Intoxicating Antiques

Due to the eradication of opium smoking in the mid-20th century, antique opium pipes, lamps and the sundry trappings that surrounded the habit in China and Southeast Asia are now quite rare. Only since the early 1990s has more-lax enforcement of laws in China allowed these treasures to be traded as antiques.

Bangkok has become a magnet for antiquities from all over Asia, where the knowledgeable shopper can find anything from genuine Burmese images of the Buddha to Tibetan monastic furniture. Of course, there are also plenty of cleverly forged...