tribaltextiles.info

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Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

_________________
Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

I have had permission from Jeanee Linden to post the images of the celestial crown which she asked me about.

_________________
Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

Pamela and Ann,

Thanks for the beautiful photos. The Chinese text indicates these photos were taken in Luchun County and Jiangcheng Prefecture, Yunnan. Both of these areas are on Yunnan's southern border with Vietnam and Laos respectively.

Attached is p.44 from Yaozu Fushi (Yao Costumes) Guangxi, 1985. The girl on the left is from southern Yunnan. The girl on the right is from the Baise area in Guangxi.

Steven

Steven

Thanks so very much for the additional info gleaned from the Chinese text in 'The Yao Nationality' and the photos and text from' Yaozu Fushi' (Yao Costumes) Guangxi. The latter are spot on as Jeanee Linden was particularly keen to know how the textile is worn with the 'crown'.

This is excellent material creating an informative thread. I will be posting some photos from Jess Pourret's book as Susan Stem managed today to secure his permission to post images from his book on the forum for which I am very grateful, not only for this thread but for others in the future.

Best,

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Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

I thought I would post two photos from Jess Pourret's very excellent book: "The Yao: The Mien and Mun Yao in China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand" published by River Books in 2002. I am very grateful for his permission to post photos from the book on the forum.

There are several good photos in his book of the Kim Mun, Lantien Sha. Here I am picking a few of the ones I discussed above in my first post and reference should be made to the text I quoted from the captions to the photos.

_________________
Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

I could not resist posting another image from Yaozu Fushi.

Another book, Minority Nationalities Costumes and Ornaments in Yunnan (Kunming, 1992), also has a poorly reproduced illustration on page 152 of a "celestial crown". Rather than calling it a "celestial crown", the book refers to it less poetically as a "flower engraved silver head plate" There is an accompanying necklace like the one worn in the photo I posted above.

It seems the caption dropped some of my text. Women wrap their hair with the strands of pink thread. They then place the embroidered flower head cover on top of the silver ornament.

_________________
Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

A couple of weeks ago I was looking at some excellent photoraphs of minorities in Vietnam taken by Tristan Savatier, 'Industrial, Art, Events and Travel Photographer' when he spent a month in Vietnam in November 2005. He had contacted me to see if I could help him identify the people shown in a few of his photos. As I was looking through the general body of his Vietnam photos I was attracted to one of a woman, a market trader, in Bảo Lạc and realised that what I could see, peeping from under an embroidered cloth, was a celestial crown. I then set about hunting through Tristan's photos in ernest and found a whole group of photos showing how the crown is being worn today. I was especially interested to see how the embroidered cloth was also being used in conjunction with the crown. Tristan has given me permission to share his photos on the forum and I post several below. Go to his website http://www.loupiote.com to see his photos and, in particular, a stunning, large group from Vietnam http://www.loupiote.com/sets/72057594049714778.shtml

I will post the group of photos relating to the first woman wearing the crown who caught my eye and then, I hope Tristan won't mind, a few more of girls from the same tribal group, presumably Kim Mun Lantien Sha as described in Jess Pourret's book on the Yao referred to above.

_________________
Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

Photos of some younger women (presumably Kim Mun Lantien Sha) taken at the same market in Bảo Lạc, Cao Bang Province, northern Vietnam. The crown is not visible in these photos but the shots of the embroidered cloths which 'dress' it are excellent. Also note the ubiquitous machine woven plaid scarfs worn at the neck which so many of the minorities in Vietnam use now in their costumes. I am also adding in a photo of an old woman whom I am sure is also Kim Mun Lantien Sha and will probably have a celestial crown hidden under her purple scarf.

I am indebted to Tristan Savatier for his super photos and allowing me to share them with you. It really is the fun of collection and identification to have a 'eureka moment' as I did when looking at his photos and realised that I was seeing a Yao celestial crown being worn. I assume that this crown shown is aluminium rather than silver.

_________________
Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

Nicolas

I think that it is only Yao who wear this sort of crown. There are some variations of crown between one or two different Yao groups. Interesting that they wear them for 'every day' rather than festivals only.

The Miao certainly have a tradition of silver/white metal head dresses and these are often far more dramatic and 'in your face' than the Yao crowns. These tend to be worn for festivals but not every day.

I am attaching some photos from my travels in Guizhou in 2001 and 2005 showing some Miao metal headwear:
1. Miao, Da Zhai village, Taipan township, Taijiang county, Guizhou - May 2005. Definitely festival wear.
2. Miao, Yangweng village of Bajie township, Sandu county, Guizhou - May 2005. Again, festival wear. (2 photos)
3. Miao, Lou Jia Zhuang village, Anshun city, Guizhou. Oct 01 I think this is pretty much every day although probably only by older women now.
4. Miao, Bai Jia Po village, Feng Ting township, Luodian county, Guizhou. Oct 2001. These girls wear these head dresses as part of their dance costumes, presumably based on festival wear. I don't know if they may have previously also been worn more every day or not - perhaps without the main disc silver-ware.
5. Zhou Xi Miao, Zhoui Xi Township, Kaili City Nov 2001. Festival headwear although if you look at the first girl on the right and the middle woman I think that their solid metal 'crowns' are (or were) more every day. There was a silver-smith in this village in 2001. We visited again in 2005 but I don't know if the silver-smith was still there then.

_________________
Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

To add to the forum library here are two crowns recently added to my collection.