Northern Thai culture displayed at Tamarind Village
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BANGKOK, March 15th, 2010 - Tamarind Village Chiang Mai’s leafy courtyards, clay-tiled roofs and whitewashed corridors are the setting for a stunning new photographic exhibition entitled ‘Patterns, Passages & Prayers: Traditional Cultures of the Golden Triangle’.
The exhibition, by American researcher Victoria Vorreiter, comprises more than 50 images and a number of fascinating tribal artifacts, exploring the rich diversity of tribal peoples in the region through their costumes, textiles, rituals and spiritual beliefs.
Vorreiter - a trained classical violinist and lecturer at DePaul University School of Music in Chicago - began to turn her attention to the primal role music plays in traditional cultures more than a decade ago. Her passion for the subject inspired the next phase of her life’s journey: taking her on treks to remote parts of Thailand, Laos, China and Myanmar in order to document and study the little known music of the region’s tribal peoples. In 2009, a beautifully illustrated archival book, Songs of Memory, was released, along with a music CD of ancestral songs. An interactive exhibition by the same name opened at the Jim Thompson Art Center in Bangkok earlier this year to great success.
Patterns, Passages & Prayers, which will be on display at Tamarind Village through July 31st, 2010, offers a different perspective from Vorreiter’s earlier exhibition, focusing on the beauty of simple, daily life activities - such as weaving, harvesting crops and tending livestock - and on rites of passage such as birth, courtship, marriage and death, as seen through her lens. Colorful descriptions and insights drawn from her meticulously kept journal entries accompany the images, bringing the subjects to life in intimate and insightful ways. In addition, rare objects such as Mien sacred texts, Karen ceremonial dress and a dazzling collection of children’s caps highlight a number of themes such as identity, Shaman rituals and the role of festivals in courtship.
The exhibition is part of Tamarind Village Chiang Mai’s ongoing efforts to foster knowledge and awareness of northern Thai culture and bring its appeal to a wider audience. Claudine Triolo, the hotel’s director of marketing and communications sees the hotel as perfectly positioned to do so, stating, “Tamarind Village’s ambiance was inspired by traditional northern Thai architecture and design. Set at the heart of Chiang Mai’s historic old town, the property exudes a sense of place that is firmly rooted in the area’s distinct cultural heritage. As such, it offers the ideal setting for Patterns, Passages & Prayers, a tribute to a way of life that merits study and further reflection.”
The exhibition’s striking images of quiet dignity, joyful exuberance and grace bear witness to the value of these fast disappearing cultures and the importance of preserving their time-honored traditions. When asked about the importance of her research in the face of rapidly changing technology and global communications advances, Vorreiter replies, “Indigenous peoples in the inaccessible hills of the Golden Triangle have depended for millennia on oral tradition to transmit knowledge, history, and beliefs. How long these customs can continue is in doubt. The aim of my work is to help preserve the majesty of these tribal rituals before they disappear.”
A series of in-depth documentary films created by Vorreiter is set for release in 2011 and 2012, which will serve to further this goal. Vorreiter’s traveling exhibition Songs of Memory will open at the Chiang Mai Cultural Center from February 12-April 30, 2010. A dynamic conference on tribal culture, history and beliefs will bring the exhibit to life through a series of concerts, presentations, demonstrations of traditional practices and a food festival. As a major sponsor of the exhibition, Tamarind Village is honored to support this worthy vision to document tribal culture.
About Tamarind Village
Tamarind Village Chiang Mai is a unique and charming Lanna-style boutique property that nestles in the heart of historic Chiang Mai making it the ideal base for exploring the city’s ancient temples and quaint shopping streets. 42 guest rooms and 3 suites, set around a series of courtyards, reflect the rich ethnic diversity of northern Thailand by using fabrics and patterns drawn from the region’s various hill tribes. An oasis of calm and tranquility, the hotel takes its name from a 200 year old Tamarind tree that shelters it in a shady embrace.
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