 |
005th Meeting –
April 1985
Social
Implications of Trade in the
A talk by Katherine
Bowie
N.B. If any minutes were taken of the meeting in
1985 then they
have long since been lost. These two articles, authored by Katherine,
cover all
of the content of her talk, and more.
Unraveling the
Myth of the Subsistence Economy: Textile Production in
Nineteenth-Century Northern
Author(s):
Katherine A. Bowie
Source: The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 51,
No. 4 (Nov.,
1992), pp. 797-823
Published by: Association for Asian Studies (I
only have
this as a pdf. file – JAS1992.pdf which I have not been able to
convert to a
Word file)
Assessing
the Early Observers: Cloth and the Fabric of
Society in 19th-Century Northern Thai Kingdoms
Author(s):
Source:
American
Ethnologist, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Feb., 1993), pp. 138-158
Published
by: Blackwell
Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological Association
As
anthropologists, most
of us would agree with Bruner that "our first responsibility is to
respect
people's accounts of their experiences as they choose to present them"
(1983:9). However, those of us interested in historical anthropology
face a
special challenge since we are rarely able to draw upon indigenous
accounts of
everyday life. Even when we are able to use such texts, the problem of
ethnographic authority remains (Clifford 1988:8; Clifford and Marcus
1986).
Considerable work is being done in historical anthropology in
reconstructing
indigenous histories by using the early narratives of Western
observers.
However, such efforts have obvious problems of observer bias (see Cohn
1987:136-171; Said 1978; Savage 1984). Furthermore, as in the
descriptions
discussed in this article, the outside observers have sometimes
recorded
opposing opinions. How are we, as anthropologists writing today, to
assess such
conflicting appraisals? Using the case of textiles in 19th-century
northern
From Veblen
(1912[1899])
and Simmel (1957[1904]) to Weiner and Schneider (1989), an appreciation
of the
varied manner in which textiles symbolize social distinctions has been
longstanding. As Bourdieu has written of symbolic goods in general,
textiles
can be an integral part of the "infinitely varied art of marking
distances" (1984:66; see also Barthes 1984; Sahlins 1976). Often the
distinctions are extremely subtle. Writing of the use of fashion,
Barthes notes
the importance of details as "concentrated meaning" (1984:185). For
Barthes, just a detail can change an object's meaning: "a little
nothing
that changes everything; those little nothings that can do everything"
(1984:243). However, more than just symbolizing distinctions, textiles
have
also been shown to constitute and consolidate social differences
through their
often vital role in a society's political economy. In his pioneering
article on
tributary textiles in the Inca kingdom, Murra notes not only that "no
political, military, social, or religious event was complete without
textiles
being volunteered or bestowed, burned, exchanged, or sacrificed," but
also
that cloth served as "a primary source of state revenues" (1962:722).
"Throughout
history, the Archival sources have
presented contradictory assessments of the social significance of
textiles in
northern
insights
into the semiotics of consumption and an important
methodology for historical anthropology.
Others have
made a similar point (see Schneider
1987 for an excellent review of the cultural, economic, and political
significance of cloth). As Weiner and Schneider summarize, architects
of
centralizing polities have awed spectators with sartorial splendor,
strategically distributed beautiful fabrics amongst clients, and
exported the
textile output of royal and peasant workshops to earn foreign exchange"
(1989:2).
Early
Western observers of mainland
Only the
king himself and the White
Elephant were entitled to white umbrellas. The crown prince and high
dignitaries of state were permitted gold umbrellas, twelve to fifteen
feet
high, in numbers according to rank. Innumerable regulations covered
such things
as the size, shape and metals of spittoons, of but- tons, of anklets.
The cut
and material of clothes, their length, and the pattern woven into the
cloth,
all had precise hierarchical attributes. A man's rank and occupation
could always
be told by his dress when he was alive, and by the style of his funeral
when he
was dead. [1972:104-105]
Contradictory
assessments of dress also occur in 19th-century descriptions of
northern Thai dress.
The anonymous author of one of the earliest surviving accounts remarked
on the
lack of class distinction in women's clothing: "It is curious to notice
the uniformity and universality of the female dress. The higher classes
vary
the style a little by inserting a very showy strip of wrought silk next
above
the bottom piece" (Bangkok Recorder 1866). Twenty years later, an
American
missionary working in northern
Although
scattered
archival accounts about northern
Thus,
depending upon the
archival source, contemporary scholars can reach opposing assessments
of the
character of these earlier societies. Research on textiles in mainland
The
This
article is divided into two parts. In the first, I
examine the cultural significance of textile consumption in 19th
century
northern
Textile
consumption: the
cultural material of class
Previous
studies have shown that 19th-century northern Thai
society was divided into three major social statuses: the aristocrats
(jao),
the freeholders (phrai), and the slaves (khiikhaa). The aristocracy was
internally differentiated by economic and political power. The greatest
power
and prestige were concentrated in those lords who occupied the five top
positions in each of the kingdoms, while lesser members of the
aristocracy
whose inheritances had dwindled were barely separable from the
peasantry at
large. Free villagers were all liable to perform corvée
labor and pay tribute to the ruling lords, but they were
internally differentiated according to economic class. The wealthiest
villagers
rivaled many members of the aristocracy; in fact, many had royal titles
and
intermarried with the lower levels of the aristocracy. Villagers
spanned the
economic continuum, from those with land and numerous animals down to
those who
were destitute or landless beggars. The difference between slaves and
free
villagers was also often a gray area. Elite slaves sometimes worked
very closely
with their lords and received more benefits than ordinary commoners. On
the
other hand, the conditions for ordinary slaves were generally worse
than those
for commoners since the former were at the mercy of the lords. (For
more on 19th
century northern Thai social structure, see Bowie 1988; Calavan
1974;
Ganjanapan 1984.) Nonetheless, although portions of this social
spectrum
overlapped, there were significant differences in lifestyle from one
end of the
spectrum to the other.
