Hmong batik display at the ethnographic museum in Hanoi
Before spending the last part of my journey with my family in Ho Chi Minh, I spend an extra day in Hanoi in Vietnam. I also was in Hanoi before heading to Sapa. Spend a full day at the ethnographic museum, Bảo tàng Dân tộc học Việt Nam. The museum is basically like any ethnographic museum in Europe, and when learning later that it was a project financed by the French, it made more that sense. The museum focussed on the non-dominant ethnographic communities. Showing their homes, traditional wear and more. The houses are actually re-build original houses in an outside park around the museum. For me it was a useful introduction to all the different groups living within Vietnam that I also came across in Laos and Thailand and also live in Cambodia.
What I noticed most in the museum was that all photographs, which show people in their amazing wear, were all about 20+ years old. Same in the Women’s Museum, more about that later in this post. So my question was right away, do these communities still wear it, or is this museum showing a blast from a not too far away past?
Rebuild Hmong home in 1999 from 1984 at the ethnographic museum in Hanoi
Inside the Hmong house
Display in the ethnographic museum of Hmong textile makers
I know now that indeed most communities adapted to a more modern, or rather fast fashion way of dress. With trying to keep traditions, the strictness of this often leads to younger generations letting go of it completely. There is no room to evolve, modernise the dress. The same happened here in the Netherland, where after the second world war hardly anyone returned to their traditional wear, only the more religious communities did and partly still do. Usually a traditional wear is lost before it is refound by later generations. With my visit to Kilomet 109 I learned from designer Thảo Vũ that young designers, mostly based in cities, do draw inspiration from & collaborate with communities to create new visions. But this doesn’t translate yet to a new practical wear for themselves yet. Thảo Vũ does make her designs also available for the communities she work with. I met her during the pre-trip of the symposium during which she was wearing great Hmong batik pieces from her own brand. Her design process starts with finding out what the traditional wear is, consist of and where it is lacking in for the current use. For example from the Hmong guides in Sapa I understood that in the past cotton was difficult to dry, but with the weather changing the thick hemp is often too hot to wear. With their many skills in textiles; growing the crops, making the thread, weaving the cloth, dyeing, embroidery, batik, patchwork, tailoring etcetra, you would imagine there are tons of ways to change their clothing fitting to the changes in life. But the biggest change is that they mostly produce products for commercial use. Read more about that in my previous posts. With Kilomet 109 Thảo Vũ uses traditional made textiles, mostly natural dyed and creates with them high quality tailored pieces. The silhouettes are a combination of traditional costumes with clever alterations in shape making it classic yet modern. To my happy surprise the sizes are going up to L and the L is how L fits me back home. So got myself a fully handdrawn Hmong batik 3D skirt that I cannot wait to show off!
Store of the brand Kilomet 109 in Hanoi, Vietnam
Batik tools and dyes at Kilomet 109
The campaign image of the 3D Batik skirt by Kilomet 109
Back to the ethnographic museum. Next to the permanent, perhaps a bit dated part of the museum, there is a temporary exhibition ‘Art of Decorative Patterns of the Tai in Nghệ An’ that is open till 17 January 2025.
A collection of 190 textile quilts (nà pha) some nearly a century old. The exhibition, The Art of Decorative Patterns of the Tai in Nghệ An, was organised by the Trúc Lâm Handmade One Member Company. The collection, owned by Trúc Lâm Company, consists of 190 quilts (nà pha), of which 101 quilts (nà pha) was collected in the 1990s from the White Tai (Tày Mường group) in the west of Nghệ An Province. (…) Nà pha is used as a blanket cover, a dowry for the bride as a gift when returning to her husband's house, a robe to keep children warm in the winter and as a decoration for Tết (Lunar New Year). Through sophisticated weaving and embroidery techniques and harmonious colour combinations with natural materials, nà pha represents the aesthetic characteristics of textile products of the Tai in Nghệ An.
