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One of the most valued crafts collected by educated Thais is Benjarong,
a strong porcelain painted with five special colors.
Most resorts and hotels have a highly valued collection of Benjarong
on display for guests but it is also available for sale in the better
gift shops around Phuket.
Benjarong was collected by the Thai Royal family who preferred
the elegant porcelain ceramics to the pottery made in rural regions
of the country. Suwankalok pottery is also collected from the kilns
near the historic capital of Sukothai but this pottery hasn't the
strength and vitality of Chinese Benjarong.
Many of the Thai kings of the Chakri dynasty had several Chinese
wives who often brought their own Benjarong with them to Thailand
as part of their wedding dowry.
Perhaps the best source on Phuket to find Benjarong is on the Airport
Road. Sitting on the eastern side of this busy highway, sits an
unpretentious little shop called Benjarong House.
While this shop looks small on the outside, on the inside are all
the ceramic treasures that can be found in the Kingdom, and at a
fraction of the price.
"Our family came from China a couple generations ago and we
brought our tradition of handcrafting ceramics to the factory we
built in Thailand," stated Khun Jittima Bungthumban, who presides
over Benjarong House. "We have both traditional Benjarong which
had a soft matte glaze and the glossy, colorful Benjarong which
is now in great demand." The family factory which supplies
Benjarong House uses traditional designs from China put has twenty
painters on staff who apply the blue, black, green, yellow and red
colors
While collecting elegant ceramics has been a tradition in most
European countries, visitors to Phuket can take a distinctive piece
of Benjarong home as an elegant reminder of their visit to the exotic
Orient.
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