From
peasants in cotton
to lords in silk
According
to archival
sources, the dress of ordinary villagers was very simple. Men wore a
kind of
loincloth (phaa toi) and women wore a tubular long skirt (phaa sin;
phaa means
"cloth"). The earliest surviving description of northern Thai dress
was provided by David Richardson, a British official who traveled to
Chiang Mai
in 1830:
The men
wear the common
blue quilted jacket and generally a piece of blue cotton cloth round
their
loins.... The women wear a sort of petticoat but put on in the same way
(by
tucking one part within another) as that of the Birmans without either
pin or
string, and a crepe or sattin jacket. The jacket is seldom put on but
laid
across the shoulder and the younger women particularly go with the
bosom
exposed. [1829-36]
Another
early description, dating from 1866, offered
somewhat more detail:
But the
dress of the
Laosian women is very unlike that of the Siamese women. The main
article of
their dress is a very peculiar petticoat - made always of four pieces
sewed together
so that their seams pass around the body. The upper piece is white
about 6
inches wide; the next below is red, 12 inches wide; the next 24 inches
woven
with stripes of white and black shaded, with motley colours, the
stripes being
an inch wide; the bottom piece is red and 14 inches wide. The ends of
the
garment thus made are sewed together, and when placed on the person is
kept in
its place just as the Siamese do their panoong [phaa nung], by using a
white
strip for a belt as a band of a sheaf of wheat is twisted and tucked
under
itself. The women very generally have a white, yellow, or pink sash
which they
tie around their chests. [
This
account in
particular was essentially confirmed by the writings of subsequent 19th
century visitors to Chiang Mai. The differences in the accounts
involved the
number (whether three or four) and the colors of the strips. There was
agreement that the top strip was generally white, although one source
mentioned
black and dark brown as well as white, and that the bottom border strip
was
usually red (Bangkok Recorder 1866; Bock 1986[1884]:321, 326; Cort
1886:348;
Taylor 1888-1930:291); however, the British traveler Carl Bock said
dark brown
was used on the bottom as well (1986[1884]:326). For the largest
central
section, the colors given included white, black, yellow, blue, and red,
with
one source suggesting that the predominant color in northern Thailand
was
yellow (Taylor 1888-1930:291) and two sources noting that the
predominant
colors were red and yellow (Hildebrand 1875; Lowndes 1871 ).7
In addition
to wearing a
long skirt, northern Thai women generally carried a kind of scarf
called a phaa
sabaay, a "narrow cloth which could be worn over the breasts, over one
shoulder or around the head" (Prangwatthanakun and Cheesman 1987:12).
They
thought nothing of being bare-breasted. As one British colonial
official in
1875 noted ironically, the scarf "in the sun is carried on her head, at
other times on her arm, over her shoulders, round her neck, and hanging
down
behind - anywhere in fact, but where, in any other country, it would
be"
(Hildebrand 1875:17). The scarf was generally described as pink in
color
(Bangkok Recorder 1866; Hildebrand 1875; Lowndes 1871), although white
and
yellow were also mentioned (Bangkok Recorder 1866). Although Richardson
(1829-36) suggested that women wore some kind of jacket in 1830, most
other
historical sources indicated that jackets became popular among
commoners later
on, perhaps because of changes in fashion or perhaps because more
village women
could afford them.8
Northern
Thai men were
described as being generally dressed like Siamese men (Bangkok Recorder
1866).
About their loins they wore a phaa toi, a length of cloth some two to
two and a
half yards long and two to three feet wide (Bock 1986[1884]:323). This
cloth
was placed around the back and brought to the front, where the surplus
cloth
was twisted in a cord, brought down between the legs, and tucked into
the waist
in the back. The men were also generally bare-chested, and they carried
a kind
of plaid scarf called a phaa khaamaa, which could be used variously as
a
turban, facecloth, belt, or loincloth. Narrower phaa toi covered only
the
loins, leaving the men's tattoos visible; wider phaa toi were worn
long, covering
the man down to the knees. Shirts or jackets appear to have become more
popular
later on, as did the long blue pants (daew chador) now commonly worn by
village
men.9
Oral
histories provide
additional insight into the range of dress among commoners. Many
villagers
commented that in the old days they had far fewer clothes to wear and
that the
few clothes they did have were worn thin from use and very much
patched. In
fact, one villager remarked that in those days their clothes were so
patched
that the host fabric had long been worn away and all that remained were
the
"guest patches" (jao khaek).10 Cloth was scarce and
expensive for poor villagers. Village women told me that in the old
days many
of them were too poor to afford a full-length phaa sin and so they wore
instead
a sin kot, or "stunted skirt," which came only to the knees.11
Some villagers were forced to beg for old clothes to wear, theft was
not
unknown. One villager told of thieves stealing freshly woven cloth
straight
from the loom; another told of thieves stealing her grandfather's
clothes
basket (hiip phaa). Slaves, servants, and tenants wore the old discards
(khiisakjao; literally, "refuse" or "garbage") of their masters.
As one servant remarked of his master, "When he got new ones, he gave
the
old ones to me to wear. They were very valuable because clothes were so
expensive then" (Patel 1990:138).12
Wealthier
villagers had newer and more numerous outfits than
poorer villagers. Some of the village elite imitated the styles of the
aristocracy or were themselves lower-ranking members of the
aristocracy. On
festive occasions they were more likely than other villagers to have
new and
fancy clothing. The wealthiest villagers owned a length or two of silk,
which
the men wore as a phaa toi and the women as a phaa sin and phaa sabaay.
Wealthy
village women were more likely to wear fancy skirt borders; called tin
jok,
these borders were made of either cotton or silk. The village elite
were also
more likely to wear gold and other kinds of jewelry. Although one can
surmise
that on ordinary days members of the aristocracy wore cotton rather
than silk
clothing, they nonetheless generally wore fancier and better-quality
clothing
than ordinary villagers. Nineteenth-century paintings show aristocratic
women wearing
phaa sin with horizontal stripes like the commoners' but with gold
threads and
decorative tin jok borders; the skirts of commoners usually had plain,
solid
color borders.13 Aristocratic men are portrayed in long phaa
toi and
jackets; village men usually wore only short phaa toi. Both men and
women of
the aristocracy are often represented with more simply dressed
attendants
holding umbrellas over them. The ruling lords had much more ornate
clothing not
only for everyday but also for special occasions. One American
missionary
described the dress worn by the ruling lord of Lampang at his audience
as
follows:
[The king]
entered and
ascended the throne. He was a slight man arrayed in golden sandals and
red-
and-gold coat and pahnoong [phaa nung], a strip of cloth a yard wide
and nearly
4 yards long.... The golden crown upon his pompadoured, gray head
sparkled with
precious stones. [
William
Clifton Dodd, another missionary, depicted the state
robes of the ruling lord of Chiang Tung as being "entirely of cloth of
gold," adding, "his pagoda-like coronet or tiara is also covered with
gold" (1923:201). Dodd also detailed the court dress of one of the
Chiang
Tung princesses:
The skirt
with the many
colored stripes and the dark green border is used in the ordinary court
dress.
