Faces Behind the Umbrellas of Borsang

A Colorful Day but NO Parade

Borsang a small town or village east of Chiang Mai is know for the making of colorful hand made paper umbrellas.  I have no idea how long they have been making them but it is the reasons tourists go out there to see.  I say see because as long as I have been coming here, six year now, I have yet to see any one purchase or carry  around an umbrella to avoid the sun.

This last weekend January 20 to 22 was the big weekend celebration that I was invited by my friend UK Mike, to attend the Friday opening day with a parade of floats and pretty young Thai women.  I went and these pictures are proof of the bright colors that abound every where.  

I am more please with the pictures of the interesting faces of the senior Thai citizens who are carrying on the tradition of making the umbrellas.

Bottom line no parade while we were there.  More about that later.

These two pictures are of Pim, a wonderful woman who is Thaiyai from the Shan State, a party of Myanmar/Burma who happens to be UK Mike's girlfriend at the moment.  She is lovely and very kind and fun to be around.  She seems to be learning English a lot faster that I am learning Thai.

                                                                                  

And here is their formal umbrella photo.  UK Mike is one of the people that I will be going to Myanmar/Burma this coming Thursday the 26th of January, for two weeks.  Pim will not as she works two jobs here in Chiang Mai.Take note of the amazing flower circle around them.  Reminiscent of the flowers at the Royal Floral Expo of a previous blog.

Here is a woman applying glue to the bamboo struts of a small umbrella.  The colored paper that she will apply are on the bench next to her.  Yes, the umbrellas are made of various sizes but even still, I haven't see anyone buying one.

There are ongoing performances all afternoon and I just happened to catch these young ladies doing a traditional folk dance. This is the first time I have seen a group this young doing the dances.  The dance is very slow moving and they stay in their places and use mostly hand movements and head tilts accompanied by slow foot steps.

I tried to imagine young American girls that I know doing this kind of dancing.

The children were in full makeup and that included the eyeliner with false eyelashes. 
What do you think?

And now the wonderful faces that have really experienced life.  Can you imagine how long these people have been doing these crafts?  They are all working in an assembly line doing just one small part of the production of the product.  The man above just paints the flower shapes on the finish umbrella, before someone else paints another part of the design.

Here is a face with history.  This lady is tying a white string through the bamboo struts that will control just how far the umbrella will open.  She has been sitting cross legged doing this same part of the production all day.

This picture doesn't really tell what is happening.  The lady is holding a sharp knife in her right hand and the handle is hidden by her forearm and the blade is moving rapidly and she shaves off the bamboo to the desired thickness of the struts.  This is the first thing that has to be done and then be passed on to the next lady.

                                                                       Here(next lady) is drilling through a handful of freshly shave struts.  It is hard to imagine the movement in these pictures but the hand drill again has a long handle resting on her thigh.

This wood turner is using a foot peddled lathe to turn the center connector that all the struts will radiate out from.  It is controlled but that taunt green rope that is attached top and bottom to flexibly bamboo poles and allows him to press down and then spring back up turning the piece of wood into a round form.  To think all those years I turned wood on my lathe, all I had to do is flick a switch.

This woman is demonstrating for me how the connector with all the struts in place will operate after the center handle is in place.  With no language to rely on, it was interesting how determined she was for me to understand the operation of the work she was doing.

Sorry about this ridicules straw hat that I was badgered into buying but I am very pleased to get the lovely Pim to come and have her picture taken with me.  She is one of a kind.  I feel very fortunate in knowing her and having her as a friend.

As in all Thai events there is many options for local food being available.  I find all the food prepared on the street by food vendors to be fresh and full of flavor, and some times a bit spicy!

To be continued when I get back from Myanmar/Burma