By Mai Chao Duddeck
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Traditional Paj Ntaub (Flower Cloth)
Pictorial Paj Ntaub (Story Cloths)
The Past, Present, and Future of Paj Ntaub
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. Hmong women used paj ntaub to make colorful intricate designs for their clothing. Clothes are important to the Hmong people because they identify groups and clans based on the design, style, and accessories.
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. 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.
Historically, the Hmong people lived closely with the natural world, so flower cloths were inspired by their environment. There are two distinct types of Hmong paj ntaub, including traditional flower cloths (geometric and organic shapes) and pictorial story cloths (created in Thai refugee camps in the 1970s). Although technical skills vary between the two styles, the needlework shows the brilliance and great technical skill of the embroiderer’s creativity, design, and execution. This article explores the two types of Hmong embroidery: traditional paj ntaub (flower cloth) and pictorial story cloth.
Traditional Paj Ntaub (Flower Cloth)
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. These special “burial clothes or burial robes,” such as khaub ncaws laus (kao ger lao, ancestral clothes), tsho laus (chao lao, large sailor collar), or tsho vam sab (burial clothes, chao va sha) would allow their ancestors to recognize them and be reunited once more. Hmong textiles have a strong connection to their cultural beliefs. Traditional paj ntaub has many motifs and symbols that represent objects from the natural world to the man-made world.
Motifs and Symbols
Traditional paj ntaub motifs are symbolic with different geometric and organic shapes to represent functions such as creating a protective talisman like the “eyes” on a dab tsho (da chao, back collar of a jacket) and baby hats (to fool evil spirits), creating group identity, and preserving the Hmong’s lost secret written language (Green/Blue Hmong women’s skirt).
Common design motifs found in traditional Hmong embroidery are the elephant’s foot, snails, mountains, house, dragon tail, cucumber seed, heart, pinwheel, star, landscape, diamond, flower, and more. For instance, the three patterns on the skirt were sewn to represent the three main bodies of water (Yellow River or Dej Dag, Yangtze River, and Dongting Lake or Pas Dej Toob Theeb) the Hmong crossed to escape persecution.
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.
In peaceful times, the New Year celebration was a special event for everyone to dress up in their finest embroidered clothes to be seen by the public. The celebration was a time for courtship and a place to attract marriage partners. Young brides would spend time making new clothes for everyday wear and New Year celebration clothes, because it is believed that new clothes bring good luck, good health, and prosperity to the family.
Being a skilled embroiderer was highly sought after, because it required the woman to not only be creative, but to take on a labor intensive responsibility on top of her other duties (daily household chores, care for family members, field work, and community support). The only time she had to sew were late nights or during the limited breaks she could find between her other responsibilities.
Hmong Clothes
Originally, Hmong clothes were made from maj or hemp. Once the hemp plant is harvested and dried out in the sun, the fibers are stripped from the plant’s stalk. Next, the fibers are pounded to soften them, and then the women hand-twisted them into long threads to be woven into coarse cloths.
Hmong clothes are not all the same, but a diverse representation of people who were classified by scholars based on their clothing. There are five known groups of Hmong people: White (Hmoob Dawb, Hmong Der), Blue/Green (Hmoob Ntsuab, Hmong Jua), Striped (Hmoob Txaij, Hmong Tsai), Black (Hmoob Dub, Hmong Du), and Flower (Hmoob Paj, Hmong Pa). Each group has their own distinct style of clothing. For the women, their attire includes pleated skirts or long pants, head dresses or hats, collars, jackets, cuffs, coined purses, front and back aprons, sashes, and elaborate silver necklaces called the xauv. Men’s clothes are simpler where they wear a baggy trouser, a jacket that is low cut with embroidery at the neckline and sleeves, a red sash as a belt, a hat, and a simple silver xauv (optional). Children’s clothing tends to follow the adults based on their gender.
There are distinctive characteristics of clothing within the five groups of Hmong people. The Blue/Green Hmong women are known for their batik pleated skirts that are dyed black or indigo blue. White Hmong women do not dye their pleated skirts but leave them in their natural “white” color. Black Hmong women wear mostly black. Meanwhile, Striped Hmong women wear a jacket with blue or white stripes around their black sleeves. Flower Hmong women wear colorful floral patterns. Even though each group of Hmong have their own unique clothing items, they share common articles in their attire. Formal Hmong clothes are worn at celebrations like the New Year, weddings, funerals, naming ceremonies, and other important ritual events.
