WOVEN IN TIME
Continuing our Female Leadership series, Life talks to Arob Rueangsung who rediscovers and preserves the traditional patterns of Na Muen Si woven cloth in Trang province
Arob Rueangsung, 59, always has a smile on her face when she welcomes visitors to Na Muen Si village in Trang. Two decades ago, Arob led a group of housewives in this southern province to search for the origins of long-forgotten woven cloth patterns, and soon a revival in the cloth took off.
Ban Na Muen Si is now regarded as a role model for cultural preservation. The villagers managed to bring back the community’s identity through more than 30 unique Na Mien Si patterns. The work also united the villagers and made them proud of their local wisdom.
“I am very glad that visitors came from afar to see and experience our handwoven cloth. It shows that our work is second to none,” said Arob, president of Na Muen Si Woven Cloth Community Enterprise.
Na Muen Si village is located in tambon Na Yong of Muang district, about a 25-minute drive from Trang airport. A quiet and laid-back community, the majority of villagers are rubber farmers.
But the life of the locals has been related to cloth weaving for more than two centuries, Arob said. In the past, every family had a wooden loom stationed on the ground under the raised floor of the house, for women to weave cotton cloth for themselves and their family members. They also wove cloth as gifts to offer to monks, friends and relatives.
“It is our tradition that we must weave three types of clothes to use during three important ceremonies in our lives. First is pha tang, which is used by a groom for his wedding ceremony. Next is pha phad, which is used for man in his monkhood ceremony. The last one is pha phan chang, which is used for our husbands’ funeral,” she said.
But the custom of cloth weaving came to an abrupt end during World War II. When the war was over, cotton yarns were in short supply. Moreover, manufactured clothes and fabrics allowed people to have more, less expensive choices. The handwoven textiles of Na Muen Si sank into oblivion. The wooden looms were abandoned or put away in a corner of the house.
In 1971, a handful of female elders wanted to give a new lease on life to their ailing art. Nang Chuayrod, 78, managed to persuade her three friends, Phom Khunthong, In Choeichuenjitr and Choem Chubua, to repair and reassemble wooden looms. They searched for broken parts of looms scattered in many houses and resurrected just one loom. It was put under Nang’s house.
The clickety-clack of the wooden loom, which had faded away for almost 30 years, returned to the community.
The four weaving matriarchs then passed on their knowledge to the young ones. One of the promising students was the late Kuson Nilla-or, who was Nang’s daughter and also a wife of the kamnan. She absorbed every detail of hand-weaving taught by her mother. It inspired her to form Na Muen Si Weaving Group in 1973. Her aim was to preserve the beloved traditional fabrics for the younger generation.
Regarded as a khru, or the master of Na Muen Si cloth weaving, Kuson gathered about 10 people as its first members. The group later received financial support from the Community Development Department to purchase 10 looms and to send them to a 10-day workshop for weaving and natural yarn dyeing in Ko Yo in Songkhla.
In 1975, the late Princess Vibhavadi Rangsit, private secretary of HM Queen Sirikit, visited the village. She was impressed with the fine quality of Na Muen Si cloth. Knowing the value of traditional textiles, she invited the group to sell their woven cloth at a fair to promote local products in Witthayu Palace in Bangkok. Kuson and three of her friends joined the fair and also had a chance to offer Na Muen Si woven cloth with luk kaeo patterns in red and yellow to the Queen.
Since then the woven fabric of Na Muen Si became widely known. City people and tourists started to visit the village, as well as those who collected traditional textiles. Na Muen Si Weaving Group gradually expanded to 100 members. The weaving centre was built in 1982 to serve high demand of customers. Dozens of new ki kratuk shuttle looms were implemented, replacing traditional looms, for faster production. The group produced countless woven clothes.
“At that time we worked like we were a textile factory. We just produced our fabrics to meet customers’ orders,” said Arob. “But later customers started to ask about our own patterns. They wanted to see our original patterns, something unique. But unfortunately, we did not have the answer to that simple question. I was ashamed,” Arob said.
She decided to take things further — by going back to history. Arob was determined to find and preserve the identity of Na Muen Si woven textiles through the origins of the patterns. In 2003, she formed a team with her six friends and invited Sunthari Sangayut, chief of the Trang office of the National Archives of Thailand at that time, to join them.
They also asked Kuson and the other three weaving masters to be their advisers. The research team received financial support from Thailand Research Fund.
They visited and consulted with elderly females in the village and nearby communities. They believed the elderly still kept old woven fabrics that showed the original designs of the village.
“At first no one wanted us to see their collections. The old textiles were their treasures. We had to visit them several times before we won their trust,” she said.
They saw many unfamiliar patterns of those old cloths that kept appearing in many collections. They interviewed the owners and recorded as many patterns as they could.
The team also visited libraries and museums to find more information. They went to the Institute of Southern Thai Studies of Thaksin University on Ko Yo in Songkhla; the cultural centre of Trang; the Trang office of the National Archives of Thailand and the Arts and Cultural Centre of Prince of Songkla University in Hat Yai.
At the Traditional Woven Fabric Room of the Institute of Southern Thai Studies on Ko Yo, they found 22 woven cloths with descriptions specifying that they originated in Na Muen Si village. Arob and her team were delighted to make a breakthrough, even though they were not allowed to touch nor to take pictures of the cloth.
“We found our treasure. The name of ‘Na Muen Si’ is put on every cloth, but we were not able to do anything. Eight of us looked at the cloth and looked at each other. We were in tears,” said Arob who still feels deep sorrow.
“I felt sorry for our loss and I felt very strongly that our community must have our own museum. I wanted to gather old woven cloths of our village to exhibit them along with our traditional cloth weaving techniques. We want our people to know our own roots and appreciate our heritage.”
After nine month of researching, the team found unique patterns that differed from designs of other communities. They identified 32 weaving patterns as the originals of Na Muen Si. The team also decided to recreate the first three patterns, which were luk kaeo, kaeo ching duang and ratchawat hong.
Several months later they learned through trial and error to use the traditional looms to recreate samples. The elderly guided them to weave each cloth until they managed to weave two pieces for the first three patterns.
The research team celebrated their success by organising a big fair in their village in 2003. They invited all female elders to show their collections and share their knowledge about the traditional patterns of Na Muen Si.
From the event, the villagers were proud of their heritage. Local schools started introducing cloth weaving in their curriculums for boy and girl to learn how to weave cloth with traditional Na Muen Si patterns. Teachers, students and government officers wear local woven clothes as their uniforms once a week. Na Muen Si woven cloth also became a One Tambon One Product (Otop) of Trang.
In 2014, the Na Muen Si Woven Cloth Museum was opened with the financial support of local authorities and the Central Group. The museum exhibits about 100 traditional fabrics donated by the elders of the village and also new woven cloth that show its 32 original patterns.
The Na Muen Si Woven Cloth Community Enterprise also receives support from the Queen Sirikit Department of Sericulture to help improve their products and dyeing techniques. Today the group produces not only woven textiles, but also clothes for men and women, fashion accessories, bags, hats, umbrellas and ties, the latter of which are available in Central Department stores.
Today the cloth-weaving group continually creates new designs. They make 39 patterns in total. They also use 10 traditional looms along with ki kratuk shuttle looms to produce their products.
Once a farmer who didn’t like weaving as a youngster and was also afraid of speaking in public, today Arob is the community weaving group leader who devotes her life to preserving traditional handwoven cloth.
“I am happy that our cultural heritage will live on. I wish that one day we can increase the quality of our products to high-end markets and export them in the future,” she said.
The clickety-clack of the wooden loom, which had faded away for almost 30 years, returned to the community