To this is added a second border of large flowers solidly embroidered
in gold
thread, each flower four or five inches in diameter and costing a rupee
a
flower. In the body of the skirt also is there wove much gold thread,
and the
border of green velvet is bordered on either edge with sequins in
silver tinsel
put on in points. The same sequins trim the two or three inches of
underskirt
showing, which usually trails on the ground. With gold embroidered
slippers,
gold bracelets and many gold ornaments in the hair set with spangles,
you want
to get a Kun [Khyyn] princess out in the sunshine to see her sparkle.
[1923:200]14
Not only
were the clothes worn by the aristocracy very
ornate, generally woven of silk with gold and silver threads for
design, but
they were also very expensive. A few references afford a glimpse of
their labor
time and cost.
The chiefs
and people of
wealth wear crape or satin jackets with gold or silver lace on the
front; ...
the cloth or petticoat of some of the higher ranks is richly
embroidered, one
of which is occupation for 4 or 5 months. [1829-36:40]
Another
reference, some 50 years later, provides us with
some insight into the cost of clothing worn by the aristocracy.
Lieutenant G.
J. Younghusband, writing of an 1887 journey, recorded that a silk lungi
(phaa
nung) sold for 18 rupees (1888:58). Recall also that the description of
the
princess's skirt indicated each flower pattern cost a rupee (Dodd
1923:200).
Bock gave some notion of the comparative cost of a silk skirt:
When the
"body" is made of silk, this border is made of the same material,
often beautifully interwoven with gold and silver threads. These rich
borders
sometimes cost as much as 60 rupees apiece, while the whole garment,
when made
entirely of cotton, strong and durable as it is, does not cost more
than from 1
1/2-2 rupees. [1986(1884):326]
That cotton
lengths cost
about a rupee each is further supported by the 1890 trade report of C.
E. W.
Stringer (1891).15
To give an
idea of the
purchasing power of a rupee at this time, some indications of wage
rates are
suggestive. Although very few statistics on northern Thai wage labor
rates
survive, I was able to find three references in the archival sources.16
According to the British trade report of 1894, porters were paid 12 to
15
rupees per month, assuming they carried an average load of 15 to 20
viss; about
54 to 73 pounds (Archer 1895). Some figures on the wages paid to
laborers in
the teak industry also survive. According to W. J. Archer, the British
vice
consul, Khamu workers who could once be hired for 40 to 60 rupees a
year (and
their food) could in 1894 no longer "be had under Rs. 70 to Rs. 90 a
year" (1895). Writing five years later, Acting Consul J. Stewart Black
gave
somewhat lower wage figures, while also lamenting the increasing costs.
He
noted that Khamu workers were paid 30 to 50 rupees per annum, in
addition to
their food, which cost about 5 rupees per month, or an additional 60
rupees per
year. Black wrote that in 1899 some teak laborers were being paid as
much as
120 rupees (food included) and went on to castigate the native
villagers for
their indolence, commenting that "not even the attraction of what is to
him [sic] a small fortune will induce them to undergo for any length of
time
the hard labour and isolation of forest work" (1 900).17
Thus,
forest workers in the teak industry were earning anywhere from 90 to
120 rupees
per year (including the value of their food), or about 7 to 10 rupees
per
month. Such wages paid to forest workers were considered a "small
fortune." Although the wages paid to porters were higher, it should be
noted that portering such heavy loads required tremendous stamina and
could be
done by only the strongest villagers. Furthermore, such employment was
seasonal.
According
to oral
histories, the wages paid to agricultural workers were less. Many
villagers
cited rates of one win (approximately one-seventh of a rupee) per day
for
agricultural labor at the turn of the 20th century.18
Archival sources suggest that wages for teak workers averaged
one-quarter to
one-third of a rupee per day and those for porters averaged half a
rupee per
day. Villagers also recalled that in the early 20th century
one
rupee could buy a full set of clothing, including a homespun shirt and
pair of
pants or skirt.
Clearly,
the
aristocracy's most luxurious clothes were not likely to serve as daily
casual
wear. Nonetheless they marked a significant distinction in purchasing
power and
social status between the elite and ordinary villagers. A tin jok skirt
border
that cost 60 rupees represented at least four months' wages for the
best-paid
porter and over a year's wages for agricultural workers. Everyday
peasant dress
already represented anywhere from two to seven days' wages and thus
constituted
a considerable expense for the ordinary wage laborer.
The ruling
lords of the northern Thai kingdom also had
distinctive regalia, including umbrellas and spittoons. Whether a
formal
sumptuary code existed is, as I mentioned earlier, unclear. However,
even
without the evidence of sumptuary laws, I believe that there is
considerable
indication of significant class differentiation through dress.19
With the exception of state robes and regalia of rank, differences in
dress may
well have formed a continuum of wealth rather than a clear-cut
differentiation
based on status. Poorer members of the aristocracy, less able to afford
the
most elaborate of clothes, would have blended with those below them.
Conversely, wealthier members of the rural elite, especially those who
had
intermarried with the lower ranks of the aristocracy, would have
dressed more
ornately. Nonetheless, overall, when one considers the cost of elite
dress in
light of the economic situation of poor villagers who were begging,
stealing,
or patching their simple clothing, a dramatic distinction emerges.
