Thawee Buranaket (Ja Thawee)

Thawee Buranaket died peacefully of old age at 12:19 local time on 21 September 2026 in Phitsanulok, aged 94. Thai Rath and other national outlets reported the time and cause; some early wire summaries briefly cited age 92, but the birth date of 9 October 1932 and the age of 94 align across major Thai coverage.

His family prepared funeral rites at Wat Tapakhao Hai in Hua Ro, Mueang Phitsanulok, with a royal bathing ceremony scheduled for 22 September 2026. The Phitsanulok Provincial Cultural Office and craft communities were among the first to issue public condolences.

Thawee Buranaket was born on 9 October 1932 at Ban Klong Tao Hai in Hua Ro subdistrict, Mueang Phitsanulok District, into a poor household with many siblings. Formal schooling ended around grade nine so that he could help the family earn a living, but Thai profiles of his life stress a lifelong habit of self-education.

From boyhood he was drawn to craft and to the everyday objects of rural life, beginning a private collection that would decades later fill a museum. The nickname Ja Thawee, rooted in his later army rank of sergeant major, would follow him for the rest of his public life.

In 1955 he enlisted with the Royal Thai Army as a corporal draftsman in the 3rd Army Region based in Phitsanulok. Military service opened access to formal training in metal casting at the Handicraft Division of the Fine Arts Department and to study under Professor Silpa Bhirasri and specialist craftsmen.

He attained the rank of sergeant major and remained with the army until about 1978. On 2 February 2024 the commander of the 3rd Army Region awarded him lieutenant's rank insignia at Camp Somdet Phra Naresuan Maharaj in recognition of his cultural contributions, a late honour that reflected how deeply his military years and his craft career remained linked in local memory.

After leaving the army he devoted himself professionally to sculpting and casting Buddha images. He founded the Buranathai (Thai Restoration) Foundry and specialised in replicas of Phra Buddha Chinnarat, the principal Buddha image of Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat Woramahawihan in Phitsanulok. His replicas were praised for proportion, finish and a distinctive identity that helped make Phitsanulok a centre of Buddhist bronze casting.

From 1978 onward he trained large numbers of disciples who went on to open foundries of their own, creating a living network of Buddhist art craftsmen. He taught that makers of Buddha statues must have a good heart, stay clear of harmful habits, and treat the work as service to Buddhism rather than mere commerce.

Alongside the foundry, Thawee and his wife Pim built what became the Sgt. Maj. Thawee Folk Museum on Wisut Kasat Road in Mueang Phitsanulok. He had collected tools, textiles, pottery, lamps, trapping devices and household items since childhood. When the home could no longer hold them and local institutes declined the donation, the couple turned the collection into a public museum, opened at its present site in 1990.

By the mid-2010s the museum held more than 10,000 exhibits and had partnered with Thailand's National Discovery Museum Institute and tourism offices to improve interpretation and access. It remains one of Phitsanulok's best known cultural attractions and a memorial to the couple's shared commitment to folk heritage.

Thai cultural authorities recognised him repeatedly: Outstanding Cultural Person in skilled crafts (casting); an honorary Bachelor of Education in art education; Master Artist of the Land in 2017; the Phet Siam Award in 2021; the Servant of the Land award for religion and culture in 2021; designation as Thailand's first silapajarn (master artist) by the Ministry of Culture in 2022; and National Artist in Visual Arts (fine arts, sculpting and casting) in 2024, with a formal tribute ceremony on 26 October 2024.

The combination of national artist status and the pioneering silapajarn title marked him as both a practising master and a teacher of tradition.

His legacy rests on three pillars still visible in Phitsanulok: the Buranathai Foundry tradition of Phra Buddha Chinnarat replicas; the generations of casters he trained; and the Sgt. Maj. Thawee Folk Museum, which continues to present rural Thai material culture to visitors. Family accounts note that museum stewardship later passed to his son Dr Thammasathit Buranaket after Pim's death.

He is remembered as Songkhwae's master of Buddhist art, a National Artist who insisted that craft skill and moral character belong together.