Thai Art and Culture
Thai Miniatures
“Miniatures” are regarded as wonder that human has created by reproducing them from the original size into much smaller scale and maintaining the number of all parts of component exactly the same as those of the original.
The lovely small objects created contain charms and tenderness in themselves besides showing impressiveness and high taste of craftsmanship,fantastic imagination and conscientiousness of the creator. The “Miniatures” as being called,are outstanding for their beauty which touches not only the hearts of the Thai creators and collection enthusiasts,but also those of the British,French,American,German,Japanese,Chinese who adore and admire them with ardor. They also create these small artistic objects with great beauty and variety, as well as the symbols and concepts of their nationalities.
The creation of Thai miniatures has begun for several hundred years,but they were not called “Miniatures” in those times and they were not of as great beauty as those of the present days. Those miniatures were in the form of amulets of miracle power for the sake of boosting the moral of the one who carried them along. Of course those miniatures were the reproduction of the originals with the scale reduced so much that they could be carried along very conveniently. The miniatures of those days were made from simple material like ivory,animal bone or wood into the Buddha image in the form of amulets, Tagrut,Rak-yom (tiny Thai twin dolls), for example. Othets were in the form of tiny toys which reflected Thai life style like tiny Thai dolls,vessels used in daily life like pots,jars which were made of clay.Beautiful animal figures like prawns,crabs and fish were found in Sukho Thai period,Ayutthaya period down to Rattanakosin period. Later on in the period of King Rama v,the creation of miniatures prospered greatly when the people from high society and the royal family members favored them as subjects of popularity and kept them in their collection. They were of great variety and were made of white China clay. Some were in the form of tiny silverware and gilt nielloware,for example. The beginning of creating miniatures and its development for each period of Thai society can be traced back at the Thailand Museum of Miniatures. Here there is an exhibition of all miniatures of Thailand for the next Thai generation to see,to study and to follow the foot steps with the admiration of the great preciousness of this branch of art. It shows clearly the great wisdom of creation of the Thai people.
The creation of miniatures in this period has been developed into highly beautiful and meticulous craftsmanship. The material used is of great variety and the sizes of the miniatures are of very wide range.The international scale which is most popular all over the world is standardized at 1:12 whilst the material used for the production of the miniatures can be gathered and classified into 20 groups like glass group,resin group,baked clay group,textile group,aluminium group,gold group,ivory group,plastic group,seeds group,etc.,but the most popular material used nowadays is scientific clay which is well known for its high flexibility,long lasting,highly realistic appearance. Creation which gives more beautiful colors and proper configuration,layout which matches with the surroundings,are the most important fundamentals which the Thai creators always have in mind in addition to their meticulous craftsmanship in order to satisfy your admiration.
In general,all tha miniatures which are created under the international standard scale also require a good configuration to intermingle harmoniously with those of other nationalities. There is another scale of 1:6 for the form of an action figure,plus the scale of 1:10 as well as the scale of one’s own idea to suit one’s design, There is still a group of creators who prefer the smallest that requires a magnifier to look at the details of the finished work like,for instance,the work of painting on a rice grain.
“Miniatures” do not only yield happiness for the sight and the mid of the collection enthusiasts as well as those who come across them,but also show the patience,mind concentration and meticulous craftsmanship of human as a whole through their creators.
