Newly Found Treasures - Saht Weaving Time

Weaving A Colorful Saht

Throughout Isaan now, women are busy weaving sahts, woven reed mats, that are used for a variety of purposes.  Sahts are given as offerings to Monks.  They are given as gifts when people die, when people move into a new home and when a son is ordained as a Theravada Monk.

Sahts are used in place of furniture - they are placed on floors, the ground, on raised platforms for people to sit upon and to place vessels containing food rather than upon a table.  A saht is placed inside of a coffin prior to placing someone in the coffin.  Many people use a saht as a bed.  Babies and children often nap in a hammock that has a saht first placed in it.

The ubiquitous handicraft of weaving sahts has been the subject of some of my previous blogs.  The following links to three of the blogs provides a fairly good background to the tradition and process of making sahts.

http://hale-worldphotography.blogspot.com/2010/03/saht-weaving-time.html

http://hale-worldphotography.blogspot.com/2010/03/saht-weaving-rest-of-story.html

http://hale-worldphotography.blogspot.com/2013/02/saht-time-of-year-again-saht-weaving.html

This 2014 (2557) saht weaving season and in particular this blog entry is more about the frequently used Thai expression of "Same, same; but different"

Women are weaving now just like any other season - the work load in the fields has diminished.  The sugar cane harvest is winding up.  The new crop of cane has been put into the fields.  The only work related to rice, is men rebuilding or repairing the dikes around the paddies in anticipation of the return of the rains in May.  The rubber harvesting season concluded in December.

The weather has turned hot.  We are now approaching 40 degrees everyday (105F) so women are not spending as much time as they were two months ago when it was quite common to come upon clusters of people huddled around an extended family fire to keep warm.  Now you commonly encounter women outside of the house but underneath the shelter of a corrugated metal or thatched roof weaving sahts, cotton cloth or silk cloth.

The hotter temperatures these days also accelerate the initial drying out of the harvested Ly plants.  The plants are set out alongside village streets and home yards for the sun and relative low humidity to desicate them.  Once the reeds have been sufficiently dried, the women use a knife to split them into 4 or 8 pieces.  The reed slivers are then dyed bright colors over a wood fire, after which they are once again hung out in the open sun to dry.

March is also one of the three times a year when the Ly plants are harvested.  This March is no different than other March that I have experienced here in Isaan.

What is different is the motifs of the sahts that we found being woven by the local villagers as well as the width of the woven panels.  Prior to this week, the sahts that we had seen were a combination of  1 meter (39 inch) wide panels woven by two people on a flat loom set upon the ground.  Due to family matters we traveled out into the countryside, out along dirt roads into the sugar fields, the rubber plantations, the wood lots and fields of cassava, to a small village about one-one half hours from our home.

One evening when we were at the village, a man came to us and wanted to show us his home.  It turned out that he was the husband of Duang's friend from her days at Tahsang Village Elementary School.  We went with him and I was quickly stunned.  Underneath a thatched roof on a raised tiled concrete area illuminated by a single short florescent light tube, Duang's friend was busy weaving a saht.  She was using a small hand built loom sized so that one person could operate it.  The loom was a three dimensional device more closely resembling the hand built looms that local people use to weave cloth than the flat looms that I had previously associated with saht weaving.

Besides being narrower than the saht panels that I was familar with, the saht was extremely colorful and had design elements incorporated into it.  I had only seen sahts that were bands of alternating colors or some variation of checkerboard patterns.  The saht that she was working on had colorful butterflies.  It was gorgeous.

Encouraged by my enthusiasm for her work, Duang's friend then proceeded over the next fifteen minutes to bring more of her work from inside her house to show us.  It was absolutely astounding!  The sahts were the most colorful and artistic that I had ever seen.  Hmmm ... I am starting to write like Donald Trump sounds when he talks about his developments.  I will have to watch it!