Beyond
dress: household
and ritual usage
Textiles
were used not
only for dress but also for a variety of household items and on various
ritual
occasions. Such uses of textiles also revealed considerable differences
according to wealth. Although the poorest villagers often did without,
ordinary
villagers used textiles for making mattress and pillow covers,
blankets, bed sheets,
and mosquito nets. In general the mattress and pillow covers were plain
indigo
or black with red stripes or trim. Bed sheets were plain white or white
with a
red stripe or checked pattern; fancier sheets had embroidery and in
some cases
more complex weaves. Mosquito nets were woven on special large looms,
and many
informants complained about how heavy homespun cotton mosquito nets
were to
wash.
Cloth and
clothing played an important role in ritual
prestations. For villagers, one of the most significant of these
prestations
was the offering of articles of clothing to parents, grandparents, and
other
elderly relatives on the fourth day (Day of the Year's Mouth, or wan
paak pii)
of the New Year's ceremonies held in mid-April. In addition, some cloth
item,
token or real, could be offered to a villager to whom one felt
indebted.
While the
old people sit
in their homes waiting for the younger generations to seek them out,
younger
people, both male and female, children and adults, walk from house to
house
carrying bags of flowers and bottles of fragrant lustral water....
People come
to pay respect either singly or, more often, in groups. When they enter
the
elder's house, they place flowers, tapers, and joss-sticks (always an
even
number) into the plate or tray. A coin or gift of cloth, such as a
handkerchief
or loincloth, may be added if the donor feels he or she is indebted to
the
elder for some past favour, such as the teaching of a magic spell, the
gift of
an amulet, or the prescription of a herbal cure. [1984:133; emphasis
added]
Another
very significant
village ritual in which cloth played an important role was the
ordination
ceremony of Buddhist monks. At the time of ordination, the novitiate
was
paraded about the village in aristocratic clothing (usually borrowed
from a
wealthy villager who owned a silk phaa toi) to symbolize the Gautama
Buddha's
birth into a royal family. During the initiation ceremony, he was given
the
yellow monastic robes. These robes may have been purchased, but in many
cases
they were made locally. When the robes were homemade, the close
relatives,
especially the novitiate's mother, generally wove the cloth. Then
friends and
neighbors gathered at the village temple to cut and sew the pieces
together.20
Once sewn, the cloth was dyed, the yellow coming from a natural bark
and later
from turmeric (khamin).21The initiate was often given
beautiful
embroidered pillows in addition to the monastic robes.22
Clothing
figured in
lesser ways in other village rituals. Small scraps of red and white
cloth
served as part of spirit-offering trays; in these trays villagers
included
symbolic representations of a variety of household items such as
mirrors,
combs, and clothes for the spirit to use. Handspun cotton thread was
used in
blessing ceremonies (mat myy, syyb chataa, and the like).23In
funerary rites clothing was traditionally put on the body of the
deceased
inside out. The deceased's good clothes were either distributed among
immediate
relatives or given to the temple for redistribution; the remainder were
burnt
with the body. Although northern villagers denied that a young bride
necessarily acquired a wedding trousseau (in contrast to northeastern
Cloth also
figured
importantly in the lives and rites of the elite. In addition to owning
more and
fancier clothes, the elite had more and better household items. Instead
of just
having enough mattresses, pillows, and other bedding items for the
family,
wealthier families had additional bedding sets for guests. Furthermore,
the
guest bedding was considered an object of display and so was more
likely to
have embroidered ends and complex, time-consuming weaves. Even today
wealthy
village families usually have wood cabinets with glass doors along the
wall of
the main room of their home to showcase guest bedding sets.
The possession of ornate pillows was another
particularly significant attribute of elite households. Although Thais
had a
variety of pillows, the prestige pillows were usually triangular and
were used
for daytime reclining. Their importance was highlighted in a British
official's
passing remark that such pillows were "to be seen in every house of any
pretensions" (Lowndes 1871).25 Furnishing their palaces, the
northern Thai princes displayed numerous luxury items such as
foreign-made
weapons, chandeliers, mirrors, lanterns, curtains, reclining pillows,
and even
imported carpets (Taylor 1888-1930:73; Younghusband 1888:63-64). In
1830
The full
extent of the
differences between commoners and aristocracy was most visible when
members of
the ruling elite traveled in state or participated in public
ceremonies. Royal
barges had large cloth canopies: the royal barge of the central Thai
king,
according to one observer, featured "a canopy of cloth of gold where
the
King sits on a golden throne wearing a gold embroidered coat and golden
shoes" (Dodd 1923:289). The royal entourage often consisted of scores
of
boats, the rowers all clad in matching uniforms. The elite also
traveled by
horse or elephant, the animals gaily festooned with decorative
textiles. On
state occasions, the highest ranks of the nobility used gold and silver
decorative caparisons. Mary Cort noted that the gold elephant trappings
were
"worth thousands," whereas the silver trappings were "worth
hundreds" of rupees (Cort 1886:349).
