On average we tend to think of umbrellas as mundane things churned out from a factory, made of stainless steel and a bit of plastic, usually cheap flimsy things you get bond of in a hurry following it’s starting to rain and dispose of along in addition to speedily. Or maybe you have a favorite one family from your grandfather. But for the most pension umbrellas are just, adeptly… umbrellas! You don’t think just roughly that stuff anymore than you would a fork, a knife, or the office seat you are sitting in reading this article, browsing the Internet, chatting as soon as links upon Facebook.
What if I told you that in Chiang Mai making umbrellas is an art form, and that each and all one has been crafted as soon as indulgent care suitably that no two of them are quite alike?
In places later Baan Bor Saang in the San Kam Paeng place in Chiang Mai, there is a omnipresent cottage industry built on mulberry paper products, one of which is the belle of the ball: parasols made of bamboo wood and mulberry paper. Commonly called jong in the regional Lanna dialect of the north (the dialect itself is named kham mueng, literally “city language” concerning the archaic Lanna Kingdom as the middle of the north). The parasol itself is considered a symbol of prestige, having been the province of aristocrats, nobility and monkhood in feudal era: the more enhance one is, the subsequently one’s status.
Parasols were often used during ceremonies for blessing, merger, and divulge occasions presided on summit of by the reigning monarch: the parasol-bearer was considered to have the thesame huge compliment as a to your liking ample-bearer during wartime. Common patterns used to embellish each parasols were auspicious Buddhist symbols, vivid flora, and fortune-bringing animals such as nature and turtles. Flowers and leaves were then a common theme.
For more info silk parasol.
Today the artists of Baan Bor Saang continue to craft these deeply exceptional works of art. While the common tourist souvenir tends to see cheap, some of the best works finished in this village approach out really memorable patterns finished upon silk and mulberry paper: both of which are materials that have furthermore been handmade in the cottage industry ecosystem of Chiang Mai. Silk of high environment is dyed and woven similar to pretty threads to make astonishing, shimmering effects to catch the eye and maintain the attention. The mulberry paper itself, far and wide from being common factory products, is individually dyed sheet by sheet into batik patterns or augment scripts in the Lanna alphabet telling local folklores, stories, and legends.
This entire process helps money the very creative magnetism of artists in Chiang Mai, maintaining a self-ample system where there is tiny to no way to import materials from outdoor the country or even the province, as both bamboo, mulberry paper and silk are grown in Chiang Mai and surrounding provinces such as Lamphun and Lampang. The records of parasol-making in Baan Bor Saang can be traced a hundred years previous thanks to the cultural and sore disagreement of a Thai monk and a Burmese craftsman that made the village one of the most productive and prestigious gone it comes to the making of Thai umbrellas.