Since the lighting was so poor, practically non-existent, we said that we would like to come back later this week to photograph the sahts and get more information to write a blog.  Duang also had her eye on buying the butterfly saht that the woman was working on.

Two days later we returned to their home in the morning to take photographs of her works as well as other villagers that we learned do similar work.

A Neighbor Weaving Saht

The Saht Being Woven

Another Neighbor Weaves A More Typical Saht

The sahts were even more impressive in the light of day.  Duang's friend has been weaving her beautiful sahts for two years.  I asked about how she knew what to make and how to make it.   It turns out that she, like Duang, can look at something and figure out how to make it.  Many times I have observed Duang intensely inspecting an article of clothing in a department store  Originally I thought that she was considering buying the clothing.  I now know that she is seeing how it is made.  Often we return home to have Duang pull out her steel rulers and curves, large paper, cloth measuring tape, and pencil to create a pattern for what she had inspected at the store.  Within a few days she is wearing the item at a very much reduced cost.

Duang's friend looks at magazines and traditional cloth for inspiration.  She then experiments to create her interpretation and vision out of dyed reeds for her sahts.  Upon very much closer inspection, I saw that the designs were created by having individual reeds (weft) of different colors than the background lying on top of the very thin nylon string of the warp.  Varying the number of warp threads covered by the reeds as well as the location of the overlap develops the designs as the saht grows.  The woman keeps track of her design development as she proceeds in the process.  Once she has fully developed her design, she weaves from memory.

"Fish" Saht With One of the Failed Attempts to Create the Fish Pattern

One of her sahts reflects the design development.  The saht that I refer to as the "Fish" Saht incorporates some early failed attempts to create a fish pattern.

The "Butterfly" Saht Which We Purchased

Duang's Friend, Tiim, Weaving Another "Butterfly" Saht

Home Outside Work Area With "Butterfly" Saht In Progress

It takes three days for Duang's friend, Tiim, to weave a saht.  The sahts are either three panels wide or two panels wide.  On her loom that her husband built, she produces  58 cm (22.5 inch) wide panels about 200 cm (6 feet) long.  The length of the panels is restricted by the geometry of the loom.  A loom with a higher horizontal bar (bamboo pole) would allow for a longer saht.  We purchased a "Butterfly" saht - two panels wide for and overall dimension of 1.2 meters wide (46 inches) and 2 meters long (6 feet)

Equipment For Binding Saht Panels

Tiim does not have the equipment necessary to bind the edges of the panels or to bind panels together.  However, there is another woman in the village that has the equipment (an industrial Juki sewing machine), knowledge, skill and desire to make and install bindings for sahts.  I had looked at the bindings of sahts and assumed that people purchased binding material approximately 2 inches wide to sew over the saht edges. Once again based upon how I expect things to be done in the USA, I had figured out, or rather incorrectly figured out how it is done here in Thailand.  As Duangchan frequently has to remind me "Thailand not same as America".

Bound Saht Along With Material For Binding

Here in Thailand, people purchase full sized cloth to be used as binding material for sahts.  They cut the cloth for the required width to bind the saht edges and to connect panels to each other.  The same material is cut and sewed to create handles and lashings for transporting the saht when it is folded up.

In addition to creating and installing bindings for the village sahts, the woman that we visited at the other side of the village, also weaves her own sahts.  Her sahts were also amazing - colors and designs.  She very willingly allowed me to photograph some of her sahts.

 

 

 



 

 





It was quite a discovery for us - one that I just had to share with others.  The quality of life is not solely defined by the amount of material items.  The quality of life, in regards to material aspects, is greatly influenced by the style and beauty of those material possessions.

Duang and I were extremely happy to observe how, in addition to asserting their self-sufficiency and self-reliance, the people of this village were able to incorporate their sense of style along with their artistic expression into their work.  We had found many treasures.