Some sense
of the possible psychological impact of these
beautiful cloth trappings for human and animal alike was provided by
Dodd's
account of the return of Chiang Tung's ruling lord from his annual bath
in hot
sulphur springs. Dodd noted that the procession always took place on a
big
bazaar day when the marketplace was thronged with people. Yet when the
lord
passed by, wearing his state robes "entirely of cloth of gold" and
riding "a very richly caparisoned elephant," there was "absolute
silence" (Dodd 1923:201). A similar sense was conveyed in another
description, that of the trips made by a princess, the wife of a ruling
chief:
She was a
great trader
and made frequent, almost yearly, trips down through
So dramatic
were these royal processions that they impressed
their Western observers no less than the local populations. As the
Reverend
Jonathan Wilson wrote of the cremation procession of the second-ranked
king of
Chiang Mai:
The first
king and
higher princes led the van of the procession. In the foremost part of
it was
the king's elephant, decked with gold trappings. In the funeral
procession came
also the favorite horse of the late second king, richly caparisoned in
silver
ornaments, and saddle covered with silver-cloth. Just after the horse
came the
second king's elephant wearing silver trappings ... To see the huge
animals
move slowly along, their polished pieces of silver and gold flashing in
the
sunlight, reminds one that he is in the East. There is nothing just
like it in
the Western world. [cited in Cort 1886:349]
Of the
annual rituals in which members of the aristocracy
participated, one of the most important was the Kathin ceremony, which
took
place in October, after the close of the Buddhist Lent.26
During
this ceremony, a new set of robes and often pillows or other items were
presented to the monks and novices. As De Young writes, "This was a
very
elaborate ceremony at the court and among the urban aristocracy, but
comparably
elaborate rites were never held in the villages" (1966:138).27
Celebration
of the Kathin is of ancient provenance in northern Thailand, the oldest
surviving mention of it being in the famous 13th century
Sukhothai
inscription of King Ramkhamhaeng. Even in this inscription it is clear
that the
Kathin ceremonies focused on the aristocracy:
At the
close of the
rainy season, the Kathin ceremonies take place, lasting one month. At
the time
of the Kathin ceremonies offerings are made of stacks of cowry shells,
of
stacks of areca, of stacks of flowers, of cushions, and of pillows. The
Kathin
offerings made each year amount to two million. Chanting, (the people)
go off
to perform the Kathin ceremonies at the monastery of the Aranyik, and
when they
return to the city the procession forms at the monastery of the Aranyik
and
stretches as far as the border of the plain. There everyone prostrates
himself,
while lutes and guitars, hymns and songs resound. Whoever wants to
play, plays;
whoever wants to laugh, laughs; whoever wants to sing, sings. This city
of
Several
19th-century observers mentioned members of the
ruling families being engaged in the preparation of monastic robes and
pillows,
most likely to be given to the monks during the Kathin ceremony. Bock
wrote,
"Much of the women's time again, whether rich or poor, is taken up in
making clothing for the priests" (1986[1884]:322). McGilvary said of an
1877 visit to one of the royal households:
In the
large reception
hall I found the Princess, virtually alone. She was embroidering some
fancy
pillow ends for the priests - a work in which she was an expert. Her
maidens,
some distance off, were sewing priests' robes. [1912:180]
In
special cases, it seems, monks' robes could be made of silk rather than
simple
cotton (Cort 1886:147).28 Some idea of the potential value
of the
monastic robes can be seen in a comment made about the king of central
Thailand:
The King is
expected to
visit annually every temple in the city which has been dedicated to him
and
make presents of yellow robes. According to the Directory of
In addition
to making public prestations such as those at
the Kathin ceremonies, the elite would have given considerable amounts
of
textile goods away during any other life-cycle or calendrical
ceremonies they
might hold. Thai ceremonials usually included a merit-making component
in which
gifts, including monastic robes and embroidered pillows, were given as
offerings
to the monks (see
Textile
production: the
fabrication of social class
In this
article thus far I have depicted significant
differences between the elite's and the peasants' uses of textiles. I
have
described a range of dress: from the stolen and the hand-me-down, from
the
threadbare and the patched, from the simple cottons of commoners to the
state
robes of the ruling lords. I have also outlined some of the different
uses of
textiles in village households as opposed to the court. Here, I should
like to
show how the differentiation was manifested not simply in the
consumption of
textiles but also in their production.
Weaving was
a skill that crossed the social spectrum from
poor to rich, from peasants to lords. Indeed, when I asked villagers
whether
rich or poor were more likely to weave, they gave mixed responses. Some
responded rapidly, "Poor people, of course. Rich people were too
comfortable and too lazy to sit there for hours on end, spinning and
weaving.
Besides, they could afford to buy their clothes ready-made." Yet other
villagers responded equally rapidly:
Rich
people. Poor people were too poor to be able to spend
time sitting around weaving. They had to work from morning to night
trying to
get food to feed their families. They couldn't afford to wait for days
and
weeks until the cloth was finished and could be sold. Besides, they
couldn't
afford the looms, and harnesses, and all the accessories you had to
have to
weave. The rich had the money to buy thread and the time to weave. One
had to
have a cool heart to weave; poverty made one hot-hearted.29
As will
become clear, both accounts are true; the
differences lie in the type of fabric being woven.
The
production of cotton
Most
clothing was made
from cotton. However, contrary to what is commonly assumed, weaving was
not a
universal household industry; only certain villagers in certain
villages wove
(see
From the
simplest and
plainest of homespun white cloth to the most elaborate designs using
imported
fibers, the value of the fabric gradually increased. Striped or plaid
cloth
involved more work and skill, in both weaving and dyeing, than plain
cloth and
was consequently valued more highly. Cloth woven with imported threads,
most
often used for women's phaa sins, was more expensive than the domestic
handspun
cotton. The wealthier the village weaver, the more likely she was to
weave the
more time-consuming decorative items such as colored skirts or striped
sheets.
The more elaborate the design, the more likely the weaver was weaving
for
pleasure with a "cool heart."
Unlike the
weaving of
plain cotton, the weaving of complex cotton cloths such as
supplementary wefts
or multi-harness weaves with multiple color designs was concentrated in
only a
few specific villages (see Prangwatthanakun and Cheesman 1987 for
details).
These villages included Baan Ton Hen in San Patong District, Baan Aen
in Hot
District, a few villages in Chom Thong District, and various villages
in
The more
complex the
weave, the more likely that the weaver was affiliated in some manner
with the
aristocracy, as war captive, slave, or member of the court. Virtually
each of
the areas known for weaving is associated with an ethnic minority
brought into
the
Unlike
villagers, who
had to weave, trade for, or buy their clothing, the ruling lords were
able to
extract raw cotton, woven cloth, and dyestuffs as tribute. Their
ability to
levy tribute on broad sectors of the population provided the
aristocracy with a
quantity of cotton cloth no single producer could hope to match.
Interestingly,
the majority of villagers who sent cotton or cloth as tribute appear to
have
been hilltribe populations, such as the Karen and the Mussur (today
more
commonly called the Lahu). One of the Karen villages that Captain
Thomas Lowndes
visited in 1871 had just taken its year's taxes to Chiang Mai: "it
consisted of Rupees 2, 2 blankets, and 40 viss of cotton" (1871).
