The traditional house on stilts in Tambon Sobtia, in Chomthong district of Chiang Mai, is decorated with exquisite woodcarvings that are symbolic of Lanna architecture. Thanks to the late National Artist Saengda Bunsiddhi this house enjoys the distinction of being the local Lanna Cotton Weaving Conservation Center, which is undoubtedly as well known as any other weaving centers in Thailand.
“Aunt” or “Pa” Saengda was a folk artist who had recognized the value of local cotton fabrics since she was a child, although she started weaving in earnest only when she was 38 years old. After the death of her medical doctor husband, she began growing cotton, spinning and dyeing yarn, and weaving her own fabrics. Setting and example, she later began to convince her neighbors to help preserve this branch of traditional Lanna art.
Saengda dedicated her life to the conservation of weaving, doing extensive research on the subject and enhancing the techniques of waving cotton fabrics until it became a heritage that the people of Chiang Mai could be proud of.
Today, Thais as well as tourists visit the place where she lived surrounded by greenery on the bank of the Ping River.
To allow people to appreciate the exquisite beauty of locally woven fabrics, Saengda's daughter and grandchildren turned her house into a museum, “Pa-Da Cotton Textile Museum”, better known as Ban Rai Pai Ngarm after the rows of bamboo she planted around her property.
On show at the museum are Aunt Saengda's collection of traditional “teen choke” and cotton fabrics, their wide range of designs and colors serving as a testimony to the creativity of the highly talented artist.
Apart from the National Artist's life and works and personal collections, Pa-Da Cotton Textile Museum also shows a simulation of the lifestyle and the surroundings of the house during her lifetime, thus allowing visitors to visualize the petite National Artist as she moved around the house and performed her daily routine.
Like any other traditional Lanna house, the museum is divided into bedrooms, a kitchen and other function rooms, which have been turned into a fabric display room, a room showing leaves and barks from which natural dyes were derived, and a hall featuring tools and equipment used in weaving.
The museum is alive with the sound of weaving, the way it did years ago when Aunt Saengda was still around. Under the building, the children of weavers who once worked alongside her continue weaving on the looms once used by their mothers, having inherited their skills and passion for weaving.
These new generations of weavers supply a strong and increasing market demand both at home and abroad for Ban Rai Pai Ngarm's hand-woven cotton fabrics, which are especially popular among consumers with a taste for natural fabrics.
It's a legacy left by Aunt Saengda Bunsiddhi, whose perseverance and dedication ensured that the heritage of Lanna cotton weaving lives on....
