Most passersby walking under the bustling Thonglor BTS station and past the mufflerless tuk tuks speeding by will probably miss this place. Hidden behind a row of newspaper stands and food carts sits what appears to be an unassuming Bangkok cafe: The Green Lantern.
The Green Lantern cafe plays host to the Museum of Sex -- an exhibit that opened in December, devoted to the history of eroticism and the sex industry in Thailand. Ancient arts: The cafe's owner, Watjanasin Charuwattanakitti, 40, poses in front of the entrance to a room in the Kamajijitra erotic art museum, which he has helped his father curate for over 10 years.
For the prostitutes, I want to support them to be legal too. They have the right to work. So their daughters come to Bangkok and work in the go-go bars, and when they get money, they send it back to their parents to support them. One of the most common examples of this is the image of the mortar and pestle, which, he says, is the reason why some prostitutes set up papaya salad, or som tam carts in the city in the evenings. Hanging out: Green lanterns hang outside of the entrance to the Green Lantern cafe, which also houses the Meseum of Sex.
He worries that the current lack of regulation puts both sex workers and their clients in danger, particularly because they lack healthcare. They will work like normal people. Now, he plans to convert the Green Lantern into a bar, to attract a more nighttime-oriented clientele. Looking for luck: Kamavijitra's collection includes over pieces, ibncluding this sculpture, which Mr Watjanasin says is used to bring rain and imrpove crops. Before opening the Green Lantern and Museum of Sex, Mr Watjanasin spent 10 years managing Kamavijitra, the first museum devoted to Thai erotic artwork.
His father, year-old Uthaiphon, started his collection over 35 years ago, or when Mr Watjanasin was just five years old. Then I started to collect the sculptures. He eventually collected so many pieces that there were too many to keep in the house, so he decided to make the collection available to the public and moved his pieces to the condominium building which he owns on Soi To see the collection, visitors have to make an appointment.