Thus, the
aristocracy
appear to have been able to extract raw cotton, simple cotton cloth,
and
complex cotton weaves through political means. Tribute afforded them
both raw
cotton and cotton cloth, and the labor of war captives seems to have
provided
them with complex weaves such as tin jok
skirt borders. Although silk was considered a more valuable fabric,
cotton
cloth nonetheless had a variety of uses in royal households. The tin jok borders, even those made of
cotton, would have marked their wearers as wealthier than ordinary
villagers,
who only wore plain skirt borders. Possession of textiles ranging from
mattresses to elephant headpieces made from complex woven cotton would
have
similarly served to add to the prestige of their owners. Such cloth
could be
used as rewards for favored underlings or as gifts for visitors. In
addition,
cotton cloth made possible the public display of largess involved in
merit-making ceremonies, since monks' robes were typically made from
cotton.
It is also
possible that royalty were involved in the cotton
trade. There was considerable demand for raw cotton by Yunnanese
traders and
some demand for cotton cloth in
The weaving
of silk: In
addition to the broad spectrum of villagers
involved in weaving, women in the court also wove. However, members of
the
court appear to have woven luxury items, primarily of silk. As
She lived
in a large,
roomy, teak-built house, and was always busy making silken garments,
while one
of her slaves worked at the loom spinning silk thread. The Chow Operat
[second
king], as rumor has it, is very rich, having a good deal of cash,
besides some
60 elephants; but even a wealthy princess is not exempt from the
necessity of
making the silken garments which are the symbol of her rank, any more
than the
poorer women can do without weaving their cotton clothes. Many of the
"upper classes" are also skilled in embroidering the cushions or
pillows which take the place of chairs. Much of the women's time again,
whether
rich or poor, is taken up in making clothing for the priests.
[1986(1884):322;
emphasis added]
Archival
sources also
indicate that royal slaves were involved in silk weaving. The British
official
A. H. Hildebrand noted, "There is a good deal of trade capable of being
done also in silk garments and silk fancy work, at which the slaves and
others
are great adepts" (1875). It is not clear whether these slaves lived
solely at the court or also in slave settlements established to produce
cloth
for the court. Silk weaving is known to have been done in only two
areas
outside the court itself: the towns of San Kamphaeng and Hot (and their
immediate environs). While silk weaving continues to this day in San
Kamphaeng,
in Hot only traces survive in archival sources and in the memories of
the
town's oldest residents. No information survives to explain why Hot, a
town
some 70 kilometers from Chiang Mai, would have been a center of silk
production
and weaving, or why the industry died out. (Villagers said it was
because the
cocoons scared easily and so had died.) However, in San Kamphaeng a
senior
member of one of the prestigious silk-weaving families recounted the
local
version of the history of silk weaving in his area. According to his
account,
lords victorious in war would capture various kinds of artisans and
resettle
them in their own kingdoms. Thus, silversmiths were settled near the
south end
of Chiang Mai town, lacquer ware artists in another location, and
weavers in
San Kamphaeng. This account indeed suggests that the silk weavers in
San Kamphaeng
may have been royal slaves weaving at the behest of the court.
In addition
to being woven to meet internal court demands,
silk was woven for export and probably served as an important source of
revenue. Hildebrand wrote that among the chief sources of income of
Chiang
Mai's ruling lord was "the sale of wearing apparel, etc., made by his
several hundred slaves" (1875:16).31 He also commented that
freeholders were corvéed to perform various tasks for the lord,
with
"slaves being employed on some more profitable occupation" (1875). As
early as 1830,
A ready
made wife can be
bought for Rs. 50. This is an excellent investment, for his wife, if
properly
managed, will repay her husband double that amount in a year by the
work of her
hands. Indeed, the Lord Chief Justice's head concubine, an old lady,
can in
five days weave a silk lungi [phaa sin] valued locally at Rs. 18.
[1888:58]
Some idea
of the
potential scale of royal weaving was given by D. J. Edwardes, who wrote
that
the ruling lord of Chiang Mai had 300 slaves weaving cloth for him
(1875). It
appears that these Chiang Mai silks were marketed in
Royal
courts throughout
Silk forms
perhaps the
most important branch of commerce: a fine quality of the raw material
is
already exported in considerable quantities....
Our insight
into the social significance of silk increases
once we understand the difficulties involved in obtaining raw silk. The
silkworm was found or cultivated in only a few specific areas of
mainland
Thailand,
the greatest
producer of silk in Southeast Asia, has historically traded in silk
with its
Kampuchean and Burmese neighbors. The Kampuchean and Lao peoples have
also
traditionally raised silkworms for domestic use. Burma has not produced
a great
deal of silk … The Burmese textile producing area of Shwedaung,
near Prome, has
traditionally relied on the Yabein, an animist slash-and-burn people
living on
the nearby hillsides, to grow the silkworm for coarse silk yarns used
to
produce everyday clothing, while another animist tribe, the Riang
(sometimes
called Yang), have traditionally grown silk for the Buddhist Shans of
Burma.
The best quality silk has always been imported overland from
Even within
The culture
of silk in
Wild
silkworms were collected in northern
The cocoons
of the wild
silkworm are collected, and employed in the manufacture of native silk
fabrics.
The quality is coarse, and the supply insufficient for the home demand,
considerable quantities of silk being bought from the Yunnan traders in
exchange for the Lao cotton, of which far more than enough for local
consumption is grown. [1986(1884):324]
In San
Kamphaeng, where
silk production has continued to the present day, raw silk was imported
from
Luang Prabang,
The
geographical
distribution of raw materials had social implications. Since sufficient
quantities of cotton grew in upland regions of northern
A
comparison of cotton
and silk production, then, reveals important contrasts. While cotton
was
exported, silk was imported into northern
Understanding
the
process of textile production helps contemporary readers gain insight
into the
cultural meaning of cloth to 19th century northern
Understanding
the productive process also helps us
appreciate the manner in which textiles were interwoven with royal
authority.
Because of their coercive power, the lords were able to exact cloth as
tribute
from freeholders and labor from slaves. Their political position
reinforced
their economic position, since the textiles - and other goods - they
acquired
through tribute and slave labor were apparently marketed for revenue.
The
revenue and surplus textiles they acquired through the labor of others,
in
turn, reinforced their political position. By sponsoring large,
conspicuous
merit-making ceremonies in which they gave robes and pillows to monks,
the
lords enhanced their prestige and, ironically, created an image of
generosity.