Exhibition ‘Art of Decorative Patterns of the Tai in Nghệ An
Goat motif, 1950
Exhibition ‘Art of Decorative Patterns of the Tai in Nghệ An
The exhibition was beyond stunning and I loved every piece. The blankets are very colourful and have something so comforting in their motifs. They are filled with elephants, tigers, nagas, goats, deer & butterflies. Most pieces are dated between 1940 and 1970. I saw similar pieces in a vintage store in Vientiane in Laos, but didn’t know then what they were. Wonder if they are still actively made ~ and used? In the exhibition also videos are shown with weavers explaining the steps needed from silkworm to woven cloth. It seemed the makers are still out there.
Batik display at the ethnographic museum
Hmong skirt next to Batik sarong from Java
The museum has a separate building for objects from Southeast Asia. The first room on ‘diversity and unity’ showed overlap in textile techniques. Batik was represented with 3 pieces from Java, a Hmong skirt and a Yunnan jacket together with photos and Batik tools from Malaysia.
Photograph at the Women's Museum in Hanoi
War poster at the Women's Museum
Photographs of crafts including Batik at the Women's Museum in Hanoi
On my return to Hanoi on 19 November, I had some hours to spend before I could check-in. I went to the Vietnamese Women’s Museum. I thought how cool, when I spotted it before from the car, a museum for women. Well technically it is, but it is also really not great nor cool... The first floor is fully on marriage & childbirth, the second floor on “women’s work”, which basically is household stuff, agriculture and crafts. The craft display is the tiniest I have seen and very surprising considering how cliche the rest of the museum is. Luckily the floors on ‘Women in history’ & ‘Women’s fashion’ are better. The history is only covering the wartimes, but it gives an insight in the roles women played. It is interesting to read the stories of these mostly very young resistance fighters and how many spend years and years in prison and died young. Of course this is from one perspective of this history.
Display of traditional wear, with Hmong Hao left and in the center
Detail of printed imitation batik and embroidery on Hmong Hao dress from 2000's
Detail of batik, embroidery and appliqué on Hmong Hao dress from 1950's
The floor on fashion had some great outfits. The information was not much, but seeing traditional wear from 2000’s, next to that of the 1950’s gave some insights on how it changed and is disappearing. On the platform are the newer pieces with in glass display cases older ones. The Hmong dress from the Hao and Den was shown left and right in glass display cases, with in the middle on the platform the most modern one from the Hmong Hao from Lào Cai. The 'modern one' made from machine cotton, still hand embroidered but with machine-printed imitation batik, is what is still being worn now during special occasions. One the left the older version, is a day and night difference in skill, class and beauty. The Hmong Den one on the right is so striking in colour, an ochre brown and Indigo blue on black. The colours come back in the batik, embroidery & appliqué. So stylish, just stunning!
Hmong Den dress from 1950's
Detail of batik and appliqué
Although my visit to Hanoi and Sapa were very short, it was great to learn more on Batik & all the other wonderful textile traditions. Looking forward to continue my conversation with Thảo Vũ, it is always great to meet likeminded creatives and her work with the artisans of different communities is very inspiring. Thanks dear readers for following this journey to Batik! To be continued!
Although I might have not seen anything outside of the touristic Luang Prabang in Laos, I really enjoyed my two visits here. I will not describe everything I saw and done, will focus on the textile-part of my journey, which is as expected the largest part. Went to Luang Prabang first with the ATTS 9 Pre-Symposium Study Trip, and after the symposium with my friends Klaus Rink & Tony Sugiarta (of aNERDgallery).
Our Pre-tour started in Vientiane in Laos on 31 October. After a short flight from Bangkok, I landed in the afternoon where we first checked in the massive Landmark hotel. The hotel that was also the venue for the symposiums of ATTS 9 & 8th IASSRT. After check-in & a quick change we headed to the Lao Handicraft Festival.
The Lao Handicraft Festival is a yearly event in Vientiane where all craftspeople gather to show, demonstrate & sell their goods. Of course, or apparently, half of it is textiles. Most is woven, made out of silk, but some cotton too. Some Hmong batik pieces here and there. Most craftspeople & resellers are from Laos, but there were also sellers of Pineapple fibre from the Philippines.
