NEWSLETTER Vol. III, Issue No. 1 Spring, 2015 TTS Study Trip to the Weavers of Uttaradit As the Thai Textile Society Newsletter begins its third year of publication, we offer our readers a special edition which includes five articles focusing on the royal and noble textiles of Thailand, Java, Korea and Japan. We hope that you will delight in the elegance and share the TTS Newsletter with all ABOUT US The Thai Textile Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to the study and appreciation of textiles, with particular emphasis on the textiles of Thailand and Southeast Asia. Based in Bangkok, the Thai Textile TTS members and Uttaradit weaver hosts pay respects at the local temple in Ban Fak Tha Society was founded in 2004 when Kathleen Forance tin Uttaradit and Sukhothai are famed for their colorful patterns of supplementary weft, in Thai Johnson, wife of U.S. Ambassador to Thailand Darryl chok, placed at the bottom of the phasin the Thai tube skirt, sometimes using gold and silver threads. These textiles were much prized for wear in the Lanna court, which until 1774 was an Johnson, invited scholars, collectors, and other textile independent kingdom. Uttaradit is a vast area on the bank of the Nan River in a mountainous enthusiasts to establish a society dedicated to the study, region rich in minerals and forests, and according to evidence it was settled before 457 CE. appreciation, and preservation of the textile arts in the Uttaradit as well as Sukhothai were the northern outposts of Ayutthaya, and therefore were often subjected to the warfare between Ayutthaya and the Lanna Kingdom. Khun Chomporn kingdom and the region. An avid weaver and textile Dhanesnittya led our multi-national group of eight TTS adventurers on a weekend study of the collector, Mrs. Johnson envisioned the Society as a forum weaving patterns and dyeing techniques in Uttaradit and Sukhothai in the North of Thailand on for textile lovers to exchange ideas and share information February 6-8, 2015. and resources. Since its inaugural meeting in May, 2004, After a 06:30 flight from the old Don Meuang airport, we arrived in Phitsanulok and headed for a the Society has organized regular lectures, trips, and other good, hearty breakfast in the unique Hip Coffee shop, decorated with “Hip” 50s memorabilia. At programs such as its popular Collector’s Corner series. Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat (the name indicates that this temple holds a relic of the Buddha), The TTS enjoys and appreciates support from the Siam we studied the textile patterns on the statues of King Naresuan and Queen Suriyothai and Society and the James H.W. Thompson Foundation. It has appreciated a beautiful presiding Buddha statue which served as a model for the image at Wat Benchamabhophit (the Marble Temple in Bangkok). also worked closely with the latter on programs such as the August 2005 Jim Thompson textile symposium. We proceeded to a weaving village in Tron district where we observed weaving with as many as Membership in the Thai Textile Society has grown steadily, 200 heddles and a very large batten and elaborately carved heddle pulleys called mu-lae in Thai, used to raise the heddles. In the Tai Yuan weaving village of Lap Lae which produces Uttaradit and our e-mailing list now reaches more than 400 people worldwide. Under the leadership of Acting President Dr. Sathirakorn Pongpanich, the Society continues to host regular educational programs designed to promote appreciation of Asia’s rich textile heritage. DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is distributed free to TTS members and subscribers, and it is accessible free to all website visitors in the hopes of encouraging interest and scholarship in textiles and is the sole property of TTS. Personal opinions expressed in this newsletter are strictly those of the authors and are not necessarily endorsed by the Thai Textile Society. Our Website can be accessed at As many as 200 heddles used in Tron District. http://thaitextilesociety.org TTS members absorbed in the techniques Note special pulleys known as "mullae" HEADER: A typical Uttaradit repeated motif of hongsa mythical birds confronted at a vase of the elixir of life. Naga motif at top. Old Uttaradit textile 1 NEWSLETTER Vol. III, Issue No. 1 Spring, 2015 Fak Tah Village woman weaves new bolt in same pattern she is wearing L Khun Jo's natural dyes, R Lac used for Top silk and Bottom Large batten used to lift threads for tapestry weave dessert textiles, we visited the young designer Khun Jo who bases his bold new Tai Yuan women wear phaa sin tube skirts called sin for short. One or concepts on the ancient traditions of Uttaradit textiles. He runs a two pieces make up the waistband of the phaa sin woven of white special compound where