In ancient times up to the early modern period in Thailand, Thai craftsmen were considered the "true artists".  They were thought to possess superior intellect, a full understanding of culture and a wide ranging wisdom. They had  the capacity to create and produce great works of art that can but rarely find their equal in execution today.  These arts not only reflected the artists creative force but also cultural reflections of the art and its use in Thai society and culture.

"Chang feemeu", roughly equivalent to the English word "craftsman",  has until only recently been considered by most Thais to be a much lower designation than "silapin", or artist.  This is unfortunate and does not fully reflect the skill of some these artisans or the creative treasures they produced.  We would like to emphasize that the works of these craftsman, works that are attributed with intelligence and creativity, are such as to demand appreciation by all true art lovers.  Any study of the crafts as being somehow a study of a lesser form of art does not fully appreciate the true artistic force of these crafts or their importance to Thai life and culture.  Many of these "craftsmen and women" were and are national treasures.  The best of their works have a living force that calls for worship of the artisans creative force and artistic merit.

The old Thai phrase, "chang sip mu", or "ten divisions of craftsmen", is a phase whose original usage was the name of a government department comprising craftsmen assigned to ten departmental divisions.  Let's take a look at this list of divisions as it gives us a general idea of the range of  the craftsmen's trades in Thailand at the time of the reign of The Great King Rama V (1853-1910).