Techniques
There are complex embroidery techniques used by Hmong women to make clothes and other decorative items. The main techniques are appliqué, reverse appliqué, batik, chain stitch, cross stitch, embroidery, and story cloth stitchery. The table below gives a brief description of what each technique is and examples for reference.
| Technique | Description |
| Appliqué or Embroidery | Intricate needlework made by hand where pieces or patches of fabric with different shapes and patterns are sewn onto a bigger background fabric. The Hmong word is paj ntaub (pa thou), which is an umbrella term used to describe all techniques involving fabrics sewed by Hmong women. See example. |
| Reverse Appliqué | The main fabric is placed at the back of the design, then the top layer is cut away to show the fabric underneath. Finally, the top fabric is stitched in place to the back layer. The Hmong word is paj ntaub tawm laug (pa thou ter lao). See example. |
| Batik | A resist dye technique where motifs are drawn with a special tool called the tjanting pen or sometimes known as the “canting” tool. To make designs, Hmong artists used different tjanting tools dipped into natural molten beeswax that would resist the dye later. Once the design is completed, the cloth is soaked in an indigo dye and then set out to dry. If a darker color is desired, the cloth is soaked in the dye again before the artisan boils it in hot water to melt the wax. The result has contrast between light and dark tones. The Hmong word is paj ntaub nraj ciab/cab (pa thou da chia/cha). See example. |
| Chain Stitch | A series of looped stitches that form a chain-like or petal-like pattern. It is a surface embellishment used to create curved lines like “drawing” with thread. See example. |
| Cross Stitch | Stitches that cross to make “X” shapes to form patterns and pictures using colorful threads. The stitches are the same size throughout the fabric, but the thread colors can change to show the motif. There are two ways to cross stitch. The first is paj ntaub laug keej (pa thou lao king) and the second is paj ntaub laug pluas (pa thou lao plua). Both methods look the same on the front, but the back is different for paj ntaub laug keej. See example. |
| Story Cloth Stitchery | Needlework using floss thread to sew on a flat surface of a fabric. The fabric is made out of cotton and the stitches depict scenes, events, or stories from Hmong culture and history. The Hmong word may vary, but it is referred to as paj ntaub tshiab (pa thou chia, new flower cloth). See example. |
Pictorial Paj Ntaub (Story Cloths)
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. A story cloth is a flat piece of cloth with stitching that depicts a theme and often has a geometric border around it. The border acts like a frame to enclose the story. The overall shapes of the story cloths are primarily rectangles or squares. Story cloths are pictorial because they represent Hmong figures, animals, places, and shapes that tell a story with pictures.
Story cloths emerged out of necessity to bring income to support Hmong families in the refugee camps after surviving the Secret War. Through this new art form, Hmong women, children, and men transformed Hmong oral traditions into visual narratives by telling their stories on cloths. This new style of embroidery offered Hmong artists a chance to share their creativity and record their desolate reality living in the refugee camps, while expressing their yearning for home and loved ones left behind in Laos.
Themes
The powerful story cloth themes focus on life in the villages of Laos, farming and animals, life in the refugee camps, military occupation, forced migration, folktales, historical accounts of Hmong life and culture, and later on, Christianity like the birth of Jesus or nativity scenes. Other themes include paj ntaub dab neeg (pronounced: pa thou da neng, flower cloth of the people); paj ntaub lub neej (pa thou lu neng, flower cloth of daily life scenes); and paj ntaub tsiaj (pa thou chia, flower cloth of animals).
In the refugee camps, everyone had more time than they once did in Laos, so story cloths were not exclusively sewn by Hmong women and girls, but men also helped. 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.
In Thailand, story cloths were sold at open markets to Western aid workers or sent to relatives in other countries (USA, France, Australia, etc). Story cloths can invite the viewer to empathize and appreciate the experiences of the Hmong people. The stories revealed the essence of humanity by seeking peace only to face wars, escaping tragedy to find a new voice, and seeking shelter and creating new lives for future generations. As the Hmong people continue to adapt and redefine themselves across the world, their stories are stitched onto cloth as memories of their lived history.
The Past, Present, and Future of Paj Ntaub
In the past, paj ntaub served as a form of decoration for Hmong women to create clothes and preserve history. In the present, paj ntaub has undergone tremendous changes as designs and patterns get repurposed or reimagined to meet the creative demand of modernization where group identity is less important. The emphasis is on creative expression to see who can wear the most unique styles that come from different groups’ clothing (Laotian, Thai, Chinese, American) and mixing it with Hmong paj ntaub motifs. Other challenges like assimilation (people internalizing dominant culture’s values, behaviors, and beliefs as their own) present obstacles for paj ntaub to exist in its authentic form. The ease of access to machinery and cheap machine-made prints threatens the survival of paj ntaub. Hmong people living in the US and in developed countries around the world may not spend time making traditional paj ntaub and pictorial story cloths like they once did, because they have jobs and educational access that have expanded their economic opportunities. Meanwhile, Hmong people in Southeast Asia and China still embroider in order to make a living from their crafts, but they have learned to adapt due to access of materials, machines, and markets.
Although Hmong people’s transnational identity shines brightly with their mainstream successes like Sunisa Lee, Aden Thao, Payengxa Lor and others who brought the Hmong people to a national stage, there is a growing concern that new generations of Hmong people may lose paj ntaub techniques or have little desire to learn the craft. The future of paj ntaub remains unclear as some say it is a dying art, while others work to preserve it by institutionalizing Hmong culture in cultural studies programs for future generations. One thing remains true today: without paj ntaub, the Hmong identity will be lost.
References
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Contributing Editor: Yia Vue
Illustrator: Alex Yang