060107 mortar & pestle

Kids playing with the large wooden mortar & pestle outside the house:




It is usually used for mashing slices of banana tree trunks with leftover food to make slops for feeding pigs. This mortar was made by carving out a hole in a tree trunk:





More 'modern' versions of the mortar are made by covering the inside of a plastic bucket with a thick layer of cement. Here are the cat's hosts using one such plastic bucket mortar on the 1st day of the 4-day long Akha New Year back in December 2004:



They are pounding cooked sticky rice (hor/haw) to make the sticky rice 'cake' called 'hor theung' (not sure how best to romanise the second syllable). After rolling it in the winnowing tray containing ground black sesame it is ready to eat. Some is also pinched off into smaller balls & used as offerings to ancestors.

While the cat was taking the above photo, NK was in the other half of the village taking photos of his own host family doing the same thing. After filling the 'tree trunk mortar' with freshly steamed rice (left) the son-in-law gets down to the hard work (right):


Photos by NK savaged cropped by the cat

(In other photos by NK, the father-in-law is busy lounging on the balcony above :P)

They have an elegant way of removing the sticky product from the mortar & pestle:


Photos by NK savaged cropped by the cat

[L-R, top to bottom]
1. twirl the pestle around in the mortar for the pounded rice to stick to it
2. wrap a strip of plastic/string tightly around the the pestle
3. pull it towards you
4. entire clump of pounded sticky rice comes off cleanly
5. roll the clump in the ground black sesame
6. repeat until the mortar is almost clean
7. small balls pinched off
8. placed in container at bottom left
9. offered to ancestors

Fast-forward to December 2010 - remnants of a piece of 'hor theung' (upper left) that has been savaged by the paws of two hungry cats:



Here it was eaten by dipping in honey. It is not found on the menu at Akha Ama Coffee cafe - the owner just happened to return with some from Akha New Year celebrations in his own village.

050107 another morning in Ban Apa

Aki & the other cat at 'their' house:


Photo by the other HY

In 2004, AS making the same type of bamboo cups seen in the above photo:


Photo by Big Black Cat

He had truncated the slanted rim, making it even easier to drink from. AS & wife were among the 26 in the 2005 accident, & his wife one of the more seriously injured. She was excited to see man-maid & the cat in 2010 & started explaining to a fellow villager about the accident & the help received from the A.W.E. team - using her own animated version of sign language (she is mute).

To visit Ata at her new house - with windows (traditional Akha houses have none):



She makes some of the nicest Akha clothing but prefers to dress in older stuff unless there's a special occasion. Here she has fixed on the top piece of her headdress:



Here without, standing at her handicraft stall:



She always has oranges & bananas in her bag or somewhere else within reach. & she always refers to herself as 'mama' & to us as 'baby' :P

Older half of Ban Apa as seen from outside Ata's house - the big open space is where celebrations are held:




Changes - (above) more parking shelters for more motorbikes, (below left) a new (as of 2005) 'karaoke palace' in front of the 'panda house', & (below right) benches in front of the info centre replacing the plants:

040107 baskets

Because his dad is an expert at weaving baskets & ขันโตก khantoke tables from bamboo. Yet-to-be-sold work stashed above the fireplace:




Smoke from the fire gets rids of all the bugs (& larvae that hatch from any eggs that they might lay) in the bamboo & also the thatched roof of the house, so that they don't hang around to chomp everything into pieces. Just like how the fire in the 囲炉裏 irori of 合掌造り gassho zukuri houses in Japan have to be kept going in order to extend the lifespan of the roofing.

The house is simply overflowing with baskets - here are some scattered on the ground outside, used for carrying firewood back from the forest:



All photos below from December 2004

The master at work - making the base of a new basket:




Sitting on the concrete posts meant for building the buseh's new house, YK & the cat attempt to pass Akha Basket Weaving 101:




The external examiner (lady in blue work jacket from another household) scrutinises our work while carrying a completed version on her back with strap around her forehead + wooden shoulder board that helps distribute the weight more evenly:



Larger book lying on the concrete post is a pirated (& much lighter than the original hardcover) copy of Jim Goodman's "The Akha: Guardians of the Forest" :P

The master also makes bird traps - here his son shows off one of the 5 pieces they had in stock:

040107 House interior v.2007

First 6 photos = view of house from the women's side, in clockwise sequence.

