Hmong Story Quilt

The very first tribe that we visited in Thailand was Hmong. It was a long and winding road up a mountain that gave us breathtaking views whenever we went around a curve. Spirit houses lined the edge of the road in several places. They were both beautiful and alarming at the same time as our guide explained that some of them were put in place to placate the spirits of those who had died traversing this road.

The village followed the line of the mountain upward and made it a challenge to walk up and down carrying the baby. The absolute best thing in the world was the small culture museum that was set up in one of the buildings. The 80 year old woman who normally would conduct tours of it was gone to visit relatives in Laos so one of her daughters showed us the main points.

It seemed as though they weren't expecting tourists but as soon as we had been there about 10 minutes women started arriving with huge bags of textiles to show and sell. This story cloth was embroidered by the lady who gave us the museum tour. What had drawn me to buying this particular one is the food theme! I just can't resist that. It also has such wonderful vignettes of traditional life.

Hmong story cloths are an art unto themselves, totally seperate from other Hmong textiles which feature geometric designs rather than pictorial. They are a modern artform, having been inspired by the pictures in textbooks and story books that have come with outside education. They are an incredible blending of tradition and modernization. Story quilts come in an array of themes from food preparation to courting and wedding traditions to life in refugee camps.

The stitches used for story quilts seem very limited at first glance. But there is a surprising variety including back stitch and stem stitch in a dazzling array of colors, bokhara couching is used in the walls of the houses which does a fantastic job of mimicing the bamboo construction of the Hmong houses. People, animals, flowers and tools are all comprised of satic stitch. The ground fabric is a thin cotton, perhaps a cotton blend. Traditional style clothing and adornment are delicately portrayed. Note the black jackets with blue sleeve cuffs which are everywhere in a Hmong village.

The border of triangular applique is commonly used in Hmong textiles, perhaps because it has a protective meaning. Sometimes called 'tiger's teeth' and other times 'mountains', the name does not seem to change the meaning: a protective enclosure to keep danger from intruding.

Lahu Shi Men's Dress

Just as with the women's clothing, the Lahu Shi men's clothing is of black cloth with layers of brightly colored fabric strips appliqued to it along with silver 'button' or bell decorations. There are also differences between the married and unmarried men's clothing. In general the men's clothing consists of a loose jacket with decoration along the hems and a pair of loose pants with decoration from just under the knees to the ankles.

The married man's jacket shows considerably less decoration than that of the bachelor, a much narrower band of applique stripes follows the hem and there is much less silver. Again, there is a distinct lack of decoration along the shoulder seam with the married man's jacket, matching that lack in the married woman's jacket. Another interesting detail to note is the wrist hem as there is only a simple blue band high at the wrist rather than more of the colorful bands at the hem.

A very interesting difference between the men's clothing and that of the women is the addition of small bits of embroidery that do not show up in the women's adornment. Below is a close up view of the married man's jacket showing the line of embroidery running along the inside of the applique bands.

The unmarried man's outfit has considerably more decoration to it, not just in the amount of applique and silver but also in the number of colors used. The bands on the front of the jacket are much larger and more ornate. Silver 'buttons' are used liberally in the ubiquitous triangle design. The shoulder seams are decorated.

The above picture shows the interesting mock-detail of a traditional chinese jacket. The top of the right hand jacket front has a section of applique that is horizontal rather than vertical and mimics the type of adornment usually associated with Chinese garments. However, the Lahu men's jacket opens at the center rather than off to one side as would the chinese-style jacket that the decoration is suggesting.

Below is a picture of a rather flamboyant bachelor playing the naw pipes. The turban that he wears is quite brilliant, but I have absolutely no information about men wearing turbans in the traditional Lahu Shi costume. (Of course that in no way means that it doesn't happen, but that I don't have enough information to truly comment on it at this time.)

These close-up views above and below of bachelor's clothing show more of the embroidery that seems to be reserved for men's clothing. Note the very skillful bands of evenly applied applique!