Mrs. Lath (front), with more than 30 years of experience, can craft up to two large weavings per week

Like most weavers in Laos, Mrs. Lath was taught to weave by her mother and grandmother, and has been weaving since the age of 12. An experienced weaver, she can make two large weavings a week, whereas the younger weavers in the village, who are less experienced and also attend school during the day, can produce one weaving every two weeks.

Weaving Tradition Secures Existence
Originally from Samnua Province, an area in northern Laos famous for the large and intricately woven shawls that are produced there, Mrs. Lath, her family, and many of her relatives moved to a small village outside of Vientiane, the capital city, five years ago. The move was purely for economic reasons: Vientiane is the main marketplace for Laotian textiles, and their new proximity to the city, a three hour bus ride down a 12 kilometer dirt road and another 80 kilometers of paved roads, allows them the opportunity to go to the marketplace and sell their wares to vendors once or twice a week. This in turn increases their standard of living and provides a steady income for the families living there.

Next to farming, weaving is the economic basis in rural Laos

On the day we meet Mrs. Lath in Vientiane, she is in the market place selling shawls made by her own family, as well as pieces made by some of the other villagers where she lives. She explains that the market is too far from the village to justify going there for just a few pieces, so it is not uncommon for one person to bring the work of several families.

	Seamless interaction of hands with loom
	Traditional weaving techniques are passed down from generation to generation
	The yards of silk nedded for weavings is often prepared by the men in the family

Weaving Under The House

Business taken care of, we drive together to Mrs. Lath's village which is scattered with the traditional Laotian wooden homes of between four and five hundred families. The area under the homes, which are built on stilts for protection from floods during the rainy season, houses the family's looms and is thus where the weaving takes place. A quick count of the looms under a house is a good indication of the number of women in the household, though the weaving process in Laos is no longer limited to only women.

The men of the village, who farm in the beautiful surroundings of the town during the day, also take part in the process by either weaving themselves or preparing the hundreds of yards of silk thread that is needed to make each piece.

Fair Trading
Kamibashi is in the process of setting up a fair trade agreement with Mrs. Lath and the other weavers in her village, and we very much look forward to bringing our customers more of the beautiful textiles that they so skillfully produce.