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Intellectual Cultural Heritage
61
Sin Tin Chok
Tube Skirt
A
sin tin chok
, a kind of traditional tube skirt,
consists of three portions: the top, the body, and the
foot.
The bottom part, called
tin
(“foot”) or choeng, is
woven with a technique called
chok
(“to pick and pull”)
into special motifs, which mark the special occasions on
which the skirt is to be worn. The decorative foot is
called tin
chok
and it is made (in the style which is
unique to the local communities) mainly in Mae Chaem
District, Chiang Mai Province, and Si Satchanalai District,
Sukhothai Province.
The
chok
technique involves both weaving and
embroidering simultaneously. The chok motifs are
created by inserting extra wefts at well-specified points
or stretches. Large bamboo needles, porcupine spines, or
the little fingers are used for picking and pulling up the
weft threads in various colours over the warps to create
the desired motifs.
The traditional
tin chok
skirt produced by weavers
in Mae Chaem District is a cultural heritage of the
Tai-Yuan ethnic group. These weavers prefer to make
tin chok skirts from cotton cloth dyed with natural
substances. They also prefer quite dense motifs on the
background of black warps, while the red warps are
reserved for the lowest part, called the
lep
(“toenails”)
of the skirt, which is usually left undecorated except for
the
hang sapao
or thin lines of black and white threads.
In the traditional chok technique of the Mae Chaem
weavers, the motifs are woven with the wrong side of
the cloth facing the weaver.
The traditional
tin chok
technique of the villagers
in Hat Siao Village, Si Satchanalai District has been
passed on through generations of the Tai-Phuan ethnic
group. These weavers prefer to use red threads for both
the wefts and the warps. Multi-colour threads are
inserted to produce spaced-out motifs that allow the red
background to feature prominently. The motifs spread
out all over the fabric. The narrow
lep
appears in yellow
at the bottom edge. The Hat Siao
Tin Chok
motifs are
woven with the right side of the cloth facing the weaver.
Besides being a testimony to the intricate art of
the weavers, the beautiful sin tin
chok
also reflects the
social practice among the Tai-Lao ladies who customarily
wear these skirts for important occasions, such as the
merit-making ceremonies at the temples and the
weddings. It shows that they are ready to assume the
responsibility of a housewife.