The Heart of the Village

This week we were invited to a gathering at the Heart of the Village. The village heart is a large white building placed at the center of the village. It is rarely opened except on special occasions. And even when opened, outsiders were rarely allowed inside. I knew we were in for a treat when we saw the plain white building brightly decorated with colorful paper. The door was wide open with our friends standing just beyond, motioning for us to join them for prayer.

The seating area was divided into sectioned mats for the different streets or sub-neighborhoods in the village. We greeted a few different neighborhood leaders before I saw Tutara who had saved us a seat next to his family.

We sat in silence, listening to the Buddhist mantras. My dad explained to me that this was the first day, and that the monk will stay to continue chanting non-stop for seven days and nights. The prayers explain the life of the Buddha. It is done at least once a year to ensure the village’s health and for prosperity, and for everyone world-wide to be generally at peace.

Some villagers sat with candles in front of them, while others lit candles outside. After a while, we went out to the fish ponds with Tutara & his son, Sudee (Tutara’s brother-in-law) and Sudee’s nieces Jajan and Jahaair to feed the fish. It was a special occasion, so the village fishes were eating coconut shavings and rice that had been blessed by the monks.

With our spirits rekindled, we reflected on what an honor it was to have participated in such an event. As we were leaving, I asked Tutara if the village heart will be closed by the time we come back. He laughed and said, that while the doors to the building may be closed, the true “heart of the Karen village” is never closed so long as there are people who care.

Cold Mornings

Uncle Suporn told us that the more curled the Makam (Tamarin) fruit is, the colder it would be during the year. I guess he was right. It's been very cold in the village recently. Yesterday morning it was about 1o degrees Celsius outside (the coldest this month). The villagers are hardy, and seem to have no problem with the wind while I was shivering in my three layers of clothing.

I was able to take some pictures before we left to Bangkok, and thought it would be nice to share with you what an average morning in the village is like.

While Sa'cher has gone out to purchase new gasoline for the torches, one of his apprentices sets up the soldering table for him. Today they're making leaves.

It's warmer to sit in the sun while you build a fire. Today's breakfast is rice pourage and picked vegetables. Many of the villagers choose to be vegetarians as part of the Buddhist belief to not harm other living things.

A villager sands down the edges of a silver shell. This household also owns a small village grocery store, where cotton strings for beads, shampoo, and cans of Pepsi can be purchased.

Now that we're back in the city I really do miss the cold mornings. Luckily, I won't be away for very long, we're taking another trip next week. Take care, everyone!

Angie
shiana.com

A Little About Spirit Locks

A Little About Spirit Locks

While we try to record all the information we find, some things do get lost. I found some old notes on spirit locks (at least four years old), which may be of better use if shared, this is unedited, and I think I’ve written a better version else where, but I will get to recording that later.

The spirit locks are strung with the loops on the top, not with an external loop or bar. They are in a traditional padlock shape to help keep the soul within the body. So, they are used to basically to “lock” the soul (which resides in a person’s head) in the body.

They are traditionally worn to the back of a person, similar to a clasp.

It is good luck to give new born babies spirit locks to protect them from evil spirits that might try to steal the child’s spirit away.

In ancient Thai culture, if a spirit becomes unhappy it will leave the body to go back to live in the forests. A person can loose their spirit when they are frightened or in times of great stress. Loosing your spirit does not actually mean dying, a person without his or her spirit will loose their Charisma, and they will be unable to focus.

Want to learn a little Karen?

It’s easy to find words of praise in Karen. Our village has a mix of two Karen tribes (sgaw and pho) and several languages are spoken. Here are some traditional words of praise:

E-dee means Beautiful
Chur means sweet
Book-ka-yan or (Buk-khee if it is a name) means hard working
Su means good

Take note that while you learn a little Karen, the next generation of silversmiths are learning a little English as well:

Featured Villager: Noi-tu

Noi-tu is a village elder specializing in pendants which represented peacock feathers. Noi-tu's charms are carefully made from silver wire that are cut and hammered into shape. His new feather charms are perfect companions for anklets and organic pieces.