The Hmong Batik I had to have
At the first booth I saw of Véo I spotted a 6 meter long handdrawn batik dyed in Indigo & embroidered with yellow silk. I didn’t buy it at first, what to do with so many meters, but it was stuck in my mind. I asked my friend Klaus to get it for me the last day of the festival & lucky me it was still there.
The Katu weaver showing me how to wear her scarf
The next thing caught my eye were these Katu weavers. One proudly explained in English the work was all done by themselves. It is a weaving with a loom that is put on tension with the feet. Next to motifs in cotton, they weave in little white beads. The one speaking English made abstract patterns. The other one animals like elephants. I bought a natural dyed scarf with in little white beads butterflies. Kindly they showed me how to wear it, and maker posed wearing it.
Bats & other animal by the ethnic group Akha Nuqui
Asked if I could take a picture
Next booth was one filled with stuffed animals, in colourful fabrics embroidered with details. Holding a bat, another bat was given to me by this woman dressed sooo absolutly stunning. A Akha Nuqui woman who makes them. They sold traditional pieces too. Later I spotted their animals in every shop!
Dance during Lao Handicraft fair depicting Silk Weaving
Naga designs Fashionshow
After the shopping, we got to see a fashionshow. It opened with a dance displaying silk weaving. The fashionshow was great & everyone was dressed beautiful in the audience too. After traditional modernized wear, ambassadors & their familymembers showed ‘naga’ inspired silk fashion.
UNESCO has inscribed Lao traditional Naga motif weaving as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in February 2024. Women across Laos weave Naga designs onto their traditional skirts for protection and strength. The snake-like mythical beings Naga in Lao folklore are generally benevolent and believed to protect humans from illness, hunger, and spirits, but when angered, they unleash floods, storms, and disasters.
Linda McIntosh showing us a 'ladder cloth'
Elephants in the middle
Old Hmong Baby carrier / or cover
The next day we left for Luang Prabang. Got to see so many amazing textiles, meet craftswomen, hang out with fellow symposium go-ers, have boat rides and try local Lao food.
Arriving in Luang Prabang we took a boatride to visit Linda McIntosh, Lao textile researcher & organizer of the symposium ATTS 9 symposium. She prepared for us a selection of her collected pieces. Especially the ‘ladders to heaven’ long woven cloth struck something with me. These ‘ladders’ are either hung outside on the house or wrapped around the poles of the bed. They function as a divide between our world & the spirit world. On it are all kinds of animals, mystical and actual, to guide the dead to the next world.
Second day we visited many places. First Uxo Lao, a museum on the many bombs that were dropped in Laos. Such a sad sad history that still causes many issues till this day. In the giftshop little objects are sold made of the bomb material that has been neutralized. Bought a little buffalo/karbouw. I think such a simple, effective thing, turning something ugly into something beautiful.
Weaving at the Uxo Loa Museum
Veo welcoming us at Ban Sang Khong during the Pre-trip
Weaver at work at the Mae On Living Museum
Next stop was Ban Sang Khong, a village where mulberry paper is made & silk weaving. Set up for us was a little fair with demonstrations of the different crafts including the making of the flower offerings. I got to sit with the two making. Anna was placing dried flowers onto a base made from the stam of a banana plant. With banana leaves the edges are decorated.
Across the street is the Mae On Living Museum. Natural dye, silk spinning & weaving is demonstrated. There is a small museum and a shop full of gorgeous textiles. Across the street again, we had lunch at the newly created Tea House.
Weaver at work at Simone Handicraft
Looms at Patta textile gallery
Returned here on Sunday 10 November after the symposium. Run into Linda & owner Veo. We had a lunch together and shared our shared symposium experience & stories from the life of a researcher. It is really wonderful to get to know Linda and her textile colleagues a little better.