The fine silks in which the lords dressed themselves symbolized not
only their
distinction from the poor but also their own relationship to the
political
economy of the kingdom.
Conclusion:
the social
context of northern Thai textiles:
Combining
oral histories
with archival sources, this article has examined textile consumption
and
production in 19th century northern
Notes
Acknowledgments.
This
article emerges from my dissertation fieldwork on 19th
century
political economy, conducted from 1984 to 1986 under the auspices of
the
National Research Council of Thailand with a grant from the Social
Science
Research Council. Subsequent fieldwork specifically on textile
production was
conducted during the summer of 1989 with a grant from the
1 Edwardes'
summary
raises questions about Anthony Reid's conclusion that in Southeast
Asia,
"the difference in dress between rich and poor, servant and master,
king
and commoner, was less marked than in pre-industrial Europe, where each
man's
station and even vocation could be read in the prescribed style of
dress"
(1988:85).
2 The
distinctions of
dress appear to have been quite subtle at times. Crawfurd wrote, "The
better classes permit the ends of the dress to hang loosely in front,
but the
lower orders tuck them under the body, securing them behind"
(1987[1828]:313).
3 The
passage continued:
But ...
other classes of the males follow the fashion
because they glory in being men and not women - men who can fight like
the
devils that are pictured on their abdomens and thighs, and run like
deer when
occasion calls, through jungles and swamps with but little to cover
their
tattooed nudity. [
Although
the older men
in northern Thai villages sport tattoos, the practice has fallen out of
vogue
among the current generation of northerners. For more on the symbolism
of
tattoos, see Nicola Tannenbaum (1987).
4 In the
course of my
interviewing I also encountered villagers who made mention of sumptuary
rules
with regard to housing and clothing, but they were unable to recall any
of the
specifics. The quotation cited suggests not only that sumptuary laws
existed
but also that they varied by ruler and kingdom.
5 During
dissertation
fieldwork in 1984-86, I interviewed more than 500 villagers over the
age of 80
living in about 400 villages throughout the
6
Considerable confusion
is caused by the various linguistic borrowings of the 19th
century
English language sources, which alternately use Indian, Burmese, and
central
Thai words to describe northern Thai clothing. Thus, terms such as phaa
nung,
lungi, and putso are used in ambiguous ways. In general, these terms
refer to
the lengths of cloth worn by both men and women on the lower half of
the body.
The lengths may be sewn into a tube (as in the phaa sin) or twisted
into a
thick cord worn between the legs (as in the phaa toi). To add to the
confusion,
the usage of these terms has changed over time. During the 19th
century,
phaa nung referred to the length of cloth worn on the lower part of the
body by
central Thai men and women alike, corresponding most closely to the
phaa toi
worn by northern Thai men. Over time the meaning has changed to refer
to the
tubular cloth, or phaa sin, worn during the 19th century by
northern
Thai women and now worn by women throughout the country.
7 As many
of the sources
I have drawn upon are somewhat obscure, I am including the full
descriptions
here. There is a remarkable overlap in the content and wording of the
anonymous
newspaper report of 1866 (Bangkok Recorder 1866) and Mary Cort's
description 20
years later. According to Cort: The dress
of the Laosian women is very unlike that of the Siamese: it is more
complete
and modest. It consists of a skirt made of varying widths sewed
together so
that the seams pass round the body. The upper strip is white, the next
red, the
next woven of white and black stripes and shaded with motley colors.
This is
the widest piece and goes about the knees. The bottom strip is red and
about 14
inches wide. The skirt is long, reaching to the ankles, and is kept in
place by
using the upper white strip for a belt as a band of a sheaf of wheat is
twisted
and tucked under itself. [1886:348] According to Lowndes, women
wore a red
and yellow horizontally striped petticoat along with a pink scarf
(1871). According
to Bock, women's dress was composed of 3
distinct pieces, generally of different colours and materials, sewn
together.
The main portion of the garment, or that part which covers the body
from about
the breast to the knees, is made, for ordinary wear, of cotton, and for
gala
purposes, of silk. It measures from 20-22 inches in breadth from top to
bottom.
It is always of a striped pattern, the usual colours being yellow, blue
and
red; the stripes, though made lengthwise in the materials, being worn
horizontally
round the body. Above this, just reaching to the breast, is a narrow
strip of
black, dark-brown, or white cotton
stuff, while below hangs a cotton border, about a foot deep, in dark
red or
dark brown. [1986(1884):326]
8 Bock,
writing in 1884,
observed, "A few Lao women are beginning to wear tight-fitting jackets,
cut to the shape of the figure, with equally tight sleeves, something
after the
style of the 'ladies' jerseys' recently so fashionable in Paris and
London, and
involving no small amount of labour to get on and off" (1986[1884]
:327).
Writing at about the same time, Cort made a similar observation: "Some
are
beginning to wear jackets or waists, but the usual style is for the
women to
have a brightly colored cotton or silk scarf tied around their chests
just
under the arms" (1886:348).
9 The
indigo-dyed cotton
daew chador and indigo shirts now identified as stereotypical of the
Thai
peasantry appear to have been of recent vintage, dating from about the
turn of
the century. Ironically, the blue farmer shirts (sya moh hoom) now worn
by
university students and Thai officials to demonstrate Thai nationalist
pride
seem to have been popularized by Chinese merchants. The daew chador has
more in
common with Chinese-style loose-fitting pants than with the traditional
phaa
toi. Additional support for the view that jackets became more common as
the
century progressed are provided in a few passing comments. In 1868
Henry
Alabaster detailed his recollections of people's dress ten years
earlier,
noting: "I remember that ten years ago at any of the great festivals
which
attracted there 40 or 50,000 spectators, almost all wore but one
garment - or a
sarong and scarf. Now almost every one adds thereto a cotton or silk
jacket" (1868). Stringer, writing in his trade report of 1890
specifically
about northern
10 That
cloth was highly
valued elsewhere in
11 "A
comment on
the poverty of temple slaves in Burma supplies further evidence that
the sheer
amount of cloth in one's clothing was an indication of economic status:
"They are poor these slaves, the men wear no brilliant putsoes and the
women wear no vest beneath their jacket" (Rangoon Gazette Weekly Budget
1899b).
