Slow start to the day. Went to the Umbrella Making Village outside of town and wandered around for a while.
Borsang is a village in Sankamphaeng District, Chiangmai Province in Thailand. It was a normal little village until over 100 years ago, a Buddhist monk went on a pilgrimage to the Burmese border.
One day during his meditation, a Burmese brought Phrain Tha, (that was the monk’s name) a hand made paper umbrella to shelter him from the sun.
Phrain Tha later visited the village of Thai-Lue descendants from China, and watched the villagers making Sa-paper umbrellas. For reasons only he understood, Phrain Tha became obsessed with the village handicraft, studying and writing down the detailed process of making umbrellas.
He took the information back to his people in Borsang and taught them the process. The knowledge expanded to nearby villages and the area has become known for their umbrella making skills. The villagers developed and improved the methods, and became a way for the villagers to increase their income during the post-harvest season.
Presently, the Borsang umbrellas are not only made for weather protection, but also for home decorations as well as ritual ceremonies.
It helped their cause considerably when Apasra Hongsakula of Thailand was crowned Miss Universe in 1965, and she carried a Borsong umbrella outside Belmont Plasa Hotel in New York.
Making things from bamboo by hand was a centuries old art before the umbrella making started, so the Borsang villagers picked up the craft quickly.
Originally the villagers only made paper umbrellas for the purpose of offering them to the monasteries on ritual occasions. Because of their increased popularity, the villagers improved and diversified their process to expand their customer base.
Sa paper used in the umbrellas is made from the bark of mulberry trees (Broussonetia papyrifera to be specific. Or that is what the sign said).
Initially, the bark is soaked in clean water for about 24 hours. Then it is boiled with several kinds of ashes for about 3-4 hours and rinsed cleaned with water.
Next, the material is hand beaten with mallets until tender and the fibers are put into a water-filled tank and stirred with a paddle until the fibers are suspended in the water. The fibers are then sifted with a screen and dried in the sun for about 20 minutes.
Once dried, sheets of paper are formed which can be peeled off easily. This process is all done by hand.
The bamboo to form the umbrellas is cut to size. 10”, 12” , 14”, 17”, 20”, 40” and 48” radius sizes are the standard sizes for the umbrella.
The bamboo is split to 36-38 spokes from one stem, then shaped to form the upper frames. The ending is bent in half for the upper half to make the umbrella curve. The other half is cut in half to make a lower frames to support the upper frame.
The softwood is carved to a cylinder shape with hole in the middle for the umbrella’s pole. The spokes are connected with cotton string to the join the upper and lower head.
The covering material is pasted onto the umbrella frame by a special mixture of paste and persimmon fruit secretion, which helps strengthen the umbrella. The paper is sewn onto the umbrella in the final step before painting.
We watched the craftswomen do the work of making umbrellas as we walked around, and then, instead of having a class on making an umbrella, there was a class where you could paint an umbrella if you wanted to.
No, I did not make nor paint an umbrella, fan, or other apparatus. Remember, I am a blank slate when it comes to picking design, and awful at drawing. I have an unwanted hat to prove it.
There was a store (bet you did not see that coming) where you could buy them and a whole plethora of other paper products. I could buy a blank item and have the artisans draw on it, but I was uninspired.
Did not stop me from buying a few things, but in the umbrella category, uninspired.
As we continued to wander and admire some of the ‘umbrella room of fame’ we turned and ran into a very odd old tech display.
No, we did not literally run into it, but the shock value was equal.
2 display cabinets full of old things from a TV, to a typewriter, to old phones. Even vinal records, and binoculars. It was not only unusual location for such a display, it was a very odd display.
After taking in all of that, we wandered around the area looking for a paper making factory. Did not find it, but in its place was a market.
Found a couple of beer signs to take magnet pictures with, but because it was before 5, the establishment was not open to partake in beverages.
Found a lot of things my daughter would like, or at least I believe she would look good in. Wanted to call and ask if she wanted things, but the girl needs sleep and I did not want to carry a bunch of stuff around. Still, the phrase of the day was ‘my daughter would like that…”
