Ethnic Groups

The black Hmong in Lao Chai Commune, Sa Pa District, Lao Cai Province.

Located in Muong Hoa – the most beautiful and largest valley of the district, Lao chai commune is about 8 km to the south east of Sa Pa center. This is home of the Black Hmong community, who lives mainly on rice cultivation in terraced fields. In addition, they also grow cardamom, sweet potato and raise cattle, poultry such as buffalos, cows, pigs and chickens to support their life.

Traditional costume of black Hmong women includes a knee-long hemp jacket in indigo/black color, and a cotton blouse in combination with short, loose trousers. They also wear several-layers black hemp scarf on their head and wrap their legs with black, thin bandage. And the highlight of the costume is the big belt with delicate embroidery. The jacket is bordered with tiny pink or white stitches and decorated with large, beautiful embroidery pieces in the neck, shoulders and sleeves.

Traditional patterns on the costumes of black Hmong in Lao Chai are created and inspired from nature objects which are very close to their daily life, such as: mountain, road, sun, melon seed and snails. These patterns are geometrically shaped into squares, circles, triangles, or parallel lines, zigzag lines…, they look very attractive.

In 2018 Craft Link was invited by CSIP to be the consultant for the project “Strengthen Social Enterprises for Innovative and Sustainable Rural Development-SERD). The project was sponsored by Bread for the World. Craft Link has not only implemented training sessions for the Hmong group members on product development skills, hand sewing skills, product final finishing skills and group management skills, but also supported them in product marketing and sales to generate more income, improve living condition for the community in the area.