Often it takes getting out of the metropolitan areas and into, sometimes deep into, the countryside to experience the true depth and breadth of a culture.  I am extremely fortunate that my wife enjoys these types of quests and can give me so many of these opportunities.

Busy Tahsang Village Morning

Dying Reeds Prior to Weaving Them Into Sahts

I drove Duang out to her village this morning so that she could finish her preparations for our visit to family southeast of Bangkok tomorrow. Out of habit, I brought my camera gear along with me.  I did not have any particular thing in my mind to photograph.  However when I get out and about in the countryside I usually come upon something interesting to photograph and eventually share.  Today was no exception.

The roads out to Tahsang Village were filled with vehicles of all sorts and sizes headed to the Kumphawapi Sugar Company.  No matter the type or size of the vehicle, they shared on thing in common - they were extremely loaded with fresh cut sugar cane.  The growers are paid by the weight of the sugar cane that is delivered to the refinery. For that reason alone they are eager to get the harvested cane delivered as quickly as possible after it is cut.  Drivers are typically paid by the weight of the cane that they haul for the day.  With the interests and needs of both the growers and truckers aligned, the trucks are heavily loaded - sometimes too heavily loaded.  Last year we lost electrical power for a couple of hours.  There was a large explosion and then the lights went out.  Lightening strike?  No, not that time.  Sabotage?  No.  A too heavily loaded sugar cane truck, as in too much height, had cause to main power lines to short out as it passed under or rather attempted to go under the wires.

Dried Reeds Are Placed Into A Home Made Pot of Dye

As we entered into the village, I was pleased that I had brought my camera gear with me.  One of Duang's aunts was occupied with dying reeds in preparation to weave them into a colorful mat called "saht".

Bundles or reeds that had been dried and bleached by the sun, were immersed in hot water to which a commercial dye had been added.  A recycled tin can which had previously been filled with either cookies or crackers served as the dye pot.  The dye pot was set on top of a crude stand made from reinforcing steel (rebar).  A fire or four burning good sized logs heated the dye mixture.  As the logs were consumed, the elderly woman pushed each log forward to keep the active flame and coals beneath the dye pot.

She used two roughly fashioned wood paddles to stir the mixture, immerse the reed completely into the dye mixture and after about 3 minutes remove the dyed reeds from the pot.  After three minutes, the mousy brown reeds exited the dye pot a brilliant indigo.

Removing Dyed Reeds From the Dye Pot

When all the reeds had been dyed, the woman gathered them up and placed them along the village street to dry out in the sun.

The woman was not the only person busy at that location.  A younger woman was occupied cooking food over a charcoal fire.  When I write about charcoal fires here in Isaan or in Lao, I am not describing the sawdust, wood char, Limestone, Starch, Borax, Sodium Nitrate compressed briquettes sold as charcoal in America.  Charcoal here and in Lao is lump charcoal, 100% organic and natural - hardwood that has been heated (baked) in an oxygen deficient furnace or more accurately covered pit or earthen mound.

Making A New Khong Kao

Duang's uncle is a skilled weaver, was seated near by working on a new khong kao -apparently khong kao is the name of the woven basket that you steam sticky rice in as well as the name for the woven covered baskets that people store cooked sticky rice in.

Duang's uncle is quite clever.  He makes khong kao for steaming rice, khong kao for storing cooked rice, fishing creels, fish traps, and fish nets.  He uses all locally available materials except for the nylon string, scissors, and needles.  He uses knives just like we watched being made in Laos for shaving, chopping and cutting his raw materials.  He even rolls is own cigarettes.

On my way from his house to Duang's aunt's house across the farm road that bisects the village, I passed several homes where people were busy processing cassava for planting.  The sugar cane harvest is well underway now.  As part of crop rotation some fields of sugar cane are replanted with cassava after harvest.  The cassava harvest is also underway.  Sharing the Isaan back roads with sugar cane vehicles are vehicles filled with cassava tubers similar in diameter to sweet potatoes.  The stalks of the cassava plant are stripped of leaves and chopped into 10 inch (25 cm) pieces.  The woody stalks are soaked in water for three days and then placed in recycled fertilizer bags to be hauled out to the fields for planting.  Planting involves sticking the 10 inch pieces about half way into  newly tilled field.

