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Laos Essential Artistry Archive Page
Thursday, July 30, 2009
  I was recently reading through one of our many books on Laos, Impact: The Effects of Tourism on Culture and the Environment in Asia and the Pacific Tourism and Heritage Site Management in Luang Prabang, Lao PDR The book was published by UNESCO, Bangkok, 2004. You would think it's fairly technical from the title, but it has a lot of great information about Luang Prabang and Theravada Buddhism I haven't read anywhere else. In the chapter titled Heritage there was a description of what the typical offerings to Buddha symbolize. I often wondered why at tak bat, and here at home, Bai always is buying fruit that she places on her alter on "Buddha days." Now I know why and it makes sense. And the description adds more significance to one of my favorite photos I took on my first trip to Laos in November 1998 of a young girl at Wat Phu wanting us to buy incense and flowers to offer to the Buddha shrine at the sanctuary at the top of the hill. Both photos are seen above. Offerings to Buddha "Offerings to Buddha images are made to remind us of the Buddha’s teachings. It is common to see a variety of offerings in Luang Prabang. These include the following: Candles, which are offered to drive away darkness. They symbolize enlightenment and the light of knowledge which dispels the darkness of ignorance. Incense, which provides a fragrant smell and symbolizes pure moral conduct. It reminds us to conduct ourselves well. Water, which symbolizes purity, clarity and calmness. Fruit, which symbolizes the fruit of enlightenment, which is our goal, and is representative of all actions having a reaction. Flowers, which represent impermanence because their beauty and smell eventually whither and die. Lotus flowers, which represent the potential or actuality of enlightenment as the lotus grows out of mud and rises above the water. Likewise, the Lord Buddha rose above his suffering and defilements to gain enlightenment." We are planning a tour to Laos in June 2010 and understanding the importance of Theravada Buddhism in Laos will be a key component of our tour. We will post more information about the tour on our blog and out tour section on our Laos Essential Artistry Home Page. by: Laos Essential Artistry 0 Comments 
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
 Giving back in meaningful ways is an essential part of our philosophy at Laos Essential Artistry. Over the last seven years we have primarily supported literacy efforts through donating money for book box libraries given to rural schools through the Reading Promotion Program sponsored by the National Library of Laos and most recently by sponsoring book parties through Big Brother Mouse and buying books published by Big Brother Mouse, giving them to students and teachers during our travels in remote Huaphan Province. On our last trip we made the effort to learn more about the work of an important growing organization in Laos, AFESIP Laos [Acting for Women in Distressing Situations] that is dedicated to fighting human trafficking and sexual exploitation of children and women in Lao PDR. Nicholas D. Kristof, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner columnist for The New York Times since 2001 has been writing about the trafficking of children and women for many years and in several of his columns he has written about the Somaly Mom Foundation in Cambodia, and it was Somaly Mam who was the original founder of AFESIP in Cambodia and she recently visited the AFESIP Center in Savanakhet, Laos on July 3. We are impressed with the work AFESIP Laos is doing and want to offer the opportunity for our customers to purchase Dok Champa Silk Flower Pins that are handcrafted by the rehabilitated women who have been vocationally trained and professionally employed by LOPPA (Lao Organic Product Promotion Association) through ASE (AFESIP Social Enterprise). AFESIP Laos combats the causes and consequences of trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and girls. In addition to providing holistic care and recovery for those rescued, AFESIP offers vocational training to support sustainable community reintegration and these beautiful Dok Champa silk flowers pins are just one of many fair trade products they produce. The Dok Champa Silk Flower Pins are available for $5 each or are free with every order over $100 and we will include one free with each purchase of one of our Carol Cassidy Weaves of Cambodia Rainbow Silk Scarves. Please note that he materials used to create the Dok Champa Silk Flower Pins are synthetic, not real silk, but "silk-like." The Dok Champa (Plumeria) is the national flower and official symbol of Lao PDR. The waxy flower with a sweet scent can be found in many colors: red, yellow, pink and multiple pastels. For the Lao people, Dok Champa represents sincerity and joy in life. The flower is often used as a decoration in ceremonies or made into a garland to welcoming guests. The Dok Champa blooms everyday and lasts a long time. The trees are planted throughout the country and in particular, can be seen near the monastic areas. Below are several photos I’ve taken of Dok Champa flowers in Laos over the year. Aren’t they beautiful!?
by: Laos Essential Artistry 0 Comments
Monday, July 27, 2009
A couple of fun photos. When we were in Sam Tai taking an incredible walking tour of the older parts of Sam Tai we walked by this tree and I saw this branch scar on the tree and right away my imagination saw... What do you think? See anything? I think it's pretty powerful.
