''Lai rot nam'' ( th, ลายรดน้ำ) or gilded black lacquer is a technique in the traditional Thai decorative arts consisting of the application of black

lacquer Lacquer is a type of hard and usually shiny coating or finish applied to materials such as wood or metal. It is most often made from resin extracted from trees and waxes and has been in use since antiquity. Asian lacquerware, which may be ca ...

with gold

inlay Inlay covers a range of techniques in sculpture and the decorative arts for inserting pieces of contrasting, often colored materials into depressions in a base object to form Ornament (art), ornament or pictures that normally are flush with th ...

to surfaces. It was used in the decoration of wooden furniture, especially cabinets, as well as door and window panels, in palaces and Buddhist temples. The art form developed during the

Ayutthaya period The Ayutthaya Kingdom (; th, อยุธยา, , IAST: or , ) was a Siamese kingdom that existed in Southeast Asia from 1351 to 1767, centered around the city of Ayutthaya, in Siam, or present-day Thailand. The Ayutthaya Kingdom is conside ...

, reaching its zenith during the seventeenth to early eighteenth centuries, and continued during the Thonburi and Rattanakosin periods. The technique consists of applying to the wooden panel several coats of black lacquer, a resin from the

Burmese lacquer tree ''Gluta usitata'', previously known as ''Melanorrhoea usitata'' is an Asian tree species in the family Anacardiaceae. It may be known as Burmese lacquer,

known in Thai as ''rak''. The drawing is then traced, and the parts to remain black are painted over with a yellow-gummy mixture known in Thai as ''namya horadan'' (). The next process is to give a thin coat of lacquer over the surface, and when it is semi-dry,

gold leaf Gold leaf is gold that has been hammered into thin sheets (usually around 0.1 µm thick) by goldbeating and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades. The most commonly used gold is 22-kara ...

is applied over the whole surface. After about twenty hours the work is washed with water to detach the gummy-paint, exposing the lacquer and leaving the remaining gold inlay in the unpainted areas. The application of gold leaf and washing with water give the technique its name, fully ''lai pit thong rot nam'' (, "designs of applied gold leaf washed with water"), but often shortened to just ''lai rot nam'' ("designs washed with water").

References

{{reflist Thai art Lacquerware Gilding