After the lunch, that was 10 out of 10 again (fresh vegetables, especially the pumpkin & winged beans), we walk through the streets. Veo explained the weaving place of her mother Mae On, the other weavers & mulberry paper making were already in the street. It grew naturally in what it is now, with stores along the street. Very nice to re-visit and see the other stores. It was pretty quiet on Sunday and not everywhere makers were at work, which I found comforting actually.
I will dedicate another post to my stay in Vientiane & the symposium. So let me continue on my second stay in Luang Prabang.
On 7 November we took a train to Luang Prabang. In two hours, through an amazing landscape & many tunnels, we arrived. The trainstations are a bit outside of the cities, but still more convenient than taking a plane.
We walked around the historic city center. In between two rivers, this little part of Luang Prabang is a mixture of tourist village and tempels. The houses that are turned into guesthouses, fancy stores, bars & restaurants look like how New Orleans looks in tv-shows, with wooden balconies and shutters. Many of the organisations that work with textile craftspeople have a store here: Ock Pop tok, TAEC, She Works & Passa Paa. Of course we visited all.
As you can imagine the tourist market in Luang Prabang is big. To my surprise by far most stores sell handmade, quality products and in most cases even refer to the actual makers, by name or as community. Inspiring to see and something I will take with me in my further work with batikmakers on Java.
Label at She Works
Label at Ock Pop Tok
On Friday 8 November, I booked my first Hmong Batikworkshop in the afternoon at Ock Pop Tok.
We had dinner here during the pre-trip and the view at the location is already amazing. Their work with craftspeople and sharing of crafts is really inspiring.
Ock Pop Tok (meaning “East Meets West” in Lao) was founded in 2000 by Englishwoman Joanna (Jo) Smith and Laotian Veomanee (Veo) Douangdala, Ock Pop Tok is an artisan social enterprise based in Luang Prabang, Laos. Over the years they have grown from a small shop selling only a few designs, to becoming one of the most important textile and artisanal institutions in all of Laos and South East Asia. Ock Pop Tok is now a team of over 90 employees.
Our teacher was Hmong Batik Master Mai Lao as she was introduced by the translator Ni. Both are working shortly at Ock Pop Tok. Mai is the daughter-in-law of Mae Thao Zuzong, the recently pensioned Hmong Batik Master active there.
Both are part of the Hmong Der, or White Hmong. Traditionally mothers learn their daughters to make embroidery. Batik is not part of this, but often learned later, or from the Mong Njau or Green Hmong.
The batik by the Hmong is actually called ‘Paj Ntaub nraj ciab’. Paj stands for flower & Ntaub for fabric/cloth. Also the embroidered cloths are called Paj Ntaub. Nraj means to draw and Ciab means wax. Ciab cab means beewax. The name Batik is now used everywhere, but it is a pity really since the Hmong have their own name for this technique, their tradition, textile, motifs and tools.
The tool, the waxpen, is an interesting and new experience. The way it is hold/used really makes it useful for drawing lines & geometric forms. The pen is hold towards you and you pull it with a stretched arm. The three little copper plates in a triangle shape are pushed pretty hard onto the fabric. The fabric being woven hemp, which is pretty rough in texture. The wax itself is very dark of colour, laying mostly on top of the fabric. It doesn’t go through as on cotton. The design is only drawn on one side. The wax was heated on coals in a very small pan. It was moved of and on the heat source to keep the wax the right temperature. When the pen is dipped in, it can draw about 30 cm before running out.
The ease Mai had with the tool, didn’t come natural for me. Finally knowing how to correctly hold the canting, Javanese waxpen, this felt for me if I was holding it upside down & back worths, and my brain couldn’t get it the first few times.
Master Mai made outlines and little starter lines. Getting straight lines is never a skill I had and felt a little bad for making such crooked lines. Because the wax doesn’t seep into the cloth like with cotton, mistakes can actually be removed, up to a point. By pressing hard with the back of the waxpen to the cloth and getting the wax to attache to the pen, it can be taken off. Master Mai removed some of my lines and make me do them again.
