Thai Ghost Mask

A ghost mask regains its identity

As a research unit within the Smithsonian, not a museum, the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage did not set out to build a collection from the Festival. But over the past fifty years, Festival artists and others have generously donated hundreds of objects to the office. Over the years, the records documenting them were sporadically updated kept and knowledge about individual objects rested largely within the memories of staff.

I began my association with the Center in 2014 to work on this “office” collection—updating the records, writing labels, and conducting background research to prepare an online exhibition for the Festival’s fiftieth anniversary in 2017. The Thai mask down the hall from my desk was an obvious candidate: it is large, fierce, and demanding—and there are no written records of its provenance. “Thailand” is written on its right side, and “Long Live the King” scrawls across the front. This led me to think it was from the 1994 Thailand program. But after speaking with the retired program curator, it was clearly something else. That program focused on classical court music and dance, whereas this mask—although carefully painted—was grotesquely exaggerated, made of a rice steaming basket with bamboo appendages, and downright scary looking.

In summer 2016, intern Michelle Ibarra took on the quest to identify the mask. She eventually determined it was a “ghost mask” used in the Phi Ta Khon celebration in northern Thailand. Its maker, Wirayut Natsaengsri, participated in the 2007 Mekong River program. Her efforts are documented in the related article, “Searching for the Man Behind the Mask.” Today Phi Ta Khon is heavily promoted as a tourist attraction. But its origins are ancient and have ties to Buddhism and early agricultural rituals, which the practitioners still honor.