning of Baan Kang Wat, there are many times he knows that his crafted work was truly used from images that his customers send him via Line showing his product was placed in their houses. These experiences encouraged him to continually create his creative work afterwards. He also mentions something about happiness that he thinks when he is doing whatever he loves and is passionate about like crafting, it brings him to happiness easily even though he might feel tired sometimes, but the outcome is worth it similar to when customers like his products.

Bungee, the media administrator at Baan Kang Wat

Sawasdee craft

There are more people interested in workshops and DIY as they have seen these activities at Baan Kang Wat before, but it was just a small workshop. Crafters in Baan Kang Wat community saw this point as an opportunity to expand workshop classes to be more varied and to let people participate in workshop classes to create their own handworks through events during the year. “Sawasdee Craft”, derives its name from a Thai greeting word. The main purpose of these events is to introduce crafts to non-crafters. Bungee said “The idea of this event emerged when all crafters here agreed that we have to arrange such an event to promote crafting, and to also let other crafters in Chiang Mai take part in this event.” As I intentionally went there when Baan Kang Wat hosted this event, what I have seen is that their assumption to promote crafting was truly successful as there are so many visitors coming. Most visitors on the day that I want are Korean and Chinese. They tend to enjoy participating in workshops and buying crafted works. For visitors who want to do workshops, they can check the workshop schedule on the community’s Facebook page and reserve it or walk in. All kinds of workshops have one price which are 500 baht per each workshop. One interesting thing about this event is the ticket to enter the events. They use a tote bag that costs 149 baht as a ticket that people can buy and come to the event every day that the event was held.

The atmosphere of Sawasdee Craft event

The pride from doing crafts

I questioned myself on how crafting can help a non crafter like me release stress? Bungee answered that it might help a little bit, but mostly non-crafters will experience happiness and pride when they are doing crafts instead. He used to have a chance to talk with people who participated in the workshops, and most of them said that they are happy when creating crafted works followed by the emotion of pride when it is done. For me, I think crafting not only helps people’s minds focus when doing the crafts instead of on something else, but doing a hands on hobby like crafting also leads you to the feeling of pride. I observed people who took part in several workshops, and as my interest emphasizes on how craft can be a therapy, even though I did not have much time to take part in any classes, Bungee, who is a crafter, said that it is quite true that doing crafts might be a therapy to treat minor depressions like stress and anxiety because when he is creating crafted works, he has to put all of his concentration on what he is doing and stay focused on it. This point can make him forget stress in life for a while. And this means that doing crafts can really help to keep peoples’ minds peaceful, especially when you do crafts by yourself.

Workshops available for all visitors

Peacefulness and happiness

If you need a break from chaos and society or you are experiencing difficulties in life, I suggest that this place has power over minor difficulties. Baan Kang Wat includes so much positive energy. The cozy atmosphere, green grasses and trees or warm welcome from crafters there make me fall in love with this place and wishing to spend much time there. If you are a person who is interested in crafts and want to try some, taking a holiday or vacation there will be the best alternative. Even Baan Kang Wat is not popular yet, but there are more and more people coming. Pack your bag and come to this place before it becomes one of the crowded, popular tourist attractions like other places in Chiang Mai.

A green and brown environment  retreat in Baan Kang Wat

A place to describe the word “peacefulness”

There might be so many places in the world to give you a sense of peace, but here Baan Kang Wat is the place that truly indicates peacefulness, which also leads me to feel real relaxation in life. Even though I only spent a short period of time there, I can feel how this place brings happiness and peacefulness to all visitors. Other than that, crafting is the activity that all members at Baan Kang Wat do daily, which can relate to the question that Bungee asked me while interviewing him: “Is the thing that you are doing is the thing you love?” Let’s try to question yourself. If it is the thing you love or passionate about it, no matter if it is crafted work or other works and you feel for it, that thing might be able to give you happiness. Meaning that Baan Kang Wat is not only a peaceful place for visitors, but it is also a happy place for all crafters there.