After all the lines were made, we made little squares within the double lines. In these little squares we made two motifs. The oblique lines to create the pompkin seeds. In the other we put three lines, two big & one small, to make cucumber seeds. Looks in two rows a bit like Kawung which might be based on the fruit of a Sugar Palm, so a nice overlap.
After the seeds we got to fill in the middle. We got to choose from an example with Betel leaves, a butterfly or Temple roof. Went with the butterfly. Master Mai “draw” the design by pushing a kind of blunt knife into the cloth to create a grid. The first corner she draw. To draw this part, the waxpen is hold as a pencil. First you think, ohh more easy, but to draw an unfamiliar design with a new tool was really hard. My spirals were not spiraling, but I was after 3,5 hour. Tried my best, but with the tiny spirals I broke down. Just couldn’t get it done. Master Mai helped me out.
At the end we got to dip our piece in Indigo. Normally it needs several dips to became dark, so we only have a light blue. Master Mai was not too happy, I figure the really dark blue makes in Hmong. But the light blue still shows the patterns in white nicely and it is more convenient to bring it a long on my journey.
Re-dipping the cloth to make sure the Indigo seeped into the hemp
Look at that view!
Master Mai showing the finished Batik
I asked, can you pose with it, it is more your work then mine
Next day on Saturday 9 November, Tony & I went for another Hmong Batik Workshop at Moon Love Batik. Moon Love Batik had a booth during the symposium and I tried to chat with Batik teacher & maker Mee Cha a little bit.
Mee has been teaching Batik for about a year and only recently learned how to make Hmong Batik herself. We would not have know this if she didn’t tell us. As Mai at Ock Pop Tok, Mee is also White Hmong and did learn embroidery from her mother. She started learning to make batik to help with the Moon Love Batik place. It opened two years ago and is run by two brother. One of the brother was running the booth in Vientiane, the other we met in Luang Prabang. He first did the explanation, but gave Mee more room after a while. We asked a lot of questions, about the traditional name, the motifs, the location & Mee's own work. I joked with all our question, it is a workshop for us and an interview for you.
Mee learned in 6 months from a Master. She showed me a cloth by her teacher still in wax. It had very fine lines, I for sure, have not been able to draw.
Mee makes traditional designs mostly, but makes also free work. She was recently commissioned by Linda McIntosh to make a work about the bombings occurring in Lao FDR during the Indochina war and
their destruction. After the wars end, populace returned to agriculture, their main occupation, but they are not safe carrying out this activity since UXOs continue to maim and kill until today.
The first cloth was made after photographs of planes dropping bombs. Mee actually interviewed older generation, widows who lost their husbands in UXO accidents.
Hmong story cloths are often referred to as a form of Paj Ntaub but are aesthetically unique in the Hmong tradition in that they strongly feature elements of figurative representation and fragments of text (often in English) as well as more traditional geometric motifs and abstract symbolism. These distinct and creative embroideries are designed to present a legible narrative and the earliest examples tended to focus on refugee life, military occupation, and forced migration from Laos. Other examples depict popular Hmong folktales, creation stories, and historical accounts of traditional Hmong life and culture.
~ from Wikipedia
Since then Mee also created another piece about the Hmong and their history Watch the making of here.
I think the tradition of the Hmong to make Story Cloths is so fascinating and it is wonderful to see a new generation following in this tradition and bringing it into the Artworld.
At Moon Love Batik the waxpen tool is a little bigger,
specifically commissioned for the workshops &
the wax is heated in an electric stove
Mee had a Javanese canting in between her own waxpens and asked us how it work.
I showed her and she sit next to us trying it out
The cloth was dipped 5 times in Indigo to create a very dark blue.
It is all done by the boss after the workshops and the wax is removed.
I picked it up in the afternoon
Hmong skirts at TAEC
In the afternoon after our workshop we visited TAEC.
The Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre (TAEC) ids a learning centre located Luang Prabang. Started in 2006 as a museum, and fair-trade handicraft shops directly linked with artisan communities. TAEC’s work includes community research, advocacy for artisan IP rights, and heritage training.