See some of Noi-tu's work:

Peacock Feathers

Spear Charms (shorter)

Spear Charms (longer)

Random Pictures: Village Brothers

Random pictures from the village:

Two Karen brothers play in the herb garden.

Ngu-ga and Lumyai

It’s not fruit season yet, but we can’t help but be excited for Uncle Ngu-ga. Many of you have already heard of Ngu-ga from our newsletters. He makes many of the beautiful wish pendants and spirit locks that we carry. Uncle Ngu-ga has been busy. He bought a lumyai orchard a few years back he has been busy cultivating the trees, he had to stop when he was hit with malaria, (don’t worry, he made a full recovery), but he is now back and his trees look like they will yield an abundance of fruit.

This wish pendant is of a mature lumyai tree, standing before the setting sun as it drifts back behind the hills of our village. The inscription next to it is in Karen and reads “Tablu” or “Thank you”. It was made by a neighbor to help bring good thoughts towards all the villagers who also depend on the lumyai.

Lumyai is the Thai word for Longan. (pictured below.) It’s a sweet clear fruit with a light brown skin (that is peeled off before you eat it) and a shiny seed. The Chinese call it a dragon’s eye because it resembles an eyeball. The villagers grow up around large lumyai trees, with branches that are low to the ground.

These lumyai are from a mature tree, in an orchard owned by Pohsow (who makes round and tube spacer beads.) She has had her orchard for over ten years.

Small Meetings

We had a small village get-together before the Thai New Year Holidays. It was a fun time, (mainly for the kids who got an abundance of toys and candy.) The adults received magazines, shared soda and snacks.

It was wonderful to take a break from the heat and sit under the shade of a lumyai tree for an afternoon :)

Featuring Nija

Shiana's featured artist is Nija, a silversmith behind some of our most popular pendants, like the rising sun, new day song, and ying-yang coils.

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When you live and work with so many other artisans, it is difficult to not fall into the same path of making similiar items. Nija and his wife however, seem to have found inspiration in their partnership.

"Like many other [Karen] artisans, I like to draw most of my inspiration from nature. I made flower antlers, and leaf printed bead caps. But it was when my wife began making necklaces for our children that things took off.

I learned alot from her... the importance of balancing the pendants and finding different ways to conect them. We then started creating pieces that would challenge people by using open spaces and jumprings. I knew we had a good design when my wife could use the items in at least four completely different ways."

Nija's charms are easily incorporated into chains or other fiber stringing materials. His best selling item is the New Day Song Charms.

Homes and Gardens

While many Karen (especially in the new generation of silversmiths) are building concrete or brick houses, there are still a number of villagers who choose to live in traditional style homes. These homes are usually on stilts and made of wood, which provides cooling in the very hot summer months.

Traditionally people would raise animals like chickens, and pigs under their stilt homes. In our village, many of the Karen are vegetarians and the area under the home is often used as a silver workshop for silversmiths.

Many homes also have “raised gardens”, which are like bamboo tables tops full of rich soil. The Karen grow forest herbs or sometimes vegetable (from seeds which they buy in the city) within these raised gardens.

The reason why they raise the gardens is to keep dogs and cats off of the vegetables, and to make it easier to maintain and water the plants.

Tiny Beads

Few people really understand the work that goes into making the tiny hill tribe beads that are often for sale in strands. As an example, here is a solid cube bead with a small ‘pout-duang’ (commonly known as the flower print) on it. These beads are tiny, usually measuring no more than 1-3mm each.

In order to make these beads, little balls of melted silver need to be cooled, and then holes are drilled to create beads. The beads are then filed down into shape, one by one. This is usually done with a metal hand file.

Then, the beads are strung up for stamping. Usually two or more silversmiths are needed for this, as the job requires both a master and an apprentice. Only a master silversmith has the expertise to make really beautiful beads, but their apprentice would be younger, with much better eyes for the job.

Lastly, the beads are cleaned, sometimes oxidized, and left to dry.