A trip to Laos to think about the “goals of handicrafts”

I’m in Laos.

I’m on a week-long business trip, starting in the capital Vientiane, then taking a three-hour train ride through Oudomxay Province, then a five-hour drive along mountain roads to Luang Prabang.

I’ve seen hand-woven fabrics from various Asian countries for work, but the care and precision of the patterns in Laotian hand-woven fabrics is overwhelming.

Of course, hand-woven fabrics aren’t the only handicrafts here. Today, I’ve visited more than ten studios. The studios making miscellaneous goods using bamboo and kudzu, and paper were also wonderful.

But hand-woven fabrics have a strength. Laos is home to ethnic minorities, and the fabrics woven and embroidered with their representative motifs exude a strength that seems to appeal to the presence of the ethnic groups.

A woman making thread from silkworms