Processing Cassava Stalks in Tahsang Village

I eventually made it across the road to Duang's aunt's house.  Four women, bundled up in heavy clothing, were busy weaving cotton cloth just as they were doing on my last visit twelve days ago.  Outside weaving is a cottage industry here during the cool months.  A little further north from our home is an area known for its silk weaving,  Duang and I will go visit the area in either January or February.  I suspect that we will also end up purchasing some home spun silk for Duang to make clothes for herself.  Besides supporting local culture and handicrafts, buying directly from the producers is also more economical for us.  There is also a certain degree of pleasure of having items that you know the producers and have watched them make the item.

Tying A Thread On the Loom

Adjusting the Threads On the Loom

I watched the woman weaving for a while and took some photographs.  As many times as I have watching weaving, I am still clueless as to how they are able to make such beautiful designs let alone beautiful designs from their head.  Today I got a little bit more of a perspective as to how they doing.  On the loom where the dark traditional design fabricate for skirts was being woven, the weaver spent a large amount of time counting and separating threads,  I also noticed that the thread that was inside the shuttle was two toned - indigo and white which made sense because the fabric was indigo with a white design.

Sharpening A Saw 

Around the corner of the house, Duang's uncle was busy sharpening a bow saw using his buttocks and foot to secure it as he used a hand file to sharpen the teeth.

As so often happens on these journeys out into the countryside, there was plenty of activity to witness, learn about and to appreciate.

The people may not have formal jobs but they are always busy.  That is the way life is here in Isaan ... there are always plenty of people doing something interesting.  It only takes some time and little effort to discover more of their culture and lives.

A Different Type of Weaving

Tahsang Villager and His Weaving Works

Living here in Isaan, Southeast Asia in general, I am continually impressed with the resourcefulness and ingenuity of the people.  The vast majority of the people that I encounter, photograph, and interact with are not materially wealthy people. They are common people with, from a US perspective, people without many options for government assistance.  They are subsistence farmers, entertainers, unskilled labor workers, Monks, small shop owners, and craftsmen.

What the people have is a strong sense of family and community.  They are survivors; people who know how and have the skills to take advantage of what is available to them.  The people are capable of doing many things for themselves and for their families.

I have documented men and women making knives from recycled leaf springs from trucks.  Women weaving cotton as well as silk fabric.  I have on several occasions documented women weaving reeds to create colorful mats that are used for sleeping on, worshipping on, sitting on as well as eating on.  I suspect other activities are done upon the mats, but modesty has prevented me from witnessing them or photographing the activity.  I have photographed men weaving fine fishing nets under the shade of a large tree in their yard.

To feed themselves and their families, the people grow rice, garlic, corn, peanuts, sugar cane, cassava, and vegetables.  If they do not have land or money to rent land, the people hire out their labor to others.  Men as well as women harvest various plants from along the roadside for feeding themselves.  People fish the rivers, floodplains, and rivers.

There always is something going on in the villages and along the roadsides.

Lao Loum Man Making a Kong Kao

A few months ago during a visit to Tahsang Village, I had the opportunity to watch one of Duang's uncles weave special containers (kong kao) for storing cooked stick rice.  As much as the khene is associated with Lao ethnic music, the kong kao exemplifies Lao Loum domestic life.  Every Lao Loum home has at least one kong kao for storing cooked sticky rice.  Our home has 6 albeit small individual sized kong kao.  Some kong kao can be quite large - as large as a 27 quart stock pot. Quite often you will see men pushing carts filled with brooms, kong kao, and assorted other woven kitchen items for sale.