 The second photo was taken when we were in my wife's village and walking out toward the rice paddies and a woman called Bai over to her house to show her this fungus. Her children had collected several of these large fungi and they all clearly saw this "face" and she said there were others with similar "faces" but her children had broken the fungi when bringing them home. What do you see? 
by: Laos Essential Artistry 0 Comments
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Two days before we returned to the states Khao Pan Sa (the beginning of Buddhist lent or "rain retreat") was celebrated and we went to the wat closest to the Vayakorn Guest House where we stay in Vientiane, Wat Mixay. Below are several photos I took at the wat. The first is of Bai during tak bat. She's wearing a rainbow silk scarf we will be selling on our site woven by Weaves of Cambodia, a project overseen by Carol Cassidy and sold through her gallery. They're gorgeous and will make perfect Christmas gifts and now are currently only sold at the Guggenheim Museum here in the states. The other three photos are of monks that have been transferring all the offerings, including money, given during tak bat to a room in the temple where the money is counted. All the kanom (candy/cookies) and fruit are for the monks who may give some back to the lay people. The money is divided, each temple probably does this differently, setting aside a percentage for the temple and allocating the rest for the monks.
   
by: Laos Essential Artistry 2 Comments
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Ah, exclusive silk scarves from Laos! Really, considering all our textiles are handwoven and not mass produced, they are in a sense, "exclusive," aren't they? We're being a little facetious saying this, but how many people are selling any silk textiles from Muang Vaen on the Internet? As I said in our last post, the women in Muang Vaen are true artists and their handwoven silk textiles are some of the best in all of Laos. But what's really fun is to find something you think is really special, and a year and a half ago when we went to Muang Vaen and purchased an assortment of textiles there was one design in particular we liked. It was a little shorter than the other textiles, a little thinner and softer and we were very impressed with how the design integrated bands of ikat that provided a nice contrast to the naga and bird motifs. We didn't list this textile for sale and kept it thinking we would take it back to Muang Vaen on our next trip and see if we could order a collection of textiles based on the same design. The textile we kept is seen in the photo below.
 When we went to Laos last December we took the textile back and scheduled a two day trip to Sam Neua where we could then drive to Muang Vaen for one day. Since Sam Neua is in a small valley in the mountains, it's often fogged in during the "cool" season of December, January and February and if it's fogged in planes can't land so flights are often canceled and flying to Sam Neua can be a big gamble. And sure enough the day of our flight Sam Neua was fogged in and our flight was canceled, and since the next flight wasn't for four days and we would be flying back to the states it looked like we would miss out on going to Sam Neua. But as we were getting our money paid back one of the pilots decided he wanted to try to fly the next day (maybe there was something he needed to get in Sam Neua?) and so we came back the next morning and as the weather cleared we were able to fly up for a one day, one night whirlwind visit. After arriving in Sam Neua the van and driver we arranged to drive us to Muang Vaen picked us up at the airport, and we went and checked in our guest house, had a quick lunch and the headed off for the two and one half hour drive to Muang Vaen. When we arrived in Muang Vaen we met with the informal "leader" of the weavers' cooperative in Muang Vaen. In weaving villages, probably throughout Laos, there are different arrangements that women use to market their textiles. Sometimes they'll operate individually and market their textiles on their own, or sometimes they'll form formal or informal cooperatives where they'll work together to create marketable designs and sometimes they'll do contract weaving for someone else. In Muang Vaen the women tend to cooperate in marketing and selling their textiles. Since they're off the beaten path not a lot of people come by their village the weavers share the responsibility of traveling to Sam Neua, Luang Prabang or Vientiane (two days trip by bus) to try to sell the textiles they weave. Anyways, we showed our main contact the textile we had purchased a year ago and asked who wove this particular textile and could we place an order for maybe 20 textiles of a similar design. She took us to the home of the weaver you can see in the photo below on the right. I love this photo because it shows three generations of weavers. It's amazing how young girls, starting at six or seven years old will begin to weave small squares with simple designs and gradually weave more and more complex designs like the one the eleven year old girl is wearing which she wove and we purchased! And you can see a photo of the young girl weaving below this photo with her mother weaving at another loom behind her.   