This book was bought for the artefacts collection by one of our student workers who visited Laos. She was struck by this lovely fabric book made by children to sell to tourists. You can see the biro letters under the text which was written by an adult as a template for the children to stitch over. The book has 3 pages and 6 sides. The text is in English and Lao and is accompanied by brightly coloured satin stitch pictures showing family members engaged in everyday rural activities. Use the moving object tab to turn the pages.

I particularly like the page where the parents are picking mushrooms from the trunk of a dead tree. They are harvesting them into a satchel and a basket worn across the back. Many kinds of mushrooms grow wild in the rainy season in Laos and many of these are edible. Some of the wild mushrooms popular in Laos are hed puak, hed langok, hed phor, hed than, and hed feuang.

This simple children’s book gives a vivid sense of life – the food people eat, the animals they tend and the clothes they wear. Laos clothing, in its traditional form, shows dress unique to the Laotians Hmong community. While men wear black trousers, black shirts and embroidered waist bands, the clothing of women of Laos is more elaborate and decorated with embroidery and designs. In the pictures in this book you can see the colourful bands worn around the waist by both men and women. Women also wear large headdresses as a part of their traditional costume. Colours are black, white, and a range of vibrant reds, pinks, greens and blues.

The Western influence on the people of Laos has affected the clothes they wear. While women still tend to wear sarong skirts and blouses, men usually favour Western clothes. The traditional Laos clothing is now limited to festive occasions.