Silk Road

Baan Kok Sai is a small village not far from Roi Et; and there is not much to see. A village shop, a few narrow sois; and a very smart house owned by Khun Peter and Khun Toon who hosted us for our stay. The village is surrounded by rice fields…

…but there is more going on that just rice farming. Following the “one tambon, one product” philosopy, the village has a product; and it is this:

Or without the twirly bit in the middle, this:

The trays are used in the silk-making process. The bare tray is crammed full of mulberry leaves which the silkworms consume with great speed:

When the silkworm is ready to spin its cocoon, it is placed in the tray with the spiral insert, this helps ensure a consistent size of cocoon.

We made a trip round the village to observe the various stages of silkworm tray construction. Bamboo is the source material, and everywhere we went there were people making strips of bamboo to serve as a basis for the mats and the spirals:

The strips are then woven into mats:

Or used as a basis for constructing the spiral inserts:

Building the tray required a bamboo hoop to be formed around a template:

A mat is then laid on the hoop and held in place by a second hoop pressed into place with the feet:

The excess (and your foot if you are not careful) is removed with a very sharp knife:

After binding..

…the bare tray is now complete:

Some of the trays then have the spirals inserted:

The highlight of our tour was definitely the villagers themselves. Charming and friendly, nothing was too much trouble for them. A fine example was the man in the orange shirt who constructed the trays. Only after he had ridden off on his bicycle did we learn that this was not normally his job. He worked on a construction site but had slipped away to demonstrate how the trays were made after we had expressed an interest…

I lost count of the houses where we were invited in for food; and of course there was the constant presence of children. In a community where money was undoubtedly in short supply, the children were smartly dressed and of course very keen to have their photos taken:

“Hey Mister Kevin, how come your photos are crap compared to Khun Spike’s?”:

A gaggle of youngsters followed us round, hoping to invade every shot; such as the tray binder:

After one minute:

After two minutes:

We went to another village in search of the next step in the process. We found some spinners and weavers; but they were not working with silk:

Walking around the village was a great experience; thanks to Khun Peter and Khun Toon for being our guides, and to the villagers of Baan Kok Sai for their hospitality.

Comments 🔗

2014-11-10 | Grant says

What a lovely series of shots. We need reminding occasionally that outside of Sin City the older slower gentler productive ways of life still flow on…

2014-11-11 | Parry says

I live in a village between Roi-Et and Kalasin. We often run out of water.

2014-11-11 | Kevin says

This was my fifth trip up into Issan staying with my friend of many years Peter and his wife Toon. For me there is something special about this place and it has to be the people. They labour away day after day doing the same old job just to maintain a fairly basic standard of living yet, the vast majority seem to have a sense of contentment in their lives that I can’t help but envy.

Without doubt they are amongst the warmest and most friendly people I’ve ever met with such open hospitality. As we moved around the village seeing the various stages of production, we were invited into people’s houses and gardens like we were long lost friends. It’s impossible to even imagine a few tourists turning up at someone’s front door here in the UK just to have a nosey around, it simply wouldn’t happen.

I’ve made around twenty five trips to Thailand to date and visited most of the major tourist spots. In places like Pattaya and Bangkok it’s very difficult to see Thailand as “The Land of Smiles”. Without doubt, decades of contact with not always the best the West has to offer has jaded the view of many Thais and I just hope that never ends up spoiling places like Baan Kok Sai.

As for “Khun” Spike’s pictures being better than “Mister” Kevins I explained to the children that “Khun” Spike is rather old and getting very forgetful and once again, had forgotten his 12-40mm lens so had to borrow mine. The children in the picture are laughing as I show them a picture I’d taken earlier that morning of “Khun” Spike going out into the village in just his underpants ( not a pleasant site ) as he’d forgotten to get dressed again. Perhaps if “Khun” Spike visits too often then the " Land of Smiles " factor may dissapear from Baan Kok Sai too.

2014-11-26 | brentoncollas says

After reading nothing but shit about LOS for the recent past, it was a pleasure to read and see this story. Too bad even simple pieces like this can’t get more exposure for the good of Thailands reputation. It was a reminder for me that the best of Thailand is in the countryside and the people. Thanks for the reminder Spike.