Villages and Local Artists

The next day (June 30), was really cool because we got to visit some of the Lahu (another hill tribe) villages.  We had two translators with us for the day, Jbah and Nasuka, (they are both from the second village we visited), and they were so great. Both were fluent in Lahu and Thai and Jbah was quite good with English too (he taught himself).  In the first village, Baanbukai we met with a man that the two translators knew, and the village leader and holy man (like a medium) came by also.  We talked about the challenges for Lahu people and their migration (forced) to where they live now. They talked about the difficulty of economic growth that they face currently. We also discussed the fact that it’s the rainy season and it hasn’t actually rained yet (the one time in Bangkok has been the only time we’ve seen rain), and there is a concern about the crops (mainly rice, which needs a LOT of water). It was a pleasant conversation; we sat out on the balcony of his kitchen hut (you may have seen the picture that Jut posted on Facebook). After that they took us on a walk through the village, showing us their hut that is used as a sacred space and town meetings.  This village is situated right one the mountain side, so they have been impacted quite a bit by the tourist industry recently. There have been resorts (relatively small compared to American resorts) that have been built there (just a km or two away from the village), and it is also a good lookout spot to see Chaingrai at night (so this has become a touring spot). They have gotten used to the whole thing, but you could tell the village leader was a little  nervous about it.

Flooring of the kitchen hut (we met just outside of this).

Kitchen

Man we talked to and his little boy (pay no attention to the toy gun in his mouth).

Sacred space/town meeting place, and the holy man in the corner (you can see about half of his body, oops!).

Look closely, in the background you can see villagers working on their new Coffee Co-op.

Before we went to the second village, we took a few detours. Chainrai is evidently home to three main artists (none of which I can remember their names). There is a “White” artist, “Black” artist, and a potter.  We went to check out the latter two’s work between village visits.  The potter was first, and it was absolutely amazing! He does all kinds of stuff, plates, bowls, vases, lamps, mugs, etc. Some of the broken stuff he’s made into sculptures for the grounds where his studio is. One was of a bunch of broken plates and then there was this wall that was cement with plates, cups, and bowls arranged in various ways in it. It was so cool to look at. He had several small buildings that housed display rooms for selling stuff. It was really fun to look around at all the artistry.

After that stop, we went to the “Black” artist. He’s obtained this nickname because most of the stuff he does is in black/is quite dark. By now (if you’ve followed the blog) you’ve seen a lot of gold and colorful architecture for temples. Well this guy did a temple that is all black, and inside of it (instead of images of the Buddha) there are these massive displays of animal skins and horns/antlers on everything. The whole length of the temple was these long black tables arranged end to end (at least a football field long), and each one had a python (or other large snake) skin (with head intact) lying on its surface. There were a few small Buddha statues that were all white and had huge replicas of bugs lying on his knees (while he is in the typical lotus position). It was all very creepy. He also had several buildings on the grounds that he built in similar fashion.  One of which he lives in. It’s up on stilts and the whole underside is decorated with lots of tables and chairs made from animal skins and horns.  It isn’t my style, but I was impressed by his work.

Black Temple

One of the snakes and all the tables...

This one was his house

This has nothing to do with the Black Temple. This man was sweeping the grass. Mom and Aunt Katy, you know why I posted this...

The second village that we went to was Jalay, which is also a Lahu village. This particular village, is up further in the mountains. We talked with the leader, Jihsee, and an older member of the villiage spontaneously joined us too; his name is Jbah. We talked with them about a lot of things, and to be honest, it’s getting hard to keep them all straight. This one was particularly chaotic though. There were so many different conversations going on at once. Jbah (the elder) kept talking and telling stories the whole time in Lahu. The leader kept trying to answer questions in Thai. Jut, Cathy, and Jbah (the younger) kept trying to translate as much as possible. I’m pretty sure there were several conversations going on at once, and I’m not sure I could have understood it all even if I had understood Lahu and Thai (in fact that may have actually made it worse, now that I think about it). Anyway, while we were there, a BUNCH of tourists came into the village for a home stay. It’s a program for tourists who want to experience what a village is like. They come in and spend the night. It’s a good thought in theory, the tourists get a better understanding of village life and the villages make money (something they desperately need), but in practice, unfortunately the tour companies often take most of the money, leaving the villagers with 10 Baht per person per night ($.33), which doesn’t even cover expenses.

Matt teaching the kids about glow sticks

Kari brought a Frisbee for the kids, so he's learning how to catch...sort of...

This little guy was my favorite. He was super shy, but you could tell he totally wanted to get in on the fun.

After we went home that night, Jut brought over some young people from her NGO (an organization promoting traditional cultural arts among hill tribes) to play some music for us. The played some traditional stuff, but they really wanted to play some of the oldies. So eventually we ended up singing along to “Blowin in the Wind” and other folk songs like that. They got Matt to play along eventually, and then one of the owners of the B&B brought his guitar out too. He had been taking pictures of us (obviously enjoying the music), and when we invited him to play with/for us he was so excited. It was an idyllic moment of singing in that setting. Maybe you had to be there, but it was so peaceful and I will look back at that night as a great one.

Singing traditional songs for us.

Our B&B's owner jumps in.