THE SPIRIT SKIRTS OF THE LAO-TAI PEOPLES OF LAOS
Speaker: Patricia Cheesman

The spirit skirts of the Lao-Tai peoples of Laos are woven with wide weft ikat bands alternating from red silk to indigo cotton, separated by supplementary weft or multi-coloured stripes, with images of burial houses and river dragons. These textiles are strikingly different from other textiles and serve as clothing for both the shamans and the dead. The shamanic tradition of the Lao-Tai involves rituals to appease and seek advice from the ancestors, using either male or female shamans as mediums who travel to the after-world in trance. Oral tradition holds that the first shamans were women who had spirit helpers in the form of various animals and only later did the men learn the techniques of ecstasy. Thus both male and female shamans dress in spirit skirts when in trance as well as other distinctive items of clothing. In trance, the shamans become spirits and by wearing these skirts they are accepted by the spirits of the ancestors. In the funeral ceremony a woman is dressed in layers of clothing, including many skirts, one of which must be a spirit skirt, as it is through this skirt that the ancestors are said to recognise them and invite them into the heavens.

What is the origin of this design and how old is it? This paper discusses these questions and the role of the spirit skirt in shamanic rituals as well as the distinctive elements in the skirts that identify them to their various regions of origin.

Introducing
PATRICIA CHEESMAN

Patricia Cheesman has conducted in-depth field research on textiles in Thailand and Laos over the past 30 years. She has published numerous books and articles and has been lecturing at Chiang Mai University in the Thai Art Department since 1984. Originally trained in England in ceramics, Patricia worked for the UNDP/ILO in Laos between 1973-1981 and from 1981 to 1984 lectured at Sydney and N.S.W. Universities, Australia on Southeast Asian art history. She worked for the Crafts Board of Australia on weaving projects for Lao refugees and contributed to numerous international exhibitions including "Indigo textiles - Laos, Japan, Nigeria", "Lanna Textiles - Yuan, Lue, Lao", "Textiles and the Tai Experience in Southeast Asia" and "Textiles of Asia: A Common Heritage". She is a textiles consultant to the Thai Ministry of Education, the Bank of Thailand collection and the Lao Women's Union.