Narong Pattamasaevi stands at the main gate of Ban Boribun.
A seafoam-green wooden house stands on a quiet road in Kat Kong Ta, a famous weekend walking street in the city of Lampang. For many years, the century-old house, called Ban Boribun, has been deserted, making it look like a haunted house at night.
Two years ago, the old house was renovated by the Niyom Pattamasaevi Foundation. Ban Boribun will soon be open for public visits in its capacity as the Lampang Arts Centre for Performing Arts. It will serve as a free stage for local artists to host their performances, including traditional music and dances. In addition to the first Lampang Arts Centre, which focuses on the visual arts and stands just 400m away, the city now boasts two venues where local artists can shine.
The second centre will have a section offering information on Lampang heritage sites, to promote tourism in the province.
“During the past decade, we have renovated two historical houses in Lampang to be art centres, because we want to preserve them as city heritage,” said foundation chairman Narong Pattamasaevi, adding that when locals, especially the young generation, are proud of the things they have, they will love and cherish their hometown.
Why did you decide to renovate Ban Boribun?
The two-storey wooden house evokes the prosperous time of Lampang as a trading hub [for teak] in the North a century ago. It belonged to U Maung Gyi, a wealthy Burmese trader who worked for Louis T. Leonowens [of the British Borneo company, which had a teak logging operation and concession in the North in the 1890s].
Maung Gyi lived and worked in this house. He also owned Pom Yai Boribun market and collected the rental fees from local merchants at this house. Ban Boribun is known, architecturally, as a gingerbread building, with highly decorative crafted woodwork on roof eaves, balconies and window sills. It’s rare and must be preserved.
How much did you spend on the renovation project?
We spent about 6 million baht to buy the house from 21 owners, the descendants of U Maung Gyi. It took us two years to complete the deal and another two years for renovation. We kept the old structure of the house and added strength to the walls. The roof is new because at that time the roof was almost gone and the wooden floor was in a poor condition. We spent around 12 million baht renovating this house. All money we spent through the foundation is our own investment. We did not ask any organisations or government agencies for financial support.
Why Lampang?
I was born and grew up here. Although I have a business in Phuket, I wanted to give something back to my hometown — that’s the reason I founded the Niyom Pattamasaevi Foundation. The foundation has two major focuses. One is to support education, and the other is to promote historical and cultural conservation in Lampang.
Tell us more about the Niyom Pattamasaevi Foundation..
A Mandalay-style Buddhist image exhibited in the house.
The foundation is named after my late father, to honour the man who taught me the value of education. I realised that having a good education can give me a better life. As a result, the fist object of the foundation is to support education.
Starting with the school that I finished, the foundation offers scholarships for students of Assumption College Lampang. A science lab was also built, for better education of the students. Annual scholarships are also provided to promising students of the Economics Faculty of Thammasat University, as I studied there for two years before winning the Frank Bell Appleby scholarship to study at Claremont Men’s College in the United States. The foundation also runs a learning centre for youths, located at the same compound as the first Lampang Arts Centre. We also have a coalition of mobile libraries called Library Net to bring and donate books to 19 schools in rural areas in Lampang. We also support education for monks and help renovate temples.
Lastly, we support cultural conservation, including the opening of the first and second Lampang Arts Centres.
How do you measure the success of the first Lampang Arts Centre?
When we opened the centre in 2010 on Talat Kao Road, it brought liveliness to the community.
More visitors showed up to see the house [renovated from a century-old Lanna-style wooden house] and art exhibitions.
We also invite local artists to hold workshops, including artist-in-residence Thiwaporn Pintasee, known for making Khom Si Lanna, the art lantern of Lampang.
After the centre opened, owners of some of the old houses in the area started renovating their homes [and some are rented out and opened as guesthouses, restaurants and coffeeshops]. The Lampang Arts Centre makes locals and visitors realise that the province has not only rooster-design ceramic kitchenware, but masterpiece works of art.
Why do you need to open the second arts centre?
We always have requests from artists who want to hold performances in the Lampang Arts Centre. But the centre was too small, so we looked for another place and found Ban Boribun. The house has a backyard for artists to host their performances, while the building is also big enough for handling seminars and meetings.
We officially opened the second Lampang Arts Centre in January, during the Cultural Heritage Conservation workshop. But we don’t yet have the people to manage the place, so we still keep it closed. We expect to open it for public visitation soon.
A meeting room on the second floor.
Decorations on the second floor of Ban Boribun.
This source first appeared on Bangkok Post Lifestyle.