TAEC has next to their permanent exhibition, a great temporary exhibition ‘Claiming Inspiration’.
In September I joined a zoom hosted by ThreadsWritten in which Monica Boța-Moisin of Cultural Intellectual Property Rights Initiative® (CIPRI) who co-created this exhibition shared a little more on it. The base, or the reason for this exhibition were the designs of the Oma ethnic group of Laos that had been misappropriated by a fashion brand, a practice becoming common worldwide. Monica who with her organisation fights this battle for multiple ethnic groups already worked with TAEC to protect Oma for the the future. With the database they creating, they hope to make a format that can work for other groups to insure fashion brands can no longer steal and simple claim inspiration.
The goal of better protections for traditional cultural expressions is not to close off traditional designs from contemporary influence or to mandate that inspiration can only be sought within one's own culture. It is to ensure that the cultural foundation of traditional expressions can thrive, contributing to creativity for generations to come.
However, international law has so far been ambiguous about rights to creative knowledge and work that is traditional and shared by a community and culture in the developing world. It is not uncommon for designers and brands to harvest motifs, materials, and ideas freely from people that lack the resources to have their custodianship recognised. Because of this, the Cultural Intellectual Property Rights Initiative® (CIPRI) coined the
3 Cs' Rule to guide any use of traditional knowledge:
* CONSENT of the craftsperson or community
* CREDIT given to the source of inspiration
* COMPENSATION for use of the traditional cultural expressions
In the exhibition the claimed inspiration source, aka the traditional dress is shown together with the fashion brand product printed in a glossy magazine format. A clever and effecting way to show how silly these brands are with think these communities will either not know or notice their heritage is being used. This exhibition should be traveling as a pop-up in fashionmuseums! Especially in Europe to show this is not okay and brands, let's say people should really do better.
On Sunday after our stroll around Ban Sang Khong, we went to The Weaving Sisters. The sisters had a booth and demonstration during the symposium in Vientiane. They are part of the Katu weavers community and make scarfs, bigger cloths, clothing and accessories with their weaving skills. In their little hidden shop and workshop space, we found their niece (or cousin) Dommai weaving a bigger piece without beads but with intricate small patterns. She explained that the sisters were not back yet, but invited us to ask her anything, while she continued with her weaving.
In the space was an amazing piece with multicoloured beads in the middle and small animals along the edges woven in; a pair of duck, elephants with babies, tigers, frogs and much more. I later got through Instagram from the one of the sisters the message that this was made by their aunt and was very dear to them. I totally understand it is a beautiful made piece and feels powerful for sure.
Dommai weaving at The Weaving Sisters
At The Weaving Sisters,
made by their aunt
On my last morning in Luang Prabang on Tuesday 12 November I did some last minute souvenir shopping. On Saturday after visiting the National Museum the exit leads to a street with little stalls, exit through the giftshop. In between the elephant pants, machine woven sarongs and dried fruit was a woman actually embroidering. In front of her pouches and bags with the colourful Hmong flower cloth images. These products are actually her (and probably more women like her) handwork and you see them in every other store. She showed me she was now making the embroidery for the aprons, that she does not sell herself. I asked if I could photograph her with her work. Couldn't choose so bought several, might keep all, might gift some. She was making little fish too and let me pick one.
Handmade souvenirs in Luang Prabang
Headed extra early to the airport, because I needed to check out the Hmong Story cloths there. I saw them during our return fro the Pre-Trip. The stores at the airport are filled with actually handmade things, next to not so much handmade things. But the seller explained the profit does go to the actual makers. The story cloth I really wanted turned out to be a full size blanket. She kindly unfolded the smaller pieces for me. The smaller one show more happy stories as you will of the village lives and with actually stories with English texts. I choose one that showed three ethnic groups living in Laos. I think I still have to return one day to Luang Prabang to get me the bigger piece.
Hmong Story Cloths at the airport
*book-title I bought in Bangkok at River Books but haven’t had time to read yet