visitors can make advance arrangements to cotton and is referred to as the hua sin or the top of the tube skirt. It is view the processes of spinning, weaving and dyeing, as well as enjoy a sometimes supplemented by a lower section of red or rust cotton. The restaurant and a small museum with a shop. He served us a Thai sweet midsection is in Thai tua sin, meaning the body of the skirt is either named khanom chan, using lac to gain its red color, the same natural plain or decorated with horizontal stripes and would be termed a sin substance that is used for dyeing textiles red. It is the excrement of taa. Sometimes the stripes are made by twisting two different colored certain insects that abound in some trees in the Phitsanulok area. threads together into plied yarns, called pan kai in the Tai Yuan language. For ceremonial occasions supplementary warp (muk) and continuous supplementary weft (khit) form designs in the midsection. The border (tin sin) can be incorporated into the same cloth in the midsection, but it can also be made of another piece of fabric. Often, borders of skirts worn for ceremonies are decorated with discontinuous supplementary weft patterning (tin chok). Their warp threads are red with a narrow strip of yellow at the lower edge. The weaver uses a porcupine quill to adjust threads when creating Although these are commonly woven of cotton and not silk, they are the designs. The obverse or “wrong” side of the fabric faces her treasured for their complexity and beauty. Skirts with borders of silk In the museum above Khun Jo’s restaurant, we studied samples of old and metal-wrapped yarns were reserved for nobility. Uttaradit textiles and some more recent prize-winning pieces. We also visited a very eclectic museum belonging to Archarn Somchai in which Diamond-shaped lanterns with two confronted birds (facing each old local textiles, weaving equipment and old ceramic household items other) often decorate the main band of the tin chok. These are were laid out in a uniquely eccentric style. Archarn Somchai then took interpreted as hong, the sacred goose vehicle of Brahma. Look closely us on to Wat Don Sak where we observed old and deep wood carvings and you will see that they are drinking from a vessel between them installed in the walls and doors of the refurbished temple. containing amrita, the elixir of life (see page header for this issue). This Ancient motif of hongsa confronted at vase of elixir of life, within Acharn Somchai's unique "mullae" collection lantern frame composed of nagas 2 NEWSLETTER Vol. III, Issue No. 1 Spring, 2015 The various stages of preparing the yarn at Ban Fak Tah Natural materials for making dyes motif can be traced back to Fustat in ancient Egypt, also found in from the back and delicately insert porcupine quills to raise and adjust Sassanian Persian designs in roundels of the ancient Sogdians and supplementary threads by hand. The deftness of the senior weavers Persians. This motif most likely travelled the northern Silk Road where and their tender care in passing the skills on to the children was it can be found in Yunnan in China from whence the Tai ethnic groups heartwarming, especially when we watched a nine-year-old boy weave originated. Occasionally another pair of hong birds is seated atop the so well by himself and we admired his beautiful handiwork. The first pair. Other common motifs are flowering vines and naak serpent women hosted lunch prepared by them, and we all ate as one deities. The soi saa (fringe) or hang sapao motifs (referring to the community. bottom of a kind of float in northern Thailand) always drift down the lowest band. Supplementary designs cover all or most of Uttaradit In the afternoon we saw more weaving and the softening of the border surfaces. The midsections from Lap Lae, Nam Ang, and Thaa textiles by soaking them in mud. These were flowing and soft to the Plaa of Uttaradit are generally black and green. Those of other areas touch, subduing the brightest colors a little. The women worked with might traditionally be red, but there is much mixing of styles and great speed and confidence as they dyed threads to brilliant shades, motifs nowadays. gauging the duration of mud soaking correctly as not to spoil the colors. For this process, mud from a nearby pond or marsh is filtered On the second day we travelled to Ban Fak Tha, where gracious village through a white muslin cloth to remove any scraps or dust. Then the women elegantly attired in Uttaradit textiles met and escorted us into threads of silk, which have already been dyed and hung a brief while in the nearby temple where we presented flowers they had fashioned the sun, are placed for only a few moments in the refined mud, stirred from sandalwood and had a short interview with the monk.