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Laos Essential Artistry Archive Page
Saturday, February 28, 2009
In the post below we provide descriptions of what's happening in a typical storycloth that someone may buy, from us, or in Lao, or wherever. But the important thing to understand is that what's depicted is based on real life and we will occasionally create a post that features one of the storycloth activities on a storycloth and a corresponding photo we've taken of a similar activity taken in Laos. Most of the time the photos will have been taken in a Hmong village, but it's important to note that many of the activities depicted portray the lives lived by most rural Lao.
Below is a photograph taken in a remote Hmong village in Luang Prabang Province of villagers grinding a mixture of corn and soybeans. The storycloth representation is below the photo.  
by: Laos Essential Artistry 0 Comments 
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
 We recently sold the above storycloth and the person who bought it asked if we could describe what was being depicted in the storycloth so we decided to define areas and activities within the cloth we thought needed explanation, numbered them and will provide an explanation of what's happening within each numbered area. As of February 27 we've defined 22 of the 26 areas. You can enlarge the photo of the storycloth above by clicking twice on the photo so it will be easier to see the detail in the defined areas. Area 1: Here a Hmong woman is picking corn against a backdrop of mountains. Corn is an important crop for the Hmong, and in fact for all Lao, and they use corn both for eating (always steamed) and after grinding to feed their pigs (see Area 10). The backdrop of the mountains is important because when the Hmong migrated south from China beginning in the 1700’s they settled in the mountains and have been classified by the Lao government as Lao Soung, the Lao of the mountaintops (along with the Mien and several other ethnic groups). Area 2: Collecting wood. Here a Hmong man is collecting wood, though often it is children and especially teenage girls who are given the responsibility to go out and collect wood. Sometimes it means collecting dead wood on the ground, while often it means chopping down small trees or splitting small logs. Wood is collected during the dry season, from about January through early May, or whenever the rainy season begins. Even where there is electricity, almost all cooking is done over wood fires. Areas 3, 5 & 16: For the Hmong their mountain rice fields and gardens are often one to three hours journey by foot and so they spend a lot of time on trails and will carry back harvested vegetables, rice panicles, etc. in bamboo packs on their backs and sometimes on horses. In Area 5 the Hmong are obviously traveling to their gardens and mountain rice fields and in Area 3 and Area 16 they are coming back to their villages with their baskets/packs full. Area 4: Planting rice. The Hmong and most rural Lao living in mountainous areas (80% of Laos is mountainous) plant rice similarly to what one sees on this story cloth. Traditionally the men will have a pole where they poke holes into the ground and the women will drop in a handful of seeds. Sometimes there will be a large group like this, sometimes just a couple by themselves. On some of our storycloths you can see the fallen trees they’ve cut down and after burning the cleared land (cut and burn/swidden agriculture) the bigger trees and stumps are just left in place. Area 6: I don’t think the Lao or Hmong could live without hot peppers. Most rural Hmong and Lao rarely eat meat and hot pepper provides a spiciness to otherwise “bland” rice when it is made into some kind of jeaow (a mortared mixture of hot pepper and salt at its simplest and then often with added ingredients like cilantro, fish sauce, tomatoes, mushrooms, etc ). Hot peppers are grown in these remote gardens and if they plant enough of them then they might be able to sell the extra for a little extra cash. There are lots of different hot pepper varieties grown in Laos, but most are similar to what we know in the states as the Thai hot pepper. Area 7: Chicken or Pigeon House. Chickens are raised most often for use in ceremonies and as a source of meat to be offered to special guests. And occasionally they're butchered for an average family meal. The Hmong also like to raise pigeons, but I'm less sure about how they're used. My wife says we've been served pigeon at someone's home in her village ( she's Lao), though I don't remember... Area 8: Raised wooden storage unit to keep rice or corn dry and safe. Sometimes the legs are made from cluster bomb canisters in regions where the bombing was heavy during the Secret War. Area 9: Hmong houses are built on the ground with dirt flooring. Mien houses are similar, unlike Lao and Lao Theung houses which are built on posts, with enough space underneath the houses for women to weave, or to keep their animals at night. Area 10: Here a Hmong man and woman are grinding corn on a grindstone to make a gruel they can feed the pigs or they will use it to cook for a meal. Most Hmong villages will have at least one grind stone like this and I’ve also seen them grinding soy beans and have some great photos taken in a remote Hmong village in Luang Prabang Province I’ll post on our blog sometime. Area 11 and Area 14 are connected: In Area 14 they are using a rice pounder to separate the rice hulls from the grains of rice. The woman in this storycloth keeps turning over all the rice until all the hulls are separated. They then take the rice and rice hulls that are now mixed together and the woman in Area 11 is sifting the rice so that the hulls fall on the ground and then the rice is left in the tray. They also are able to make the broken rice grains gather toward the front of the tray where they are removed to a bowl and later fed to the chickens as the boy is doing next to the woman. Area 12: Feeding pigs: Here the Hmong woman is probably pouring the mixture they’ve cooked with the tubers they’ve grown in their gardens and dug out of the ground when they’re up to 18 inches long and three or four inches wide plus they add rice hulls. Most Hmong and Lao families have pigs which they will use for sacrificing for ceremonies and parties and to sell when they need money. Area 13: Here the Hmong woman has dug up tubers that she will cut up to be put in a pot where they’ll cook the tubers in the afternoon over a fire and then when it cools they’ll add rice hulls and feed to the pigs. Area 15: Pineapples: Pineapples are raised best in mountainous areas of Laos, and although they can be picked anytime, the main harvest season begins in the rainy season around June. Pineapples grown in Southeast Asia are incredibly delicious and sweet, with none of the sourness Americans are used to with pineapples