Thread: Export License for Buddhas

I got some Buddha statues to ship out from Bangkok, and need to get a permit for the statues, from the department of Fine Arts, as far as I know.

Has anyone done this before or have any helpful info for this, i.e. location of the office, paperwork requirements etc?

This may start you off Stroller.

Tips on Thailand : Export of Antiques, Objects of Art from the Kingdom of Thailand

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kingdom of Thailand : : Tourism (Do's and Don'ts)

Thanks a lot, this is a prompt and very helpful reply.

^stroller - you need to be very careful when it comes to exporting Buddha images from Thailand. If the item is "antique", you cannot export it. However, I cannot recall from memory what constitutes "antique". I want to say 100 years old, but 20 years also keeps coming to mind.

There used to be an agency on Silom (opposite the United building) that specialised in this.

Almost forgot, I got it done, quite a time-wasting process.

Thanks Maddie, your links pointed me in the right direction.

The Department of Fine Arts is at the end of Thanon Ayuttaya near the National Library. Further to obtaining an export permit, one also needs to register the shipment with customs in Klong Toy.

Good luck.

Originally Posted by stroller

Almost forgot, I got it done, quite a time-wasting process.

Thanks Maddie, your links pointed me in the right direction.

The Department of Fine Arts is at the end of Thanon Ayuttaya near the National Library. Further to obtaining an export permit, one also needs to register the shipment with customs in Klong Toy.

Good luck.

Were you sending large statues ?

I was told this was needed even for carved wooden teak Buddha's

Have sent smaller statues overseas in Thai post and they went through.

The largest one was 20" high.

You can be lucky and the parcel may go through, sure.

Why do they have such an odd law?

It's only a statue.

Originally Posted by Alex DeLarge

Why do they have such an odd law?

It's only a statue.

There is a story of a Thai Diplomat who was in Paris eating in a Asian Inspired restaurant that had a large Thai Buddha on display in the back where the waiters were hanging dish rags on it.

I think they want to control where the Buddhas go nowadays.

Originally Posted by Alex DeLarge

It's only a statue.

A religious symbol for worship. Some are also antique, the restriction makes sense in this case.

What I heard is that they were horrified that some Buddha statues were used for lamps, with their heads drilled for a post and the wiring. Still, it is just bureaucracy, they have no control whatsoever over what will happen to the statues later, whatever one may declare as the official purpose.

Thailand believes itself to have a monopoly on Buddhism.

Maybe they should patent it along with the "Full Moon Party".

It is the same in Nepal, got to show your Buddhas to the Dep. of Archeology before you may export them.

I guess thast I was lucky but three years ago, I shipped a 20 foot container to the U.S. (which had 12 teak budda statues) and the Thai shipper suggested listing them as "wood lamps" and since they were in a crate, he said Thai customs rarely opens a small crate inside a container. Now, if the container wasw comong into Thailand, that would be a different matter.

Post and courier parcels are examined with more scrutiny these days, following anti-terror efforts.

Actually, I assumed that it was illegal to export budda statues and didn't know that you could apply to export them. If I have to do it again, I'll go the legal route.

The way I look at it - The Department of Fine Arts is promoting (directly or indirectly) handicrafts from the local industries as "reproductions", but sold as antiques, by the many claimed "antique dealers", who will even arrange to get the license for export arranged after selling it, for a small fee. Thus, these "antiques" are approved for leaving the country. Whereas, if a real antique were to be exported out, I am very sure it would not make it out of the country as they are of national heritage.
I cannot image the amount of licenses applied for and approved for such antiques or would I say reproductions leaving the country each year. That IS really amounting to alot of "genuine antiques" sold.

The Department is not at fault when dealers declare reproductions as antiques.

The permit clearly states that the objects are not antiques - in Thai though.