Tribal People with Crafts Skills, Issue 4

Lahu is one of the six major tribes with whom Thai Tribal Crafts Fair Trade Co., Ltd (TTCFT) has been working since 1973 when TTCFT was established. Each tribal group has its own distinctive crafts. Lahu women are skilled of weaving with design shown on one side only, embroidy and patchwork which they used their traditional costumes of both man an women as well as shoulder bags.

Mrs. Lume, age 43, with formal education of grade 3, learned the methods of traditional embroidery and patchwork skills from her mother during her age of teenager and she learned the method of weaving with design shown on one side only on a back-strapped loom from her mother-in-law after she married to her husband. Her husband is pastor of the local small Lahu church called Huay Jakhan about 75 kilometers north of Chiang Mai. She became a full time weavers in 1996.

The church cannot pay her husband (pastor) regular salary and the family depend on the income from sale of crafts made by her, which represents about 70% of total family annual income. Currently, she serves as the representative of 30 producers group in her village. She has two children, a son and a duaghter. She could manage to send both of her children to regular school for formal education from her income of handicrafts sale. Her son has just graduated a university degree in Physical Education and her daughter graduated from junior vocational college.

Huay Ja Khant Village