We took a sangtow far out of Chiang Dao, up roads into the hills and then on dusty windy dirt roads higher up yet to visit a hill tribe village. Once we left the paved roads, the lush green next to the roads turns to a monochrome dusty brown and before we got there we were all coated in a layer of dust.
The village is very small; wooden shacks on stilts to keep the homes dry during the monsoon season. The women were all in their native clothes, brightly colored woven garments, and had a market set up to sell some of their crafts, even though there were no outsiders there except us. Their hand work is quite beautiful.
We watched a woman weaving with a back-strap loom that I swear is exactly like those I saw Navaho women using in the southwest. Makes me wonder about the culture pathways of migration over the millenia, that in Thailand and in SW America, the same loom was developed.
Many of the women in the village chew beetal (is that how you spell it?) nut, an addictive stimulant that stains their teeth a dark purple. It's a surprise when they grin!
The small children in this village mostly were wandering around in just tee shirts, playing with stones and sticks in the dirt. Babies were rocking in outside cradles made from a blanket slung over two ropes in a kind of vee. We saw a little girl, perhaps three, with very blond hair and blue eyes and wondered if there were a farang family living in the village, but when Dee asked in Thai, the women replied that she was an albino.
M
The village is very small; wooden shacks on stilts to keep the homes dry during the monsoon season. The women were all in their native clothes, brightly colored woven garments, and had a market set up to sell some of their crafts, even though there were no outsiders there except us. Their hand work is quite beautiful.
We watched a woman weaving with a back-strap loom that I swear is exactly like those I saw Navaho women using in the southwest. Makes me wonder about the culture pathways of migration over the millenia, that in Thailand and in SW America, the same loom was developed.
Many of the women in the village chew beetal (is that how you spell it?) nut, an addictive stimulant that stains their teeth a dark purple. It's a surprise when they grin!
The small children in this village mostly were wandering around in just tee shirts, playing with stones and sticks in the dirt. Babies were rocking in outside cradles made from a blanket slung over two ropes in a kind of vee. We saw a little girl, perhaps three, with very blond hair and blue eyes and wondered if there were a farang family living in the village, but when Dee asked in Thai, the women replied that she was an albino.
M
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