Hmong Textile Symbols

Table Of Content

• Hmong Designs
• Men's Hmong Motif Jersey, Baseball Jersey, BLACK
• Hmong textile, Hmong vintage princess hat. Paj ntaub tawm laug. Handmade. Vintage tulip beads. Adjustable.
• Hmong Applique & Flower Cloths
• Vintage tribal Flower Hmong women tunic in Bac Ha area,in the north of Vietnam
• Hmong Story Cloth, Hmong Village Life

These oversize squares were transformed into tablecloths, pillowcases, and wall decorations. They also inspired household and accessory items including cup coasters, aprons, bags, jewelry, and stuffed animals. The methods and techniques utilized for making Hmong clothes have changed over time.

Hmong Designs

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Shoua V. Xiong of Hmong ABC Bookstore served as a consultant, and answered questions and clarified things that were unclear. Mark E. Pfeifer, PhD served as a grantwriter to find funding for the project and also edited the final narratives. We are grateful to Noah Vang for allowing the Hmong Cultural Center and the Hmong Archives to use numerous photographs he provided for the website.

Men's Hmong Motif Jersey, Baseball Jersey, BLACK

Many elders do not have time to teach these traditions to their grandchildren. For the reasons above, the Hmong art of making paj ntaub may be lost among future generations. Traditionally, Hmong embroidery was made exclusively by women to provide clothing for themselves, their husbands, and family members. They also embroidered baby carriers and funerary textiles like clothing and pillow casing for the deceased. The Hmong people who practiced animism (the belief that natural objects have souls or spirits, and that they can help or harm people) believe dressing their deceased loved ones in flower cloth textiles allowed them to join their ancestors in the spirit world. Traditional paj ntaub has many motifs and symbols that represent objects from the natural world to the man-made world.

Hmong textile, Hmong vintage princess hat. Paj ntaub tawm laug. Handmade. Vintage tulip beads. Adjustable.

These traded goods held within their folds the profound memories and narratives of the Hmong’s experiences of war, refuge, and hardship. Hmong embroidery has evolved to include Lao, Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Western influences with the availability of different kinds of fabrics, threads, methods, techniques, and ideas. For instance, when the Hmong first arrived in the United States in the late 1970s, some of the families were initially resettled in Pennsylvania. While residing there, Hmong women learned a new style of appliqué techniques (quilting) from the Amish community. Once the hemp plant is harvested and dried out in the sun, the fibers are stripped from the plant’s stalk.

Hmong Applique & Flower Cloths

Some men became artists who drew the stories, while others learned to sew story cloths as well. Folktales are popular embroidered stories including the Hmong creation story, Nou Nplai and Yer; the birth of Jesus Christ; and many others. According to oral history in the Hmong community, it is said the Hmong women hid the ancient Hmong paj ntaub script in the clothing of the Hmong people, especially in the pleated skirts of the Green Hmong. From this time forward, the scripts became motifs or symbols in Hmong embroidery. Knowledge of the scripts was not so relevant in the lives of the Hmong and was eventually lost.

Hmong Inspired Borders Collection 2 Cross Stitch Pattern PDF

Hmong women adapted traditional motifs, and developed new styles of paj ntaub and crafts for commercial purposes, especially targeted to tourists and the Western market. From traditional textile decorations on clothes, they developed tapestries or story cloths. These tapestries first appeared in the 1980s when the Hmong people lived in the refugee camps. There was little opportunity to make money, so the women used their embroidery skills to earn income to support their families. On the story cloths, the women depicted the war experience through embroidery needlework, and similarly the village life that the Hmong were once familiar with when they lived in Laos. The squares normally found on the qua sev, a belt that is traditionally worn on the Hmong women’s waist with Hmong clothes, were also adapted to larger sizes.

Today the motifs in Hmong embroidery are used as decorations in clothing, accessories, and crafts. Traditional Hmong batik, known as Paj Ntaub nraj ciab/cab in the Hmong language RPA,[3] is created using white hemp fabric, beeswax, indigo dye, and a tjanting tool. Aesthetically, Hmong batik is similar to other Hmong visual design and often features bold and contrasting geometric designs. These designs are achieved by holding the handle of the tjanting tool with the copper nib positioned closer to the wrist which allows straight strokes to be drawn.

