The Isan House that Moved

There is a house in Exeter, where I live half my time, known as 'the house that moved'. It was originally built in the late 16th or early 17th century and had to move to make way for a new road. Now there is a house that moved here in Phana; not quite so old, but old enough that lots of people are surprised we didn't demolish it and build a new concrete one. I have posted about this house at several stages of its reincarnation, Moving House in Isan Part 1 ,  and Moving House in Isan Part 2, and Keeping the ancestors informed . The work is finished now, and the upper storey is occupied, while we are still preparing the ground floor for a 'grand opening' on March 8th.

The renovation/restoration/refurbishment, call it what you will, has been carried out through donations from a large number of family members of descendants of Ta Rin and Yai Homhual Mahanil, as well as other relatives and neighbours in Phana. The generosity of all these people has been amazing, and those of us who have been closest to the work are most grateful to everyone who has donated.

These two pictures show the house as it now looks from the road:

Here we can see the ground floor after we moved some of the furniture into it, although when the picture was taken we hadn't finalised the arrangement.

The old doors at the back lead into an enclosed area that is part of the 'upstairs' accommodation. This largely open area on the ground floor is going to be a community study centre, containing a library, seating and meeting areas, a screen for showing DVDs, and temporary exhibitions. The opening exhibition will centre around the loom, with pictures and information about weaving and the process of indigo dying as it is practised in Phana.

Behind the closed doors at the back are these stairs and a shower room. The stairs lead to the accommodation we are providing for the Don Chao Poo Research Centre which will serve as the base for people conducting research into all aspects of the nearby forest known as Don Chao Poo, and especially in all probability into all aspects of the long-tailed macaques which live there.

At the top of the stairs is a 'kitchen area'. There is an electric hot-water jug, a 4-slice toaster and a double electric hot-plate.

 

The dining area is shown looking towards the front of the house. In the top right corner is the door to one of the three bedrooms. The doors and the bedrooms they lead to are the original ones, as are all the floorboards and the ouiter wooden walls and shuttered windows.

You can see our lab bench in the picture above, but here is a better view of it. The two microscopes were donated by Exeter University, and our other equipment at present consists of binoculars, a DVD video camera, a hand-held GPS, two stop-watches, and various glassware of a scientific nature.

And here, looking towards the back of the house. The kitchen area is to the right of the bathroom.

This is the sitting area. The chairs have been donated by a generous neighbour, Acharn Kalyani, who also gave us the old dooors downstairs, the stumps that form the front fence, the shuttered windows on the ground floor, and several other valuable pieces of wood that were used in the renovation. She has also provided the meeting table and chairs, three old wooden chairs and a small table, and lots of very interesting books -- all of which are in use on the ground floor. 

Next to the sitting area, towards the bedrooms and the front of the house, is this small library of reference books on academic subjects as well as local history, travel and so on. There are three bedrooms here, but we currently have four researchers in residence, so one has to sleep out in the main room as you can see. They have formed a rota so that this 'privilige' is shared among them.

As I mentioned previously, the bedrooms and their doors are original. Here is the middle bedroom door:

This is the bedroom that Pensri and I always stayed in back in the 1980s and 1990s. When I came to stay in the 1970s I wasn't senior enough to be given a bedroom, so like our fourth researcher I used to sleep on the floor.

Back downstairs, we are still in the process of arranging the study centre. We are presently awaiting a truck-load (!!!) of books being donated by family members in Bangkok. Also to come is a series of DVDs to help secondary school students to revise for exams in all their subjects. These have been offered by Pink, the daughter of a neice, who has just finished her secondary education and has been awarded a scholarship by a university in Japan, which she will take up later this year.

This view looks out towards a rice and noodle restaurant which our researchers have named 'The Shack'. They eat there a lot, especially at mid-day.

The blue house across the road is home to Panda, a white dog with black markings over his eyes. Panda was quite hostile to the researchers whenh they were staying at our house, but when they moved in here he had a change of heart.  In fact, he moved in as well, sleeping beneath the house for the first few nights. Now he has returned to the blue house, but he has become friendly and protective of the research centre and the researchers. Both have become part of his territory, no doubt.

 

I will post some more about the community study centre when we have got it ready for the opening on March 8th.

 

Comments

[Nicki]

Wonderful to see and read! What a fantastic project to envision and execute.

[Martyn]

Lawrence - What a difference a month or two makes. The place looks absolutely amazing. The downstairs living area and garden really do look nice and the whole house is going to make a marvellous research and study centre. Those monkeys had better appreciate what's been done for them.

It's amazing what a community can do when so many of its people pull together for a worthwhile cause.

Well done Phana.

[Lawrence]

Nicki, thanks a lot. It seems a bit weird you reading about Phana from (I imagine) the depths of Norwegian winter. Hope you are enjoying it. Does Monty ski or snowboard or something? Now he's been as far as Abu Dhabi, maybe you should come further next time and see us in Phana. We'd love that.

[Lawrence]

Hi Martyn, Glad you approve the look of the place. We're hoping the monkeys won't come anywhere near it, but the researchers seem pretty happy there. It's right on the main road through the village so it gets a lot of attention and passing comment, nearly all of it favourable.

Phana just won 1 million baht for good governance and community involvement for the third year running (I blogged about this last year or the one before) so it is a community which generally works well together. Maybe the ageing population that you have sometimes noted has something to do with that. We don't have much else to do, I suppose.

[Ashley]

Hi Lawrence, the house looks fantastic. It will be a must see on the itinerary next time we're in Thailand. Liew has already got a list of books she is ready to donate. Keep up the mighty good work.