Tai Lue traditions in Chiang Rai
Sri Don Chai village in Chiang Rai has learned to celebrate its heritage
The two-storey wooden house of Suriya Wongchai is not like the other houses in the neighbourhood of Ban Sri Don Chai in Chiang Rai’s Chiang Khong district. Each tier of his four-tier roof is decorated with sculptures of hong
(mythical swans), while a wooden carved peafowl is displayed on each gable.
“I spent 5 million baht to renovate my house to be like a traditional Tai Lue home in Xishuangbanna in China,” said Suriya. He wanted to make his house a learning centre for Tai Lue culture. Three years ago, he opened his house to the public as the Lue Lai Kham Museum. “Lue” is the name of the ethnic group, while “lai” refers to the local woven cloth and “kham” is short from thongkham or gold, which is a reference to the value of the woven cloth.
Suriya is a descendant of the Tai Lue. His ancestors migrated from a town called U Nuea in Xishuangbanna in China’s southwestern Yunnan province in 1885 to Thailand and Laos. Later, about eight families crossed the Mekong River from Laos to Ban Sri Don Chai in 1949 in search of fertile land.
Tai Lue villages are located on the banks of the Ing River. They live a simple life as farmers growing rice and vegetables and raising farm animals like chickens, pigs and oxen for their own consumption.
Tai Lue women are skilled weavers, a tradition passed on from mother to daughter. Before she can marry, a woman must have learned how to weave because she has to make cloth for her family. Tai Lue women in Ban Sri Don Chai like to use vivid colours to create geometric patterns for their phasin (traditional wrap-around skirts) — strong reds and greens next to yellows, blues and pinks.
“We love to wear eye-catching phasin.
They should be easy to spot by people from afar,” said Saowalak Wongchai, Suriya’s aunt. As our museum guide, Saowalak wore traditional Tai Lue costume. Her top was a long-sleeved collarless indigo cotton shirt. Called suea pat, the garment is worn by wrapping the right front side over the left and fastening a bow on the left. The placket is decorated with red or pink strips of cotton and silver ornaments. She wore this with an indigo tube skirt featuring bright colourful patterns.
“This pattern is called lai nam lai
(water currents). We create patterns based on things we see in our daily life such as flowers, trees, animals or even helicopters,” she said. The most popular is the free-style design which looks like geometric patterns.
Suriya is passionate about Tai Lue textiles. He started collecting old cloth almost two decades ago, starting with old fabrics from his family. He spent his savings on buying textiles from relatives and friends. He even asked his aunt for her wedding dress.
“When Suriya told me of his plan to establish a museum, I warned him that it would be a waste of his time and money. I told him that nobody would come to Ban Sri Don Chai because it is in such a remote area,” said Saowalak.
But Suriya wasn’t creating the museum for the benefit of visitors. Instead, he wanted the villagers to be proud of their roots.
“In the past, we did not want other people to know that we were Tai Lue. But now that we have the museum, we admire our traditional wisdom. We are proud not only to say that we are Tai Lue, but also to wear our traditional costumes,” Saowalak explained.
Suriya has collected more than 1,000 pieces of Tai Lue cloth and dresses. He has been to Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and China to buy Tai Lue textiles. About a hundred pieces of old textiles and costumes are on display at the Lue Lai Kham Museum. Visitors to the museum can also learn about the history of the Tai Lue and marvel at artefacts representing their cultural heritage, such as silverware and Buddhist images. It also houses a model Tai Lue bedroom.
“Tai Lue people lived in extended families. Our raised-floor houses did not have any partitions. One bedroom was shared among all family members,” Saowalak told us. They used black mosquito nets for privacy. There was one net for the parents and another for the grandparents and children. If a son got married, his family would live in the same house.
Lue Lai Kham Museum also has a space for performances or cooking classes which visitors can participate in and sample Tai Lue food.
Not far from the museum stands a weaving centre operated by a group of housewives, called Sri Don Chai Weaving Group. It was founded in 1990 by Waenkaew Piromplad and initially consisted of 12 members. Their aim was to find extra income for their families.
“We traditionally wove cloth for our own use in our free time. Then we thought, why not make it to sell?” Waenkaew told us. Initially, their customers were people who lived in the village and nearby. The business grew quickly. Within a couple of years, the number of members expanded to 214 people. Needing a new weaving centre for its members. Waenkaew, the group leader, asked each member to donate one piece of their cloth to be sold to help raise funds. Fortunately, their vivid woven textiles caught the eye of Khunying Paungroi Diskul Na Ayudhaya of the Mae Fah Luang Foundation, which also has an office in Chiang Rai.
“Khunying Paungroi visited our village to check if we wove the cloth ourselves. When she saw our work, she bought all 214 pieces of fabric. We received 100,000 baht as an initial fund for establishing the centre,” she recalled.
That was almost three decades ago. Today the centre occupies about 1 rai of land. It has a showroom and a pavilion for holding meetings and activities. The group also helps Tai Lue groups in Laos by selling their products. They also export textiles to Xishuangbanna.
The members of the group teach the traditional weaving techniques to the younger generation. They can also arrange workshops for visitors.
“Tourists like our unique brightly-coloured woven cloth. We are proud that we are making our cultural heritage live on,” she said.