Tribal People with Crafts Skills, Issue 3

Despite the fact that six tribal people share many common features (they are all minorities, all farmers, all live in villages), they have developed cultures unlike each other, and become distinct ethnic groups. Each tribal group has its own distinctive crafts, most obviously observed in their clothing. The traditional clothes of the Karen women are decorated with examples of the embroidery and tie-dyed woven skills of Karen women.

Mrs. Marasri Wanachoke, 65, learned the methods of traditional tie-dye weaving, embroidery and natural dye skills from her mother when she was young. She loved these skills since she was young and she had the intention to use her skills to support her family and her neighbors. She married to a young man from her own tribe in 1958, but her husband died in 1968 leaving with her three sons. She raised her sons with difficulty through her limited earning from sales of handicrafts to Thai Tribal Crafts and local outlets. She became a full time weaver in 1969.

Village women, including Marasri, with minimal formal education have learned to upgrade their traditional skills to make quality products for Thai Tribal Crafts for its international markets. In 1970 Marasri opened a small craft shop at Ban Pong, in Mae Sariang district of Mae Hong Son, about 280 kilometers west of Chiang Mai. In the following year, working with women of the local church and seeking the advise of a missionary working amongst the Karen, she founded a weavers group for the Mae Sariang area using her shop in Ban Pong as the center for the group.

In 1973, on the official opening of its shop in Chiang Mai city, Thai Tribal Crafts accepted the Ban Pong producer group as one of its producer groups and provides orders for the producers. Currently, the orders from Thai Tribal Crafts provide part time employment to over 300 Karen weavers in Ban Pong and surrounding villages.

For more information about Ban Pong Karen Handicraft : http://www.ttcrafts.co.th/MSR/index.html