Sorba Sansutthiwong, 60, is a Lahu, an ethnic group that resides in Ban Pa Kha in Lampang's Muang Pan district. He is holding a woven bamboo backpack that he designed and was made by his wife. The shape is a rectangle, unlike typical bamboo baskets used to store rice or other items in his home. It also has bright multicoloured shoulder straps made of fabric, which almost look like crafted strips used for decorating his cloth.
"I designed this bag for a laptop," he said while opening the top to show me the inside.
For Lahu, craftwork belongs to women while the man's duty is to find and prepare the bamboo for the craftwork.
Sorba is the president of the Handicrafts Group of Ban Pa Kha. The group has 30 members who are mostly farmers that grow Arabica coffee, the main source of their incomes.
He displays the woven bamboo laptop bag and a woman's handbag in a demonstration area in the Ban Thung Chi Royal project initiated by HM Queen Sirikit the Queen Mother in 1996 to solve the problem of deforestation while providing extra income to the locals.
The Lahu are one of the ethnic groups who have received such support. They sell their handmade products to the project and the retail price for this handmade laptop backpack is 700 baht.
"It's hard to find kids from the young generation who want to continue this art of woven bamboo bags because the income is not much. However, I will continue to do it because HM Queen Sirikit told me to keep our heritage alive," he said.
When travelling, it’s not unusual to run into so many faces. While many might just flash by, others linger on not just in your memory but also in your memory cards. It might be a person, an animal or even a non-living thing. If you have taken a picture of such a face with a story you wish to share, a face with the eyes looking directly at the camera signifying that the shot was made not against their will, feel free to email the photo (file size at least 2MB) and a brief text to pongpetm@banfkokpost.co.th.