12 The
value of cloth is
also suggested in a northern Thai rhyme describing the payment that
three women
received in return for sexual favors: "Miss Kum asked for silver, Miss
Huan asked for cloth, Miss Noja asked for an elephant. Hurry up and
finish
Doctor" (Bristowe 1976:127, cited in Patel 1990:127). Cotton's value as
a
commodity is seen too in the fact that there were traveling minstrels
who
literally "sang for their cotton." A favorite form of village
entertainment
in the past was soh, witty and often
bawdy repartee between a male and a female singer, with musical
accompaniment.
One especially popular form of soh
was the soh kep nok, or "singing
repartee to collect birds." In villages with surplus raw cotton, this soh would be performed as soh laek fai
(singing in exchange for
cotton). Each village household wishing a performance would build a
tree as a
stage prop, with cotton representing the birds in the tree. At a
certain point
in the plot, the male singer would then "shoot down" all the cotton
birds and put them in his bag. Having collected all the cotton balls,
the
performers would then move to the next house where they had been
invited to
perform, again receiving cotton as payment. (For more on the soh kep nok performance itself, see
Shim- bhanao 1982-84).
13
Nineteenth-century
paintings have been preserved at Wat Phumin in
14 Because
during times
of peace Chiang Tung and Chiang Mai were closely linked by trade as
well as by
cultural and linguistic similarities, I include these descriptions of
Chiang
Tung in the discussion of northern
15 Stringer
wrote that
Manchester chowls, "of which
four different sizes are sold, fetch from Rs. 20 to Rs. 24 per corge of
20
pieces, and the Bombay goods, also sold in four sizes, fetch from Rs.
17 to Rs.
20 per corge" (1891). Chowl is another word for phaa nung. According to
T.
Carlisle's 1899 trade report, chowl was "the Indian name for the
Siamese
'phalai' or 'paley,' that is the 'phaanung' or lower portion of the
Siamese
costume printed and furnished with a glaze" (1900). In other words, it
was
a length of printed cloth some three to four meters long. A possibly
higher
figure for the price per length was given by Alabaster, who suggested
that if
the British could manufacture sarongs to sell retail at about 4 to 6
shillings
apiece, they might find a market in
16 James
Ingram has done
a remarkable job of gathering wage labor rates for central
17 1t is
interesting
that while remarking on the indolence of the natives, Black commented
that it
was "not uncommon to find Khamoos working for foresters who had failed
to
pay their wages for 5-6 years" (1900).
18 Until
the early part
of the 20th century, the Burmese rupee (called the taep in
northern
Thai) was the dominant currency in northern
19 The
significance of
sumptuary laws is ambiguous. On the one hand, the presence of such laws
suggests an elite strong enough to have them passed; on the other hand,
it also
suggests an elite whose status is being undermined. It has been argued
that in
20 Lefferts
suggests
that there was a 24-hour time limit for the weaving, sewing, and dyeing
of
monks' robes (1990). Although I encountered no villagers who recalled
such a
tradition in the north, Nash does record a marathon weaving (although
no
mention is made of dyeing) event in a cotton-growing village in
21 Far more
remains to
be said about the raw materials needed for dyeing. For more on this and
other
dyes, see Prangwatthanakun and Cheesman (1987) and Fraser-Lu (1988).
See
Schneider (1976) for a fascinating discussion of the importance of dyes
in the
political economy of
22 A few of
the
traditional ordination pillows have survived. I saw one that was among
a
villager's last remaining unsold treasures; it had been made by his
mother for
his initiation. A triangular pillow made of black satin cloth, it had
gold
thread embroidered into a flower design at the points of the triangle.
23 Cloth
that has been
worn as a woman's phaa sin can be
very powerful symbolically. Soldiers often wore pieces from their
mothers' phaa
sins to protect them in battle, with the idea that their mothers had
done the
most to give them life and would do the most to protect them. This
symbolism
becomes even more intriguing when considered in light of the famous
myth of
Queen Chamathevi. She wove pieces of a phaa sin into a hat for a suitor
to
ensure that his arrows would fall short of their mark and he would thus
fail in
his quest for her hand in marriage. The stratagem worked.
24 Textile
production
seems to have been a more important and more widespread part of the
village
household economy in northeastern than in northern
25 The
importance of pillows in aristocratic homes was
graphically portrayed by McLeod in an account of a royal audience:
The
position in which I
was seated not being the most comfortable, which his son observing,
whispered
to his father when pillows were ordered to be brought in for me. None
of the
officers are permitted to use these in the Tsobua's [ruling lord's]
presence.
[1836:57]
26 The Pali
word kathina
means a piece of cloth that in former times was donated to a temple for
making
robes; alternatively, it means the wooden frame on which the cloth was
traditionally sewn into robes (Davis 1984:200).
27 Even
today kathin
ceremonies are "most often sponsored by government agencies, private
companies, and wealthy families" (Davis 1984:200).
28 The
central Thai
king, King Mongkut, wore robes of yellow silk while he was a monk
(Feltus
1924:53).
29 I
enjoyed the very equivocal, but passionate, response of
yet another informant. She said:
Rich people
didn't know
how to spin or weave. They bought their clothes ready-made or hired
other
people to weave their cloth for them. Rich people were too lazy to
weave for
themselves. But some rich people were stingy; they wove their own
clothes
instead of hiring poor people.
30
lronically,
Prangwatthanakun and Cheesman suggest that in the past "every woman
owned
at least one tin chok for special occasions" (1987:12). Because these
borders required so much skill to weave and were so expensive to buy, I
am
quite skeptical of this claim. I think that only the wealthiest of
villagers,
or villagers who were themselves expert weavers, would have owned a tin
jok.
31
Hildebrand did not specify how the slaves of the second
chief were employed; however, we know from Bock's account that one of
the
second chief's wives had her slaves spin silk. Hildebrand wrote, "The
second chief's source of income is not so calculable; he derives a good
deal
from the labor of his slaves, of whom, with his wives and children, he
never
has less than 600 under his roof, and the number outside would probably
double this
amount" (1875).
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Submitted
23 April 1991 revised version submitted 8 August
1991 accepted 5 September 1991 158 American ethnologist