shipped by air from Hawaii. Area 17: Mother taking care of child in field dwelling. Because rice farms and gardens are often far away from villages the Hmong will build small structures that provide shade and where they can rest and eat while taking a break from the demanding work out in the field. Often time older siblings will take care of any babies, but perhaps here they’re out weeding, or helping plant or harvest the rice… Area 18: Here a man and woman are hoeing weeds in a mountain rice farm and/or garden. Once the rainy season begins the weeds grow as fast as the rice plants and the Hmong have to be vigilant in keeping the weeds at bay so the rice can grow tall. A mountain rice field will be weeded usually two times during the growing cycle, sometimes three times. Area 19: Feeding horses. Horses don’t seem to be as common as they used to, when roads were non-existent or mud tracks at best and the easiest way to transport goods was by horseback. Here the horses are being fed stems from rice that has already been harvested or some kind of grass. Area 20: Here a man and woman are in their garden picking long green beans that you can see that are grown next to a pole where they can twine around the pole as they grow just like our green bean plants do here in the states. The Hmong and Lao like to pound them in a mortar with fish sauce, hot peppers, garlic, and lime juice and then a variety of other ingredients can be added depending on the season, availability and taste preferences, like small tomatoes or carrots. And if they let the beans stay on the plant they’ll turn yellow and then they will take the seeds and steam them (like rice is steamed) and eat them. They are considered very delicious, sort of like eating peanuts. Area 21: In Area 21 the rice is being harvested with a sickle (everything is done by hand) and then is laid out in small groups in the field during the day and then gathered at the end of the day and piled together as seen in Area 25. After all the rice is harvested the rice is then thrashed in a wide variety of ways, sometimes the panicles are hit against board set up in the rice field where the grains come off the panicles and gather in a pile on the ground (probably some kind of burlap-type fabric they make by weaving bamboo strips together is laid down first). The rice grains are then put in a basket and when there is a moderate breeze the men will climb a ladder and pour out the rice and the empty hulls will float away and the solid grains of rice encased in the hull will fall straight to the ground. These are then gathered to be hulled as seen in Area 14 using the rice pounder. Area 22: In this area the woman is picking egg plant. There are many kinds of egg plants that are grown in Laos. They have purple and green eggplants, some long and narrow like cucumbers and some that look like our traditional eggplants as seen in this storycloth. Actually most eggplants grown in Laos are the size of small and medium-sized tomatoes. They can be eaten raw or cooked. They are really good when they are made into a jaeow as explained in Area 6 with hot peppers. Area 23: Cooking over a fire. For the Hmong and most Lao, cooking is always done over a wood fire. Sometimes they’ll use charcol that’s made by villagers, and if they had electricity and the money to buy a small stove, they could cook on a stove, but most Hmong and Lao will tell you that food tastes very different when cooked on a stove and they prefer food cooked on a fire. Area 24: Here they are picking corn and cucumbers. In Laos this is what they call the “farm cucumber.” It’s grown and picked when it’s big and people like this one because it has a lot of flesh and the skin is not too thick. They love to eat it raw and like to dip the slices in salt and it’s also used in the kind of salad where the ingredients are mortared similar to the papaya salad once can get easily in Thai restaurants. Area 26: Here the man is cutting a bunch of bananas. The bananas are grown in people’s gardens and one tree will yield one bunch of bananas and then you cut it down and many small banana trees will sprout from the base of the big banana tree. The Hmong and Lao prize the banana tree just not for it’s fruit, but the leaves are highly valued for cooking and wrapping food and using in ceremonies. by: Laos Essential Artistry 0 Comments
Thursday, February 19, 2009
 We love looking at the designs of these beautifully handwoven silk textiles from Muang Vaen. The weavers here are incredible artists, some of the best in Laos, and the patterns are wonderfully rich in meaning, with nagas magically yeilding their protective powers... by: Laos Essential Artistry 0 Comments
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
 We feature some beautiful silk textiles from the Sam Neua region under the name of Nuaykeo Gallery. And as we explain in the Nuaykeo Textile section, the name Nuaykeo has special meaning to the Lao. In fact, on May 17, 2008, Huaphan province in the northeast of Laos hosted an official celebration, attended even by the President of Lao P.D.R. for the dedication of the city pillar in Xamneua district. The city pillar represents Nuaykeo, because at the top of the pillar is a multi-colored crystal ball and this crystal ball is a symbol of the popular folk song, Xamneua Pennuaykeo , which describes Xamneua as being rich in natural beauty and comparing it to a glittering ball, like the one sitting a top the city pillar. The song goes on to tell how the people of the province enjoy strong friendships among all ethnic groups, and how in their various colorful costumes they resemble a jeweled ball. A VCD was produced of the ceremony on May 17 and we purchased it when we were in Laos in December. The cover of the VCD case and VCD are reproduced above. We will include a couple of clips here in our blog because we think it will help people get a better feeling for Sam Neua and the special meaning of the Nuaykeo. by: Laos Essential Artistry 0 Comments
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
 We love going to Muang Vaen and I took this photo of these young girls following the ducks down the road. Cute! by: Laos Essential Artistry 0 Comments
Thursday, February 5, 2009
As I wrote in an earlier post, I'm slowly adding new textiles to our website and especially to our new section, Vientiane Fashion Silk Sinhs. And the good news is that we still have twenty more sinhs to add to the ten sinhs we've already added!
So far, Bai's favorite is Silk Sinh and Matching Silk Scarf 4. In fact, if she had her way she would be wearing this sinh now! This is the silk sinh below.  My favorite in this section so far is Silk Sinh and Matching Silk Scarf 10. I really like the classic patterning on the scarf and tdin sin. You can see a photo of Sinh 10 below. . 
by: Laos Essential Artistry 0 Comments
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