Maha Sarakham village finds new, unique use for sticky rice baskets
Quaint “Mor Lam puppets” made from sticky rice bamboo baskets have caught the attention of tourists and won an OTOP award for Maha Sarakham’s Ban Don Noi village.
Ban Don Noi in Na Dun district is one of the Northeast province’s four communities to receive the Interior Ministry’s OTOP Tourism Community Award this year. The campaign aims to promote local communities to create a unique “One Tambon One Product” (OTOP) to help promote tourism and boost incomes.
To win, the products or services must showcase the community’s charm, culture or way of life in such a way that it brings Thai and foreign tourists to the area.
This year’s star winner was Ban Don Noi’s bamboo basket Mor Lam puppets that bring Isaan folk songs or Mor Lam “alive”.
These puppets sporting traditional “Khao Ma” loincloths are fashioned to depict not just singers, but also dancers, drummers and players of the “Khaen”, a reed mouth organ.
These unique puppets were first created by Ban Don Noi-native Preecha Karun, who set up the “Dek Thewada” (Young Angels) puppet theatre group in 2014. This group of young folk singers quickly gained fame for their eye-catching and at times adorable performances telling folk tales with these colourful puppets.
Preecha, who graduated from Ubon Ratchathani Vocational College’s Fine Arts Faculty, has extensive experience in puppet theatre and mime. He also worked with well-known play director Rassamee Phaoluangthong during his time in Bangkok.
Upon returning to his hometown, Preecha noted that several people in Ban Dan Noi village had nothing to do after the harvest season. So he began teaching them how to use natural and recycled materials to make puppets and figurines to sell to tourists for extra income.
A Mor Lam puppet and bamboo or papier mâché Buddha image go for between 1,500 and 2,000 baht apiece at local OTOP shops. The making cost, meanwhile, is only 300 to 500 baht.
Apart from giving locals a new source of income, Preecha also gave youngsters interested in Mor Lam lessons on singing, playing instruments and controlling puppets.
The puppets and other handicrafts peculiar to Ban Dan Noi village have not only brought people together but are also promoting the community’s economy in line with the government’s soft power and creative economy strategies.