Duang's uncle like many Lao Loum men is very versitile.  He is always busy and is always interesting to follow.  On our visit to the village he was occupied weaving kong kao.  He had cut some hardwood limbs previously and dried them outside his home.  Now that the wood was properly aged and dry, he had split it into many thin as well as narrow strips.



From memory and experience, the bottom pattern is created

Underneath the thatched roof of a lean-to type addition to his home, he was seated before a rough hand made table to make some kong kao for family use.  Besides his raw materials, the table included his tools - heavy scissors, a pencil, and a heavy cane knife. Completed kong kao and a intricate fishing creel were stored on the table.

When Lao Loum people go fishing, often with had thrown nets or just with their hands, they place their catch in floating woven fishing creels to keep their catch fresh.  The creels are intricately woven objects that are kept afloat by emptied drinking water bottles that are attached on each side.

As I watched the kong kao being woven, I was impressed once again on how the design is in the head of the crafts person.  I had marveled at this before with the saht weavers as well as the fabric weavers.  The needlepoint and embroidery of the Hill Tribe peoples of Southeast Asia are also from the mind of the crafts person and are not from a blueprint or written specification.  We who live in more urban and industrialized societies often lose the sense of how creative the individual mind can be.  In the more urban and industrialized societies, our interface with creativity is often limited to an occasional exposure with art however in less "sophisticated" societies creativity is part of everyday life.

Time for a smoke break - rolling his own

After a while, Duang's uncle decided to take a smoke break.  Prior to taking a smoke, he had to roll his own cigarette.  He brought out a small plastic bag containing his loose tobacco and his cigarette papers.  With a skill that I had not witnessed since my university days, he quickly had a cigarette to enjoy.

Enjoying a few puffs

After a couple of relaxing puffs, he recommenced his work as he continued to smoke.

One of these days, I will have to learn how to do this.  I am sure that he will be pleased to try and teach me. No, not the rolling of your own cigarettes, for I have no need for that.  I would like to try to weave a kong kao and perhaps a fishing creel.  Most people are willing and happy to pass on knowledge as well as teach a skill.  Teaching others adds and strengthens our sense of community. 

Teaching others creates a lasting legacy.

Saht Weaving - The Rest of the Story

On Friday I wrote about "Saht Weaving Time" based upon my observations that day as well as several occasions observing Lao Loum women creating sahts over the past two years here in Isaan. In writing Friday's blog, there were many questions that I realized that I did not have the answers to. How long does it take to make a saht? How much does it cost to buy one? What type of weaving is employed to create a saht? How is the warp set up? How is the saht removed from the loom? How do the people keep the completed saht from unravelling?

If no one else was interested, at least I wanted to know the answers to these questions. There were two avenues available to me to find the answers to these questions. The first was to do some research on the Internet. I am amazed at how the Internet has contributed to and improved our life. When I first started out as a field engineer before fax machines were commonplace, there were many times when we needed technical information to do our jobs. Often the technical information was not readily available, i.e. on a drawing or in a catalog, physically located at the job site. We would have to find a possible source for the information, call or write to the possible source to confirm they had the information, and then wait one or two weeks for the information to arrive - if it actually arrived. Not so these days. As I sat in Udonthani, Thailand in my home on Saturday, I decided to learn something about weaving. I wanted to know and more importantly better understand what I had been observing and writing about. In writing this blog I have written that I describe what I have seen and what I have experienced. I don't necessarily understand, believe or can explain everything. I try to make no attempts to justify or rationalize however I do have the personal goal of ensuring that what I write about is accurate. It is important to me to communicate accurately about the sights, events, sounds, smells, and beliefs that I have encountered. I leave it up to the individual reader to determine their own sense or version of reality and truth. For a minute or two on the Internet I can better ensure what I describe is accurate. So it was with weaving last weekend.

