One of the crafts that can well express national culture
and creativeness is textiles as these have for quite a long time been
indispensable.
In Thailand, fabric weaving has been practised since prehistoric times
and rural society has regarded it as a women's duty during spare time
after work in the fields. The development of both colours and designs of
the finished products have been a result of the weavers' own
imagination and a long heritage as well as some other factors. In the
old days fabrics were a kind of status symbol; there were fabrics for
the common people to be used either everyday or on special occasions
like merit-making, traditional rituals or important festivities, fabrics
for the upper class including the king and the royal family and finally
those for the Buddhist monks.
Thai
fabrics have a great number of designs, usually distinguished by
region. Northern women have been considered very skillful weavers,
especially of cotton fabrics. They started by weaving for domestic use
and then produced for export as well. It is said that during the
twentieth and twenty-first century BE the northern part of Thailand
which was known as the Laan Na Kingdom produced many good fabrics for
sale in neighbouring states, some of which were Pha Si Chan Khao, Pha Si
Chan Daeng, Pha Si Dok Champa etc..
During the Sukhothai Period, about 700 years ago, besides the ordinary
coloured ones, a five-colour fabric was produced, commonly known as Pha
Benjarong. Different groups of people then produced their own fabrics;
court people for example would make fabrics for themselves and ordered
some fabrics from abroad. As history has it, silk began to be imported
from China during that time. Besides clothing, people began to use
fabrics for other purposes such as home decoration (long flags) and
other household items (pillows, mattresses, curtains).
Fabrics during the Ayudhya Kingdom which was about 400 years ago
assumed another important role besides materials for clothing and
decoration-they were used as money. They were sometimes given by the
king instead of money for rewards and often for the annual remuneration,
hence the term Pha Wad Raipee (pha = fabric or cloth, wad = pension
raipee = annual).
These were generally special types of fabrics, usually embroidered.
Trouser-shaped cloths called Pha Jong krabane, loin cloth or Pha khaoma
and women's wraps called Sabai began to appear as daily clothing.At the
present time, weaving is done mostly in the northern and north-eastern
regions. Their products differ due to the influence of regional beliefs
as well as the traditions of minority groups. Northerners like to weave
both cotton and silk with raised patterns or yok dok (brocade) whereas
north-easterners namely the Lao minority groups prefer producing mudmee
fabrics using the ikat or resist dying technique. The Lao Song minority
is, however, the exception as their preference is that of the
northerners.
Fabrics produced locally are grouped into three categories according
to their weaving methods: Plain cloths, chintz and brocades.
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