A proud heritage
Lamphun’s Tai Lue community welcomes visitors to see them maintain their traditional ways in the face of modern influences
ceremonies such as weddings and while making merit on April 13 to celebrate the water festival and the Tai Lue festival in their village.
Another big event is Loy Krathong (the Full Moon day in November that falls on the 22nd this year). Seven Tai Lue communities in Ban Thi will join hands to organise the Loy Krathong festival. They will dress in their traditional costumes during the Loy Krathong parade and contest, she said. When I visited the village, I did not see anyone wearing their traditional dress. They wear the same clothes as city people, except the elderly who still wear phasin.
Napa recommended I visit a traditional house of Tai Lue. Among a few in her community, there is one house that is open for public visits.
The house is located a little further away from the centre of Tai Lue Weaving Group. It is a big raised-floor house and belongs to Muang-in Saiwangjit.
Muang-in gave me a smile when I asked to see his house. A small signboard that reads Ban Tai Lue in the Thai language is hung above the common area, the shady and relaxing zone under the house. Muang-in uses the ground floor as a reception area where he offers his guests drinking water.
“You are welcome to see the original house of Tai Lue. We have guests from time to time,” he said while guiding me to a staircase leading to the house. When we entered the door to the house, his father was watching TV in the corner.
“The front part of the house is used as a living room,” he said while sliding a set of wooden panels next to the door to let more light in. The house has one big room used as a shared bedroom. He said each family member has their own mattress and mosquito net for sleeping.
He didn’t show me inside the room for his privacy. He pointed out a woven ornament made of bamboo. It is hung above the bedroom doors. It is called chaleo. It is a protective object to ward off evil.
After passing the bedroom, he led me to see the kitchen that has pha yan (a piece of talismanic cloth) on top of the kitchen door. “Pha yan will scare away any ghosts from eating our food,” he said. There is another staircase at this part of the house leading to the ground floor.
The teakwood house is 67 years old and still in a good condition. Muang-in doesn’t charge for any services nor an entrance fee to his house as he said he was happy that I travelled from afar to see it. He said his main source of income, which is like most villagers in the Ban Thi community, is from a longan plantation.
“I want visitors to learn more about our culture. I am proud to help promote our way of living,” he said.
After Muang-in’s house, I stopped by the house of Wasana Saipanya. There was no welcome sign in front of the house. But I saw dozens of khao khaeb (thin rice flour chips made from rice flour mixed with water, sesame and a little salt). The snacks were put out to dry under the Sun on thatch panels at the front yard.
I tried to look for someone and for a short while Wasana went out from her house with freshly cooked khao khaeb. She told me to walk to the backyard if I’d like to see how her family made the northern-style snack.
“My family has made the snack for many generations. We use it for merit-making ceremonies,” she said. There are seven families that produce khao khaeb and another Khao Khaeb Group that has 60 members.
“The snack is the One Tambon One Product of our village,” she said.
Recently, Wasana had an order of 100,000 khao khaeb from a vendor in Chiang Mai. Her family has to finish making them before June. The family can produce 4,000 pieces of the snack per day. One piece is priced at 60 satang.
“We make khao khaeb when we have free time from work in our longan plantation,” she said.
She also let me try freshly cooked khao khaeb. The taste was a little salty. When I mentioned that it would be good with Thai-style omelette, she asked if I wanted that for the lunch she was about to prepare. Before leaving her house, she told me to grab some rice flour sheets to eat along the way.
Before leaving the village, I stopped at the shop of Srinuan Sura for another northern snack called khao taen (sweet rice crackers). The snack is made of glutinous rice mixed with watermelon juice and palm sugar.
Srinuan has made the snack for 35 years. She led me to see the kitchen where her daughter fried the rice crackers in a large pan. The crackers smelled very pleasant after being freshly cooked. I tried two versions — one with natural colour and the other with a mix of pink and green edible coloured rice.
The taste was identical. She explained that vendors asked her to add colours in the crackers to make it appeal to customers.
Her khao taen does not have palm sugar dribbled over it nor is it mixed with sesame. She sells it at 20 baht for a packet of 20 pieces. When I asked to buy five packets, she gave me six for 100 baht and another free package of broken crackers.
She laughed when I told her that that was more than enough while she kept filling up the crackers as the freebie. In fact, she gave the whole crackers in two large bamboo trays to me.
I never thought that the locals in Ban Thi were too keen on welcoming visitors. Every house I stopped by, they welcomed me warm-heartedly as if I was their distant relative. I was impressed with their kindness. I couldn’t ask for more.