Teak spirit house 'Naga's Protective Spirit' Item ID: 2677084288

"I cannot accurately express how much I love antiquity -- whether it is in the form of art, antiques, architecture or in the form of culture and tradition. I of course, craft my artistic works inspired by antique artistry. My name is Pirot Gitikoon and I was born on June 20, 1953. When I graduated from high school, I became a police officer but I resigned because it lacked variety. Now I am married and have two children. I work in the tourist industry, my wife is a teacher, my son is a decorator and my daughter is a student. I am quite a calm and easy-going person, I love nature and art and, as I said, I love reproducing ancient art and architectural miniatures.

"Because I love nature and traveling, and because of my work, I get the chance to regularly visit ancient buildings all over Thailand. I am fascinated by these historic places and I always photograph them so I can later try to replicate them at a smaller scale. I have dedicated a lot of my spare time to learning this art form, and eventually I was able to successfully reproduce every detail of traditional Thai buildings. Later I applied the same principles to develop other ancient artistic themes. At first, I did it for my own pleasure and for private home display, but then people started to get interested and wanted pieces for themselves. So now, I craft a variety of products but only during my spare time, for I still need to earn a living through my other job.

"It is amazing how you offer opportunities to Thai artists and artisans to freely promote their personal story and their works around the world. It is a chance for me to say that ancient Thai buildings have been beautifully renovated over the last few years. I would recommend visitors coming to Thailand not to forget to visit such places. It will give you a certain feel for Thailand's history, culture and art. I also would like to thank you for your interest in my artistic work."