Hmong Story Cloth, Hmong Village Life

As the Hmong continue to live in the United States, their lifestyles have changed due to employment and educational opportunities. Hmong women don’t have the time to make embroidery as they once did in Laos. It is more convenient to purchase machine-made Hmong attire at the flea market or the supermarket. There are many new styles of Hmong attire, which do not resemble the regional Hmong clothes from the provinces of Laos. At the present time, many Hmong girls don’t have the time and/or opportunity to learn how to make paj ntaub as their elders once did.

Hmong Embroidery Apron - Golden Yellow Horizontal Stripes

In China, Southeast Asia, and other parts of the world, Hmong embroidery is passed down from mothers to daughters as young as five or six years old. In Laos, the skills these young girls acquired made them valuable to potential suitors because the expectation was for them to know how to sew clothes for themselves and their family members. Hmong elders also share that their ancestors call it the Flower Cloth because the embroidery patterns resemble how the petals of a flower stem out evenly from its center. Outside of the traditions, families will profit from the paj ntaub by making traditional or contemporary pieces. These pieces will then be sold at the Hmong New Year which occurs in late October through December.

The Hmong people’s desire to live freely drove some of them to flee China into the mountainous areas in Southeast Asia (Burma, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam) in the late 1800s. To save their written language, Hmong women turned the script into motifs or symbols hidden in the pleated skirts of the Blue/Green Hmong. Over time, the motifs lost their meaning, but they remained important symbols of Hmong identity. Embroidery is a sewing technique that uses a needle and thread to decorate the surface of a fabric. The overarching term for Hmong embroidery is called paj ntaub (pa thou) and translates to “flower cloth.” Hmong elders said the name was inspired by flowers where the stem, when cut, radiates symmetrically from the center.

Although scholarship is limited in terms of Hmong basketry, examples can often be seen on display in folk art museums or depicted in Hmong story cloths. From Hmong oral history, it was said that Hmong women once preserved the ancient Hmong writing script in their clothing when the imperial Chinese persecution of the Hmong increased in the 1700s to 1800s. The imperial government banned the use of the Hmong language to force the Hmong people to assimilate.

Photos: Designing Hmong heritage into fashions - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Photos: Designing Hmong heritage into fashions.

Posted: Sun, 12 Mar 2017 08:00:00 GMT [source]

These stories were then passed down from generation to generation, primarily through the matriline. Hmong Textile Art consists of traditional and modern textile arts and crafts produced by the Hmong people. Traditional Hmong textile examples include hand-spun hemp cloth production, basket weaving, batik dyeing, and a unique form of embroidery known as flower cloth or Paj Ntaub in the Hmong language RPA. The most widely recognized modern style of Hmong textile art is a form of embroidery derived from Paj Ntaub known as story cloth. The second form of paj ntaub is known as pictorial story cloths  or paj ntaub tshiab (pa thou chia), a new type of flower cloth that were created in Thailand refugee camps in the 1970s.

Enjoy a personal guide to the art of paj ntaub in Hmong Museum’s monthly free workshops. Send me exclusive offers, unique gift ideas, and personalized tips for shopping and selling on Etsy. Etsy is no longer supporting older versions of your web browser in order to ensure that user data remains secure. The project was made possible through the generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Asian Pacific Endowment of the Saint Paul Foundation.

They dress up in their best embroidery clothes to be seen in public with friends, and engage in courtship with boys through ball tossing and folk song singing activities. According to Shoua V. Xiong (2012), consultant of the Hmong Embroidery project, when a girl gets married, she is responsible for sewing clothes for everyday wear as well as new clothes prior to the Hmong New Year celebration for her family. On New Year’s Day, a Hmong family wears their new clothes to celebrate the festivities. The website is intended to educate viewers about the many different types of traditional and modern Hmong embroidery and the meanings attached to many of the motifs commonly used in Hmong embroidered art works. The art works featured in the exhibits on the website are part of the collections of the Hmong Cultural Center and the Hmong Archives in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The only time she had to sew were late nights or during the limited breaks she could find between her other responsibilities.