Artisans

The Flower Hmong in Sinh Phinh Commune, Tua Chua District, Dien Bien Province

Ta La Cao hamlet is located in Sinh Phinh commune center, Tua Chua District, Dien Bien Province. The Flower Hmong have inhabited this area for time immemorial and all places here are named and referred to in their native language. Conveniently located on low-lying fertile land near a dependable water source, the village maintains a comfortable level of production and living. Terraced fields produce ample corn and rice. Extra income can be earned by harvesting tea, making Day cakes for sale, raising domestic fowl and poultry, raising lac (cánh kiến) for dyeing, and making handicrafts.

Despite Ta La Cao’s accessibility and consequential influence from outsiders, the unique identities and the traditional cultures of the Flower Hmong continue to thrive. Community and family relationships remain central to the Hmong social system and unique customs reflected in festivals, funerals, and wedding ceremonies are strongly maintained. Beside traditional musical and theatrical performances on special occasions, the inhabitants are enthusiastic about competitive games such as archery top spinning, lảy pa pao, etc…

Traditional Embroidery

The Flower Hmong women in Ta La Cao are very industrious and hardworking. They are skilled at embroidering unique patterns and drawing batik to create beautiful traditional costumes. The traditional female costume includes a shirt, dress, and belt.

The traditional dress of the Flower Hmong women in Ta La Cao is assembled from 3 main parts: The top part is hemp painted with beeswax and dyed with indigo. The beeswax-painted fabric of the Hmong people here is quite special. They paint on a pre-colored blue fabric (instead of white fabric as with other Hmong groups), then dye it in dark indigo. When completed, the patterns will have a lighter blue color on the darker indigo background, not as contrasting as the batik patterns of other Hmong groups but still quite elegant. If there is no batik fabric, they use hemp dyed with indigo and rub with beeswax to make it soft and shiny. The middle part of the dress is decorated with a combination of cross-stitch embroideries and appliques. They embroider in each frame about 6-8 squares alternating with geometrically shaped fabric patterns such as triangles, diamonds… The bottom part of the skirt is indigo dyed fabric or dark plain velvet fabric, which serves as the background for the above two patches. To make a dress, they need 5 meters of batik fabric, 5 meters of embroidered fabric, and 5 meters of dark fabric.

In the past, the traditional costumes of the Hmong people in Ta La Cao were decorated so elaborately and sophisticatedly. Currently, with the development of the market, people tend to buy ready-made dresses sewn from velvet fabric and pre-printed in bulk at local markets. Therefore, the traditional embroidery skills and batik skills of the Hmong people in Ta La Cao are at risk of gradually disappearing.

Realizing this, since 2005, CRAFT LINK Social Enterprise and JICA have conducted a handicraft development project to support the Hmong group in Ta La Cao to preserve their traditional embroidery skills, contributing to increasing income for the community. In the initial steps of establishment, the group was trained by CRAFT LINK on designing, product development, book-keeping, and group management skills for sustainable development.

To support the people here in preserving their traditional culture and maintaining their embroidery and batik skill in handicraft production, CRAFT LINK currently not only supports the group technically, but also acts as a bridge to bring their products to domestic and international markets. Young people are also encouraged to participate in activities to develop traditional local crafts. Hopefully, with efforts from many partners, Ta La Cao people will have more income for their families and communities, while preserving the cultural identity of the Hmong people for future generations…

For more information, please click here: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1ccOZZnltkQc8CJ7z4ElMzouvBis2PqDm