Hello all collectors! Who would have guessed that in the outskirts of Chiang Mai, in the vicinity of San Patong, you would have one of the world’s largest collections of dolls? And from every part of the world as well. Come and spend a few hours at the Chiang Mai doll museum. I doubt that you will regret it.

The man lives in a cute traditional Thai building housing the museum and a factory making dolls. Khun Youthana Boonprakong claims that he has 50 000 dolls in his collection, and not only that; he says that he cleans them all by himself.

The collection varies from typical toys to collector’s items and national dolls with national costumes. Not to forget, there is even a doll of the famous Taiwanese singer Theresa Deng. I couldn’t stop looking around and kept finding new faces and expressions all the time. Beauties are looking at me from every corner.

Humble beginnings

Originally from Laos, Mr Youthana has 60 years of experience in dolls and doll making. His mother used to run a doll shop in Vientiane in Laos before escaping the communist revolution in the 1970s. So the interest in dolls runs in the family.

They charge a small entrance fee to get in. However, if you are lucky, you might be invited to look at the factory. When we were there, nothing much happened in the factory. The demand seemed to have gone down due to Covid, but it was unclear why the storeroom was full of sacks with dolls not yet exported.

If you look below, there is a slideshow with some of the dolls in the collection.

The address to the Doll museum on Google maps is here.

Finally, If you don’t have your transport, I recommend taking a Grab taxi to the Chiang Mai doll museum.