Weft Ikat woven textiles in Vietnam are associated primarily with the Thai of Thanh Hoa province. Similar textiles were also produced by various Tai speaking groups in neighboring Nghe An and Hoa Binh provinces and are woven by Tai in Houa Phan Province in Laos. The Thai region of Muang Kasa in Thanh Hoa Province appears to have been an important center for weaving weft Ikat patterned textiles.

 

One type of weft Ikat cloth produced by the Tai in this area features wide weft Ikat horizontal bands, the ground usually alternating between dark indigo blue or rust red. In between the Ikat bands are bands with several narrow lines, some of these are plain in various colors, others may feature weft Ikat patterning In white and blue, or supplementary warp patterning.

This cloth is used to make skirt bodies (with the bands being worn vertically) and well as segments of the waistbands (or breast-covers). Another type of cloth features alternating wide and narrow vertical bands bordered with stripes of white geometric supplementary warp patterning. The wide bands have rectangles with weft Ikat human figures on a black or dark blue ground bordered with horizontal lines of geometric supplementary warp patterning.

 

The space between these bands is either plain or sometimes there are thin lines that are either plain or occasionally feature simple warp Ikat patterning. This type of cloth is used only to make skirt bodies with the wide weft Ikat bands being worn vertically.

The Tai Muang and Tai Thanh of Nghe An province produced only the first type of weft Ikat patterned cloth and used it only on skirts worn at funerals. Skirts made of this type of cloth are also occasionally encountered among the Black Tai in the Muang Thanh (Dien Bien Phu) area of southern Lai Chau Province. These are relatively old pieces and formerly were worn exclusively at funerals as well. It is unclear, however, whether these skirts were made by the Black Tai in this area or were imported from Thai communities to the south.

It is possible that the range of weft Ikat patterned textiles associated primarily with the Thai of Thanh Hoa Province formerly were made by otherTai as well and that the present distribution of such textiles reflects the relative isolation of those communities still weaving such cloth. It is also possible that such weft Ikat weaving, even in the distant past, was only associated with particular groups of Tai. Interesting in this regard is the fact that among Thai in Nghe An and Lai Chau provinces tube skirts with weft Ikat patterning are associated with funerals, whereas among the Thai of Thanh Hoa Province such skirts are worn on many occasions, and some Ikat patterning is even found on everyday wear.

This may indicate that those groups reserving weft Ikat patterned skirts for funeral wear borrowed the technique from the Thanh Hoa Thai and in so doing assigned such skirts special status. However, this may simply reflect more recent developments as a result of the weaving of such cloth becoming rarer in some areas.

 

The Lao of southern Lai Chau Province also produce cloth with weft Ikat patterning. This cloth is especially interesting since it appears to be an imitation of the warp Ikat weaving on skirt cloth by the Thai. This weft Ikat pattern consists of simple dashes in white and dark blue on the bodies of tube skirts. When worn the patterning on the skirts looks much the same as that on the Thai skirts because the Lao weave their skirt cloth on the loom just as it is worn on the skirt, whereas the Thai turn their cloth when taking it from the loom and making it into a skirt.

Thus, the vertical warp Ikat patterning on a piece of cloth while still on the loom woven by a Thai becomes a horizontal line when made into a skirt. In contrast, a horizontal weft Ikat line on a piece of cloth that is still on the loom of a Lao weaver remains a horizontal line on the skirt.

 

The arrangement of weft Ikat patterns on Thai cloth into narrow bands is interesting and contrasts with weft Ikat patterning among some other peoples, such as the Khmer of Cambodia.

Although the Thai now weave on a relatively wide frame loom, rather than a narrower backstrap loom such as the one used by the Li on Hainan Island, the patterning is still produced in bands reminiscent of the strips woven by the Li. This layout is perhaps a survival of the earlier type of weaving and may indicate that the origins of weft Ikat weaving among these Thai is local and not derived from India. This relates back to the initial question concerning weft Ikat weaving among the Thai in Vietnam and Laos. Is their weft Ikat tradition their own invention or did it develop as a result of Indian-derived influence via the Khmer? Thus, are we looking at a chain of diffusion from Khmer to Lao-Phutai to Thai in Vietnam or at two independent sources of weft Ikat weaving and a point of contact in between?