AN ARTISAN BY CHANCE

'Others were unwilling to tackle the Giant Swing project, fearing they would make a mistake'

STORY AND PHOTO BY KAMOLWAT PRAPRUTITUM

When approached to restore the iconic Giant Swing, Pratin Thongprathueng jumped at the chance while most other traditional Thai house builders could see only the difficulties.

He said reconditioning the decaying old swing, one of Bangkok's best-known Rattanakosin-era heritage sites, provided him with more excitement than pride.

Mr Pratin said it was a test of his calibre, calling on him to apply years of experience as Ayutthaya's pioneer producer of prefabricated Thai houses to the delicate restoration work.

Judging by the satisfaction in his voice, he passed the test with flying colours.

At 58, Mr Pratin has mastered the job he was thrust into by fate, not necessarily by passion.

The father of three started out humbly in the carpentry profession. He was ordained for a while as a novice monk when he was a teenager. But he found the secluded temple life did not suit him. So he left and went looking for work.

There was not much on the job market for someone with a modest education and limited skills. He took up an occupation which a lot of small-town Thais are familiar with - carpentry.

"No, it wasn't something I set my career goals upon. I just looked around and thought this was it," he said, when asked what had inspired him.

Mr Pratin, however, said that what life throws at you matters less than how prepared you are to make the most of what comes your way.

"It's mostly a sense of responsibility and perseverance that carry me through," he said.

Mr Pratin admits he was not exactly captivated by the art of woodworking. But once he had got the hang of it and started learning the ropes, there was no turning back.

At the woodworking firms where he worked, he was observant. He learned the tricks of the trade and absorbed as many skills as he could like a sponge.

Several years after entering the trade, he was already running a small business with a start-up loan from relatives.

"The first few houses I built for clients I didn't get paid for. Money was short and it was an uphill battle," he recalls.

Soon the relatives were at his door, hounding him for repayment of the loan. "I told myself that one day they will come asking me for a loan as well," Mr Pratin said.

Through his 20s he was preoccupied with sustaining his fragile business. The silver lining came when he was invited to showcase Thai houses at cultural exhibitions in Japan in 1985 and in Vancouver the following year.

The trips were a huge break for him. By then, his expertise in constructing Thai houses had spread by word of mouth. In 1992, a tumultuous year marked by the Black May bloodshed, his houses were also put on display at a fair in Sanam Luang, which gave his company's profile another boost.

Mr Pratin said Thai houses are in high demand, but not every builder has the special skills needed to tackle the difficulties in constructing them.

Sadly, he said, building traditional houses is a sunset business, with wood prices surging and few new-generation builders prepared to inherit the trade.

Thai houses are distinct in style and appearance but they can be very expensive to maintain. They also offer limited useful interior space, which hurts their value, although money is often not an object for buyers of the houses. An average-sized house that Mr Pratin builds is usually valued at around several million baht.

Mr Pratin operates a sawmill at his home in Bang Pahan district of Ayutthaya. There his 30 employees build detachable parts of prefabricated houses, including roofs, walls and door panels.

Orders come in from upscale resorts as far away as Phuket. Mr Pratin sometimes travels to the provinces to supervise assembly of the houses.

He said that structural details of traditional homes often need modifying. For example, gaps and holes, a common feature in many traditional houses, must be plugged to accommodate air-conditioning systems.

And the rooms cannot be too cold, otherwise heat will cause the wood to "perspire" on the outside. Over time, the perspiration will cause the wood walls to deteriorate.

For his construction projects, Mr Pratin said, he often buys teak through Forest Industry Organisation (FIO) auctions.

And it was through contacts with FIO staff that he landed the lifetime opportunity to fix the Giant Swing.

His company was hired to help smooth the surfaces of sacred logs earmarked to replace the legs of the swing. But he ended up being enlisted to restore the swing from top to bottom. He figured out ways to strengthen the base, as well as supervise the restoration of the original Krajung, the elaborately-carved topmost section of the swing.

However, a "misstep" put him in hospital. He sawed off the old Krajung, at the swing's top, and lowered it to the ground without first seeking permission from a divinity, he said.

His car would then not start and he was hospitalised for an abdominal infection.

Mr Pratin said despite the rare opportunity to restore a site of such significance, no other woodworker was willing to tackle the project, fearing they would make a mistake. But he did not hesitate to accept an invitation to join the repair team. "I wanted to be part of the glory and I wanted to do good for the country," he said.

Bangkok Post

Last Updated : Sunday April 08, 2007