Duang and I returned to Tahsang Village on Saturday to tend to family business. As I normally do on our excursions about Isaan, I brought my camera. The two sisters that had dyed the Ly plants earlier in the week were now busy weaving sahts from the dried reeds. I spent a good part of my time in the village photographing and trying to understand the process.

Today we returned to the village specifically to take our 13 month old grandson, Peelawat, to the clinic. Since we left on a semi-emergency basis, I did not bring my camera today. This ended up being an opportunity for me to better observe the process and get my questions answered without getting distracted by my photography efforts. Since Peelawt ended up getting an injection at the clinic while Duang held him he had difficulty sleeping during the afternoon and preferred my company to Duang's. Peelawat and I sat in a chair outside next to the weavers and watched them for two hours. It was a nice afternoon - watching the weaving, giving Peelawat comfort, and having him give me his version of "kisses" (gently bumping heads together followed by a wide grin).

Sahts are woven on a rough lumber framed horizontal loom about 6 feet wide by 9 feet long placed on the ground. The members of the loom are fastened together with a combination of large nails and rope - as is the case in Isaan whatever is available is used as long as it is fit for purpose. The looms are a simple rectangular frame - two parallel or close to parallel pieces of lumber set on edge and two cross members set flat at each end of the rectangle. The looms are often set up underneath the shade of a large tree in some one's yard. When there is a threat of rain the looms are set up underneath the extended overhang or a house roof or underneath an open sided structure often found on the grounds of local Wats.


At the head of the loom where the weaving commences there is a stiff solid wire rod about 1/8 inch in diameter that runs along the edge of the cross member. The rod is kept in place and is guided through a series of small nails that have bent over to form rough semi-circles along the cross member edge. At the other end of the loom, which I will refer to as the "foot of the loom" there is a row of small nails more like upholstery brads than construction nails partially driven into and running over the top of the foot cross member about 1/2 to 3/4 inches from the edge of the wood. The nails are roughly 1/2 inch on centers along the width of the loom. Often the loom is tied to a tree or set up against a couple of iron spikes driven into the ground to provide some additional resistance to movement of the loom during the weaving process.

The saht is woven using plain weave also referred to as tabby weave and sometimes as taffeta weave technique. Plain weave is a very basic weaving technique - a process where the lengthwise threads, referred to as "warp", and the crosswise threads referred to as "weft" are in a crisscross pattern. The weft threads go over and under the warp threads in an alternating pattern across the width of the textile.

After setting up the loom, the saht weaving process with installing the lengthwise threads (warp). For sahts the warp is not actually a thread but is a string. Plastic string typically about 1/32 inch (1 mm) in diameter is used. The plastic string is generally not a high quality mono filament line that is used to crochet fishing nets but is a higher quality than the polyethylene strapping used in packaging. The warp can be of any color with yellow, blue, and black chosen the most frequently. Spools of this type of plastic string are readily available from small hardware type shops in the larger villages and cities. The spool of warp is often set inside of a small plastic bucket to keep it clean and away from the marauding chickens searching for food. The warp runs from the bucket up and over a low hanging tree limb or roof beam down to the foot of the loom. The free end of the warp is placed through a hole or slot in a flat board that in textile weaving is called a "rigid heddle". The rigid heddle is a flat board about 16 inches tall and the width of the desired saht width. Along the width of the heddle are a series of alternating small diameter holes and narrow slots. The holes in the heddle prevent the warp thread going through them from changing their relative elevation whereas the warp threads that pass through a slot are free to change their relative elevation as limited by the slot. After passing through the first hole in the heddle, the warp thread is pulled along the length of the loom to the head.

The free end of the warp thread (plastic string) is then passed over the top of the small diameter rigid rod and looped pulled back towards the foot of the loom. When the warp string encounters the heddle once again, it is run through the slot adjacent to the hole that it previously passed through. When the free end of the warp reaches the foot of the loom a second time, the warp is trimmed to allow the warp to be tied off to each of two adjacent nails. The weaver pulls on the warp to ensure that the warp is taut. I doubt that I could pull the warp tighter than the Lao Loum woman can with their bare hands and fingers. This process of through a hole, over the rod at the loom head, through a slot, and both ends being tied off at the foot of the loom is repeated until all holes and slots of the heddle have a single warp thread running through them.