New fridge - from the younger sister who has graduated from college in Singburi & started working somewhere 'near Bangkok':





Blue/white checked canvas bag at bottom left is one of 2 that the cat brought over in 2004 - people here like to use such bags as 'portable cupboards':



Friends will recognise the 'towel that never dried' (above) :P

The forever-closed door on the women's side behind the backpack:



No YK this time, & the cat gets to use the same for-guests-only comforter.



Random things around the house...

Structure of the thatched roof is just so useful:


Photo from December 2004

Immediately next to the door on the men's side - 4 of the full array of knives/machetes of 5-6 different designs for various uses:


Photo from December 2004

Chicken feathers strung & fluffed up...



...to be dyed red to make tassels for women's headdresses:



Shoulder bag - rather unique in that the triangle pattern usually runs horizontally instead of vertically (as is the case for this bag):

House interior v.2004

All photos from December 2004 visit.

Entering the house - the front half takes up most of this photo:



Drinking water is stored in the white bottles (with brand names like Castrol, Caltex & Shell) at bottom right (above). Back half of the house is partitioned by the only internal wall into the men's & women's sleeping areas. Men's sleeping area (at left of above photo), with the partition on the right:



The partition stems from this story about a tiger/spirit creature who ate up her first Akha husband. To protect her second husband she asked him to divide their house with a wall, & they slept on their respective sides until she eventually became a human.

Women's sleeping area - young/baby boys allowed but otherwise out of bounds to men:



Amount of space to spare on the men's/women's side + gender of guests has to be considered when deciding whether to accommodate guests, although with so many young people leaving the village to seek work & education elsewhere it usually isn't a problem. Newer blue mosquito net + matching piece of blue lino + newer blankets for the guests (i.e. YK & the cat). Somewhere on the right is the other door - seems that this door on the women's side is used only once a year during a ritual where boys run in through the door on the men's side (the main door that everyone uses) & out through the door on the women's side to chase any spirits out of the house.

The sleeping areas have very comfy & relatively soft split bamboo flooring, unlike the hard wooden planks of the common area:



Apart from the shelves in the common area, zero furniture in the house - everything is tied up in sacks, stashed in baskets, or hung from the walls + roof. View of common area from the women's sleeping area:



The men's & women's halves each have a hearth, but only rice is steamed on the women's side at 4AM every morning, & all the rest of the cooking is done on the men's side. Everyone eats in the common area on the men's side, in front of the TV.

Here is a 360 degree panorama of Atee's former house for comparison.

House exterior

Where the cat stays in Ban Apa. Photos from first visit in December 2004 & third visit in 2007.

Every household has a bamboo fence around the compound. The gate is opened & closed by sliding the horizontal bamboo poles through holes in the 3 vertical poles (2 on left of gate, 1 on right):



The only times the cat has ever seen anyone close their gates was the night all of us hid in our homes when a villager went on a drunken rampage, & once when the buseh's household was trying to round up all their piglets.

Right outside the gate is one of the 3-4 spots along the road in this half of the village where residents gather around the fire to chat + keep warm in the early morning & after dinner every day. After the humans vacate the outdoor fireplaces, puppies will huddle around to soak up the warmth & are often found sleeping there.

Traditional Akha house built raised above sloping ground:



Pillars + floor = wood, walls = split bamboo, roof = imperata grass tied to bamboo:




On the left of the above photo, the balcony with split bamboo flooring:



This village has running water :) Generous overhang from low roof = a lot of welcome shade. Wooden stool is turned on its side when not in use by humans, so as not to invite spirits to use it - they're supposed to stay in the forest & keep out of the village area beyond the boundary marked by the front & back spirit gates.

Balcony is where we did the dishes + laundry. Leftover food that doesn't get gobbled up by the dogs (who love to lick our plates clean) goes into slops for pigs, while YK serves the chickens the smaller bits like grains of rice:



Grains that fall on the floor within the house are pushed through the gaps between the floorboards to the chickens waiting below. Water from washing + laundry flows down the slope towards the back of the house compound & eventually into the gully that divides the old & new halves of the village.



Balcony v.2007:




Within the compound will be the household's rice spirit shrine, where offerings are made to the rice spirit before the rice storage 'hut' can be opened:




[L-R] Toilet + shower, rice storage barn & pig pen at the back of the house:



Almost every household in this village has their own toilet (complete with ceramic squatter) + shower in an outhouse:



In 2007, a plastic showerhead attachment added:



For the few households that don't have their own outhouses, there are 2 in the middle of the older half of the village for common use.