Diversity in Phongsaly
By Tessa Bunney on 27 December 2012Returned last Saturday from an exhausting week in Phongsaly, partly this exhaustion was due to the rough and dusty roads and partly everything else involved with photographing people in a foreign land. For this part of my project I am looking for women still making and wearing their traditional clothing (or part of it) on a daily basis – in particular growing, processing and weaving cotton. For a start its not easy to find out the right time of year to be there and even at the ‘right’ time it varies so much from village to village.
As there was no internet access for a week, I wrote down a few notes during the week:
Arrived by plane yesterday and stayed at a guesthouse in Boun Neua – it’s acceptable – a bit mouldy and spidery and the sink is the type which drains on to your feet. But this is the last guesthouse for a while so we will be staying in villages. I like that and it is the best way to get to know people a little, to give them some money for food and bed and hope they don’t ask for money to take their photo. I’ve done a fair bit over the past few months and it’s taken its toll – I’ve spent the last 2 months downing various anti-biotics to try to fix an undiagnosed stomach problem I have picked up along the way!!
I also have set myself the task to try to make a really nice portrait of a woman from each of the Akha sub-groups of which there are at least 11 in Phongsaly and more in Luang Namtha province.
I am finding myself really difficult to please. The light’s wrong, the people are wrong or the people are right but aren’t willing, the backgrounds wrong, the activity is right but in the wrong place! In the main, the Akha women can’t speak Lao so we can’t communicate with them directly either.
Not every Akha sub-group still grows and processes cotton however the Akha Cherpia do, after spending a few days exploring the north we then went to the west where there’s a cluster of Cherpia villages. Until very recently they lived isolated lives up the mountains but a new road (rough and muddy) connecting Phongsaly to Luang Namtha has now made some of the villages more easily accessible. To cut a long story short finding anyone weaving even at the ‘right’ time of year was tricky, the first village were celebrating new year, the second village were ‘banned’ from weaving because someone had died, the third village just weren’t doing it that day and then finally got to the fourth village to find several women weaving and the light was truly horrible! However, beggars can’t be choosers… anyway finally towards the end of the day the light became a bit less harsh and I was happy with this image.
During the week we travelled to the north, east and west of Phongsaly, the Akha in each area have their own traditional clothing, some sub-groups are similar to others, and others very different, some sub-groups have similar dialects and can communicate with each other and some don’t. Some wear full traditional costume every day but many more just wear their headdress which easily distinguishes which group they are from. All very interesting. I almost have completed the task to photograph each sub-group.
Akha Nuquie, Phongsaly Province
Akha Oma
And as you travel around Phongsaly Province, all this wonderful diversity of Akha people and villages are interspersed with around 25 other ethnic minorities such as Hmong, Yao, Hor, Laopan, Tai Lu, Tai Dam and Khmu – all with their own cultures and textile traditions.
Yao woman with her handwoven cotton