“Ringing in the New Year, Silk Worms, Heat Waves and More!“
Sorry for yet another delay- life abroad is rather chaotic and crazy, I had a whole slew of assignments due in the final month, which it made it hard to blog leisurely. I went on after my program to vacation in Laos for 3 weeks and did not think about blogging until today. So I will be doing my final blog post in two separate posts.
When I had last written my post, I had actually been anticipating the arrival of Songkran, also known as the New Year! It has been my dream to be in either Laos or Southeast Asia in general for the New Year and here I was in Thailand and most importantly Isan where the New Year celebration is less invaded by farangs (foreigners) than it is in either Bangkok or Chiang Mai.
To give some background, Songkran is suppose to be a time of renewal, merit making and requests to have a good crops in the following year to come. What use to be just a cup of water poured down your back how now evolved into this water fight that actually has no explanation other than the fact that its just a good and fun time. (Hm – this is also debateable) However, the Songkran is no doubt the largest and funnest water fight I have ever been to in my life! Out of the 3 days, I went out for two of them and had a blast chilling on Khon Kaen’s Kow Neau Road (Sticky Rice Road) and had a time I wont ever forget.
I invested in a water gun backpack in the form of Stitch from Lilo and Stitch! I was in love with my backpack and squirting everyone with water. There was multiple concerts on the road and each stage had a different promotion or sponsor rather and there were a lot of goodies being passed out for free. On the final night, I enjoyed a concert in downtown Khon Kaen- completely soaked and cold. It was just the perfect ending for one my favorite cultural holidays.
After Songkran, it was time to start our final unit on Gender. The week consisted of many interesting exchanges, including meeting the most famous Transgender activist in Thailand! However, I was very fascinated about the exchanges we had with village weavers, as it was also our homestay for that week! The process of Thai silk weaving is fascinating from start to finish. My mother had always spoke about how silk making gave her heartache during her childhood because of how you had to boil the worms in their cocoons(and kill them) and I could not believe that I was seeing that process in person. And yes, I too had some heartache and finally became sympathetic with my mother.
However, the most fascinating part about the silk weaving process was how the traditional Isan design process also known as mudmee- this skill has been passed on from generation to generation to create beautiful and colorful beautiful weaving pieces. Mudmee uses rope or plastic to tie pieces of silk thread tightly so that is not penetrated through the dying process. The tying is strategically done is taught through generations. The skill is very advanced as even the slightest mishap can taint the entire silk fabric. I found it amazing how some of the most intricate and beautiful things in life are not actually learned in school but at home.
I was glad that we could conclude the program with a interesting theme before moving on to our research topics.
In my next post – I will talk about my research project about traditional Isaan Music and my overall reflection about my time in Thailand and Laos.
Sorry for yet another delay- life abroad is rather chaotic and crazy, I had a whole slew of assignments due in the final month, which it made it hard to blog leisurely. I went on after my program to vacation in Laos for 3 weeks and did not think about blogging until today. So I will be doing my final blog post in two separate posts.
When I had last written my post, I had actually been anticipating the arrival of Songkran, also known as the New Year! It has been my dream to be in either Laos or Southeast Asia in general for the New Year and here I was in Thailand and most importantly Isan where the New Year celebration is less invaded by farangs (foreigners) than it is in either Bangkok or Chiang Mai.
To give some background, Songkran is suppose to be a time of renewal, merit making and requests to have a good crops in the following year to come. What use to be just a cup of water poured down your back how now evolved into this water fight that actually has no explanation other than the fact that its just a good and fun time. (Hm – this is also debateable) However, the Songkran is no doubt the largest and funnest water fight I have ever been to in my life! Out of the 3 days, I went out for two of them and had a blast chilling on Khon Kaen’s Kow Neau Road (Sticky Rice Road) and had a time I wont ever forget.
I invested in a water gun backpack in the form of Stitch from Lilo and Stitch! I was in love with my backpack and squirting everyone with water. There was multiple concerts on the road and each stage had a different promotion or sponsor rather and there were a lot of goodies being passed out for free. On the final night, I enjoyed a concert in downtown Khon Kaen- completely soaked and cold. It was just the perfect ending for one my favorite cultural holidays.
After Songkran, it was time to start our final unit on Gender. The week consisted of many interesting exchanges, including meeting the most famous Transgender activist in Thailand! However, I was very fascinated about the exchanges we had with village weavers, as it was also our homestay for that week! The process of Thai silk weaving is fascinating from start to finish. My mother had always spoke about how silk making gave her heartache during her childhood because of how you had to boil the worms in their cocoons(and kill them) and I could not believe that I was seeing that process in person. And yes, I too had some heartache and finally became sympathetic with my mother.
However, the most fascinating part about the silk weaving process was how the traditional Isan design process also known as mudmee- this skill has been passed on from generation to generation to create beautiful and colorful beautiful weaving pieces. Mudmee uses rope or plastic to tie pieces of silk thread tightly so that is not penetrated through the dying process. The tying is strategically done is taught through generations. The skill is very advanced as even the slightest mishap can taint the entire silk fabric. I found it amazing how some of the most intricate and beautiful things in life are not actually learned in school but at home.
I was glad that we could conclude the program with a interesting theme before moving on to our research topics.
In my next post – I will talk about my research project about traditional Isaan Music and my overall reflection about my time in Thailand and Laos.