The heddle is used in conjunction with a piece of bamboo about 4 to 6 inches in diameter to lift alternative warp threads to create a space between the threads. This space between the alternating threads across the width of the textile, called "shed" is where the weft (Ly reeds) are inserted during the weaving process. One of the women worked the heddle while the other woman who sat to the right of the first woman ran the weft (dried reeds) through the shed. After selecting the proper colored reed, the weft feed bent on end of the selected reed over the blunt point of a long and narrow strip of bamboo. Using the bamboo strip she slid and pushed the reed across the shed to the far end of the textile's width. The heddle operator used her left hand to grasp the bent end of the reed and release it from the bamboo strip. The other woman then slid the bamboo strip from the shed and prepared the next reed for insertion. The heddle operator in the meantime used both hands to align and position the inserted reed. With a hand on top of each end of the heddle, she forcibly pulled the heddle towards her to push and compact the new reed agaist the reeds that had been previously woven into the textile. She then slid the heddle away from her to prepare a new shed for the next reed. After each reed has been compacted into place, the women braid the ends of the previous past two reeds to create a braided edge along both sides of the growing textile. This process continues for approximately two hours when the saht was completed.

After the last reed was woven into place, the women used some old thin knives to trim the reed ends along the sides of the saht that protruded past the braided trim. Both knives were too dull to accomplish the task so one of the sisters took them to the back of the house and rubbed them on a rock to sharpen them. Upon completing the trimming of the side, one woman slid the small diameter steel rod from the head of the loom thus releasing that portion of the saht from the loom. At the foot of the loom, the other sister cut the paired warp threads at about six locations. After cutting a pair of warp threads and before cutting the next set of threads, she tied the threads together using a square knot to prevent unraveling. After tying off the last set of warp threads, she cut off all the remaining warp threads releasing the saht from the loom and leaving the saht with a fringe on that end of the textile. Later that fringe is braided and trimmed with a series of cotton strings to create protective edge.

Each saht takes around two hours for two people to weave. Sahts are sold for 80 to 100 baht (about $2.50 to $3.00 USD) for the typical sized saht.

Saht Weaving Time

I have recently written about the diminished activity in the fields and waterways of Isaan coinciding with the rising temperatures as well as the dry season. This does not mean that there is not plenty going on to witness, observe or photograph in the rural villages of Isaan.

As you drive through the small villages that are scattered along the back roads of Isaan, you will find bunches of reeds laid out along side of the village streets drying in the sun. These are the marsh reeds, called "Ly" (?) that are used to weave the ubiquitous Lao Loum textile called "Saht". I read that the Khene musical instrument defines the essence of Lao culture. My opinion is that if the khene defines than the saht reaffirms the essence of Lao Loum culture. The saht is a scatter rug, a substitute for carpeting, an offering to Monks, a place to eat your meals, a place to drink, a substitute for a mattress, and a gift. People in Isaan villages place sahts upon the floor of their home to eat their meals. Sahts are placed inside of hammocks to create beds for babies and toddlers. Some people sleep atop sahts placed upon the floors of their home. Sahts are placed upon the floor of Buddhist temples for the worshippers to kneel and sit on. People place sahts on the ground for sitting on at outside shows as well as outdoors concerts. The body is placed upon a saht inside of the coffin prior to cremation.

Sahts are a multifunctional woven read mat that is typically around 39 inches wide and around 57 inches long. The width of the saht is restricted by the height of the Ly plant at harvest time. The Ly plant is cultivated very much like rice is here in Isaan however it does require more and a more reliable source of water than rice. It is harvested every four months - roughly Mid-March, Early-August, and December.

