-
✴︎
Building Partnerships through Silk
Ock Pop Tok took silk reeling and twisting to the next level at Ban Tabu Village by partnering with a Thai university that invented award-winning yarn production machines. Ban Tabu is located about 120 km north of Luang Prabang, and is home to ethnic Tai Dam, known for producing and weaving fine silks. Ock Pop Tok sources the majority of their silk from the village, and places it in the hands of the master weavers at the Living Crafts Centre in the UNESCO city. In October 2017, the Ock Pop Tok team visited Ban Tabu, and witnessed the Tai Dam women reeling silk from cocoons by hand, a magical yet labour intensive process. In most countries, silk is reeled by machine, but in Laos, most silk is hand-reeled. The process of hand-reeling begins by placing about 30 cocoons in boiling water. The women stir the water with a stick, and as the cocoons move around, their filaments come loose and attach to one another. As the women take out the sticks, a silk thread comes out of the water and is pulled through a bamboo frame that sits on top of the pot. It then passes through a small hole in the bamboo frame and where is it carefully wrapped and stored in bamboo baskets. Ock Pop Tok is continually seeking ways to deepen partnerships with their source villages, and in late June, they presented an opportunity for villagers to improve the quality and speed of their silk production. Ock Pop Tok did plenty of research and uncovered something at Surindra Rajabhat University in Surin, Thailand, at the Cambodian border. Surin is also known for producing fine silks, and the university won a national award for designing yarn production machines. Through a grant, Ock Pop Tok acquired two of these machines – one for silk reeling and the other for twisting the silk into yarn – for the village of Ban Tabu. On Tuesday, June 26, representatives from the university arrived at Ock Pop Tok to meet the team, explain the machines, and take a tour of the Living Crafts Centre. They discussed silk production and natural dyes, and talked about the similarities and differences between Thai and Lao weaving and designs. Villagers from Ban Tabu arrived in the afternoon, and also toured the Living Crafts Centre. Later that day Ock Pop Tok signed a memorandum of understanding with the university to formalize the agreement to purchase the machines. Three students from the university trained the villagers how to use the machines. The women were great students and enjoyed seeing the technology at work. The silk reeling machine will help to alleviate some manual labour and produce silk yarns with a more consistent and high quality. It also runs on solar power, which is more environmentally friendly than using an open fire to boil the silk. The twist machine twists silk yarns together with an even tension and speed. This will help the village produce a higher quality silk yarn. Ock Pop Tok is excited to see how this will play out in new products. This exchange of silk production knowledge between the university, Ban Tabu, and Ock Pop Tok truly showcases how cultural exchange can be done through textiles. Visit Ock Pop Tok
-
✴︎
Sanakeo Helps the Kids
Sanakeo Boutique Hotel & Spa staff recently handed over the contents of a donation box to Anabella Coria Zavala from Lao Friends Hospital for Children in Luang Prabang. The donation box sat beside the water dispenser in the hotels’ lobby area. Pictured is Sanakeo staff members Tamun and Chef Teo with Mr Burnett and Anabella General Manager Paul Burnett explained, “We offer guests the opportunity to refill their non-disposable water containers as part of the ‘Refill not Landfill’ initiative. In conjunction with the free water offer, guests were encouraged to give a small donation to the kids’ hospital”. Guests and passersby can purchase the non-disposable water bottles at the hotel to help reduce plastic waste in the UNESCO protected heritage city. Visit Sanakeo Boutique Hotel & Spa
-
✴︎
Laos-China Rail Construction Reaches Vientiane
The Laos-China Railway Project gave journalists a look at the railroad’s progress on the relatively flat Vientiane Plain. The Vientiane Times reported on 9 July, they had joined other local and regional media agencies on a trip to the construction site, though they did not name the location. A Chinese staff member from the Laos-China Railway Project told the media that they had already fabricated the approximately 800 beams required for an eco-friendly overpass, but did not reveal the length of this stretch of the high-speed railway. “Normally, concrete beams can be produced at a rate of one a day, but we can do four if we do so quickly,” she said. These will then be placed on pylons to support the rails. Mr Yuan from the project said the construction of this stretch of overhead railway is now 40 percent complete, and stressed its eco-friendly design. “Most high-speed rail bridges are built in the cities. Yet here farmers can also plant crops under the bridge, and people can use traditional roads in their villages,” he said. The raiway is set to open in 2021 Source: Vientiane Times Reporters
