Portable religious painting

The discovery of the beauty and diversity of Thai traditional painting is integral to visits of the many Buddhist monasteries in Bangkok, neighbouring Thonburi, Chiang Mai and other cities in northern and central Thailand. Given that evidently these vast murals cannot be transported for display, the Thai traditional arts of painting can only be appreciated in a museum context through movable pieces.

In Thailand the hard divisions, which in West have long distinguished the fine arts from decorative or applied arts, simply do not apply. Mural painting, lacquer and gold painting, painting on cloth or paper, and compositions using mother-of-pearl inlay, are all perceived as equally important art forms existing on the same aesthetic plane.

Painting on cloth, phra bot in Thai, to be hung at monasteries during Buddhist festivities was also a very popular merit-making activity, both for the donors and artists who painted them. Because these banner paintings were left to hang outside the temples for long periods their state of conservation is often poor.