The mother is very shy and when we've come to Muang Vaen before and women gather to show us their textiles in one of the houses, she hasn't come but has given her textiles to another woman to bring, and that's how we discovered this textile but hadn't yet met her. We talked to the ladies and worked out an arrangement for them to share the weaving of the silk scarves for our order and that the design would include the same alternating rows of nagas and birds in a variety of colors, of course only using natural dyes. It's always very exciting for us to place an "order" like this, because it's done on a much more informal basis than one might think and since Muang Vaen is so remote with no phone access (cell or otherwise) it's not like we could check up on them. What will we see when we return??? So, it was with great excitement when we arrived in Sam Neua last month that our main contact from Muang Vaen actually met us in Sam Neua to show us the silk scarves and they are gorgeous! The women in Muang Vaen are masters in their use of color, which we think is magical, and since they only use natural dyes, the colors aren't bright or garish, they're perfect. Needless to say we were extremely pleased and we've taken a photo of three of the silk scarves you can see below and some closeups of the naga and bird motifs follow. We will put these on our website probably in a month or so and we'll put a post in our blog when we add them to our site. Something to look forward too!   
by: Laos Essential Artistry 0 Comments
Thursday, July 23, 2009
 Now we're back from Laos and I can more easily post to our blog, where do I begin? Obviously in reading our last post, the best news from Laos is that Bai's dad miraculously survived a serious illness and we are grateful for his recovery every day. But our travels up in Huaphan Province were amazing and we have lots of photos and video to share, and new textiles to add to our website... In this photo you can see Elli surrounded by intricately silk textiles handwoven by the women in Muang Vaen. Elli actually spent the morning interviewing a small group of the women about the motifs they incorporate in their textiles, but the fun part was after the "work" was over they brought out their textiles for Elli to look at and hopefully buy. She bought quite a few and we bought some, though we had already paid for an order of gorgeous silk scarves we had ordered back in December. In a future blog and within a month we'll begin adding them to our website. They are incredible and it amazes me that we haven't sold any of our textiles from Muang Vaen. The fact is they are true works of art and relatively inexpensive considering the craftwomanship and complexity of their weaving, and to be honest, they're a real bargain. We're patient though, and some day we know they'll be "discovered." And what a treasure they'll be for the people who discover them... I would love to bring a small group to Muang Vaen, not only for the opportunity to purchase silk textiles from the women who have woven them, but it's a classic Lao village situated alongside a small river that's very picturesque with great photo opportunities. So stay tuned as I might put together a two-week tour for next summer that would include going to Muang Vaen! by: Laos Essential Artistry 0 Comments
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
   We had been planning to go to Laos last month, in part to guide Elli, the professor, for a third time as she's completing research for a book she's writing on the ritual use of textiles, especially from Huaphan Province. But, in mid-May Bai's family called Bai to tell her that her father was seriously ill in the hospital and they wanted her to come quickly, as they thought he might die. So Bai left two weeks early and through the power of faith, family, Buddhist prayers and some kind of medicine the doctors had sent from Thailand as a last chance, he miraculously survived. And so after we were finished guiding Elli, a Baci Ceremony was held in Bai's parents' village to thank the village spirit who they also credited with providing an "extension" for Bai's father's life. In this post I'm including three photos from the ceremony, with the first one showing Bai's dad (with orange towel over his shoulder) and two that show both Bai and I. The second photo shows us holding the strings that connect all of the family together (can you see the rice grains in the air thrown by friends after the mor phon announces the kwan have come back!?) and the second one shows Bai and I as family and friends are tying the bacci strings on our wrists, as in all bacci ceremonies an integral component includes pook kwan or the tying of kwan, The Lao Heritage Foundation website has a great definition of