When the plant is about four feet high, it is cut using sickles that are also used to harvest the rice crop. The light heads are cut off the reeds and the reeds are laid out flat along the side of the street or in people's compacted dirt yards to dry out in the sun. Isaan villagers do not have lawns. Their yards are compacted dirt that they often sweep with long handcrafted brooms to remove leaves that fall from surrounding trees. Roving groups of chickens also assist in maintaining the yards.

During hot and sunny weather like we experience in March and April, the reeds are dry in three to four days. Later when the weather is not so sunny or dry, it takes one to two weeks for the reeds to dry out. After drying out flat, some villagers hang the sheaves of dried reeds over the top of their bamboo fences to protect the reeds from wandering water buffalo, cattle, dogs, as well as chickens. The local children seem to be well trained and avoid damaging or soiling the reeds along the street.

Most people dye the dry reeds before weaving them. I guess it is like any personal endeavor and enterprise, the villagers want to add some personal touch and style to their product. I have seen some plain dull brown sahts but not very many of them. Most of the finished sahts are very colorful. They typically are a mixture of orange, red, yellow, and blue. Just as with the local cotton and silk weavers, the saht weavers have the designs and patterns of their textile memorized. I have watched cotton and silk weavers here in Isaan as well as in Laos, and I am continuously amazed at how they can create such colorful as well as intricate patterns from only their memory. Saht weaving is a great deal easier for me to try to comprehend. The design and patterns are created using single reed of one color whereas in certain silk weaving some of the individual threads are multi-colored. Most sahts have no more than 4 distinct colors. I have seen some silk weaving involving 8 different colors.

Last week during one of our trips out to Tahsang Village we saw two of the village women busy with dying some dry Ly reeds. As so often is the case here in Isaan as well as in neighboring Laos, the Lao Loum people make do with what they have or with what is readily available. They were using a commercial water based dye that requires hot water. To heat the water they had built a small wood fire. In Thailand, as well as the rest of Southeast Asia, people are free to perform outdoor burning. Most people in the villages cook their meals outside over small wood or charcoal fires. The wood fire that the village women had built for dying the reeds was comprised of several logs each about 4 to 6 inches in diameter. As the wood underneath their pot of boiling by the small fire, the women maintain the fire simply by pushing the remainder of the logs to the center of the flames.



For a container to boil the water and dye mixture in and to contain the reeds, the villagers used a large metal container that had been used to store cookies. The container was about 4 to 5 gallons capacity. For stirring the mixture and removing the hot dyed reeds, the villagers used two pieces of readily available local bamboo. One of the women, gathered a sheave of dried Ly reed and twisted it together as she placed it into the pot of boiling dye mixture. She used a bamboo stick to ensure all and every part of the reed bundle was submerged into the red liquid. After about two minutes in the pot, the woman removed the reed sheave, now a shiny brilliant red, from the pot using the two pieces bamboo as a pair of long chopsticks. Carefully using the pieces of bamboo, she carried the steaming mass of stringy red reeds over to the other woman. The second woman was busy untangling the reeds and laying them out in the sun to dry once again. It is important that the reeds not be bent or twisted for weaving. After cooling the reeds will be hung to complete drying out.

Weaving of the Ly reeds into sahts is performed at people's homes and in covered areas at some village Wats. The weaving is a two person operation typically older women. They weave the reed upon a home made loom made from rough lumber and pieces of bamboo. The looms are set up on the ground. Plastic string is strung through a wide piece of wood with a series of holes drilled in it from one end to the other end of the frame. One person takes a colored reed to be woven into the saht. The selected reed is attached to a thin bamboo stick and pushed along the width of the textile between the two layers of the plastic string. The second woman manipulates the wide board to push the new reed up against the previously woven reeds. They talk and gossip all the while that they are working. Neighbors and family members often stop by to socialize with the weavers as they toil.