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Old Thai hand-woven sarong being displayed
(upside down) in a tiny shop in the
old quarter of Hanoi. The main body of the sarong is probably silk
whilst the top borders (at the bottom of sarong as it is being held) are
probably woven from cotton. The hem (being held at the top) is
probably indigo dyed cotton or hemp (or other plant fibre). The
Sarong is probably Southern White Thai and from the Mai Chau District.
The shop owner is a Russian woman married to a Vietnamese who
has lived in Hanoi for many years. She drives up to Thai minority villages some
hours from Hanoi to purchase weavings. See the (narrow) lengths of handspun and
hand woven silk fabrics behind her. She saves small lengths off each of the woven
lengths she buys which she hopes one day to donate to a museum to show the glories of the
Thai (Tai) minority weaving skills. The sarong is an old one from her own collection,
purchased in one of the villages, which she allowed me to photograph. I discovered
this little shop in 1994 and visited it again in 1995 and 1996.
I visited a Thai weaving village, possibly one which the gallery owner
visits, at the start of my 1995 tour where I purchased woven lengths myself as well as an
old sarong of a different style.
Go to 
to see a Gallery of photos of a Southern WhiteThai minority weaving village, half a day's journey to the
west of Hanoi, which I visited in 1995 |