Villagers, The Protectors of our Traditions
TaiBaan works with traditional handicraft artisans to preserve and promote Lao village crafts, create employment opportunities for villagers – mostly women – and reduce poverty.
TaiBaan means ‘village or a community of villages’ in the Lao language. It seeks to preserve, renew, and rebrand the ancient Lao crafts and techniques of the diverse ethnic population of Laos and showcase them to the world.
TaiBaan works with hundreds of artisans across ten provinces in Laos. In rural areas and among various ethnic groups, craft making provided a source of income and stability. Their stories demonstrate individuals and communities with remarkable talent and resilience.
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The eldest son of a farming family from Ban Don Khio, Khammouane Province, Sombath Somphone knew about poverty, hunger, and insecurity first hand. In the 1960s, when Sombath was eight or nine years old, his family escaped the Indochina war between the revolutionary Pathet Lao and the Government forces and sought temporary refuge in Thailand.
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TaiBaan works with cotton weavers in Savannakhet, Sayaboury, Oudomxai, and Luang Prabang Provinces, where the people of the Phu-Tai, Tai-Leu, and Tai-Dam ethnic groups have a long standing tradition of cotton production.
TaiBaan works with artisan groups to create a wide range of exquisite silk products. Each item uses silk that is hand spun, hand dyed, and intricately woven on hand-made wooden looms by women in rural villages. Silk weaving is deeply rooted cultural tradition among many Lao ethnic groups.
Unlike most other countries where sterling silver is 92.5 percent silver, TaiBaan’s silver jewelry is 95 percent pure. Lao silversmiths work mainly by hand to mould, twist, twine, and pull the very soft high-grade silver into the desired shapes and patterns.
TaiBaan works with artisans in Xieng Khuang Province who produce spoons and jewelry made from recycled aluminum bomb parts.
