Yin and Yang in the Wrong Country: Visiting Thailand’s White Temple and Black House

Winter Is Coming…to Thailand

A short drive and a few awkward hand gestures later, I arrived at the slightly less famous Black House. Built by the well-known Thai artist Thawan Duchanee, the property was like some architectural mash up of Game of Thrones and another, slightly less popular TV show, Kung Fu.

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I think I expected something a little more obviously intellectual as I walked in to the main dining hall, only to find furniture made of bleached skulls and bones paired with dark teakwood floors and walls. Where I expected to be scratching my chin and making observations about metaphors and symbolism, I found myself laughing and staging pictures with the bones as props.

I was lucky enough to visit the Black House when no one else was there and was free explore the 3-4 acre property unbothered. The initial shock of what at first seemed barbaric began to wear off, and quite the opposite of the White Temple, I became more quiet and reflective. I’m not even sure what I was reflective about, but I remember walking to each of the dozen buildings, staring at weapons and masks that hung in fur-carpeted rooms, thinking about beauty and happiness. In the black of Duchanee’s work I found a small speck of nirvana.

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Neither of the two halves of the yin and yang is better, or more valuable, than the other. They are merely a balance (*cough* of Asian philosophy misappropriated to another culture), sitting at opposite ends of a city, with very different kinds of art. If you are ever in the north of Thailand, don’t forget to bring your Game of Thrones outfit—it will fit in perfectly at either half of the yin and yang that is Chiang Rai’s art scene.