the the bacci ceremony on their website at http://www.laoheritagefoundation.org/ceremonies/baci and they write: "Briefly the Baci is a ceremony to celebrate a special event, whether a marriage, a homecoming, a welcome, a birth, or one of the annual festivals. A mother is given a baci after she has recovered form a birth, the sick are given bacis to facilitate a cure, officials are honored by bacis, and novice monks are wished luck with a baci before entering the temple. The Baci ceremony can take place any day of the week and all year long, preferably before noon or before sunset. The term more commonly used is su kwan, which means “calling of the soul”. Kwan are components of the soul, but have a more abstract meaning than this. The kwan have been variously described by Westerners as: “vital forces, giving harmony and balance to the body, or part of it”, “the private reality of the body, inherent in the life of men and animals from the moment of their birth,” and simply as “vital breath”. It is an ancient belief in Laos that the human being is a union of 32 organs and that the kwan watch over and protect each one of them. It is of the utmost consequence that as many kwan as possible are kept together in the body at any one time. Since all kwan is often the attributed cause of an illness, the baci ceremony calls the kwan or souls from wherever they may be roaming, back to the body, secures them in place, and thus re-establishes equilibrium. The baci ceremony runs deep in the Lao psyche. In different part of the country the ceremony differs slightly in meaning. In general, it is nonetheless an emphasis of the value of life, of social and family bonds, of forgiveness, renewal and homage to heavenly beings." Another good definition comes from the book Rice in Laos published by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research. " One of the most popular traditional ceremonies involves the ritualistic tying of holy cotton threads to ensure blessings of the spirits on specific persons, activities, or places. It is believed to restore the natural order of things and bring communities closer together. The ceremony originated in the Hindu tradition and began to mix with Buddhist traditions in Laos 500 years ago. It is performed by a mor phon who is usually an elder who has spent some time as a Buddhist monk. The mor phon and invited guests sit around a baci center piece, which is a decorated flower arrangement on a base made of folded banana leaf sections. A long chain of cotton threads is placed in the hands of guests connecting them to each other and to the centerpiece. The mor phon then lights candles on the centerpiece and begins to chant Buddhist scriptures in the Pali language. On conclusion of the chanting, the mor phon and other guests tie cotton threads on guests’ and each other’s wrists. These cotton threads as well as the centerpiece have been prepared by the women of the group in advance of the ceremony. Thre threads used in the baci ceremony are usually white as Lao people believe that white represents friendship and kindness. However other colors can be used, (often times black in Thai Daeng villages in Huaphan Province). While tying on the threads, good wishes are offered to the recipient. The form of these good wishes is very flexible and may b offered in any language." by: Laos Essential Artistry 1 Comments
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
 When we go to Laos I always have the best intention of writing posts from Laos, but there seems so much else to do while we're in Laos, I think I will just wait until I return, and so I did... The photo above is taken from our Lao Airlines plane as it left Vientiane for Bangkok and you can see the Mekong River below, with Laos on the left bank and Thailand on the right. The Don Chan Palace Hotel is the tallest building you can see right there on the banks of the Mekong towering over Vientiane at 14 stories! I've delineated the downtown area where we stay when we're in Vientiane, and where the airport is. I normally have my camera packed away when heading home, but glad I anticipated at least this one last shot of Laos and the mighty Mekong River. Several weeks ago it was half the size and quite low, but recent heavy rains in southern China and in northern Laos have swollen the river to its more "normal" size during the rainy season. We had a great trip, an amazing trip and about twenty days was spent guiding Elli, the professor as she continues to research the ritual use of textiles, both Buddhist and shamanic, and the significance of the motifs used by weavers in the textiles. We spent over ten days in Huaphan Province, traveling to Sam Tai, Muang Vaen and Sop Hao and spending extended time in all these areas. I took a lot of photos and video and will be including these in future posts which I think people should find interesting, and of course we picked up some more textiles to add to our online collection. by: Laos Essential Artistry 0 Comments
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