Chula kathin, a Buddhist festival also known as kathin laen, celebrates the end of Buddhist Lent and allows participants to earn merit through the offering of material for monks’ robes to the temple. Celebrated in villages throughout Thailand and neighboring countries in the past, this merit-making tradition used to be held annually, but over the years only a few communities continued to carry out this religious ceremony. In the last few decades, this rite has been revived in some areas. In northern Thailand, Mae Chaem District of Chiang Mai Province was one of the first areas to reintroduce this tradition, and the festival has been held in Chiang Rai on several occasions. In northeast Thailand, members of the Phuthai ethnic group living in different villages of Mukdahan Province have been the primary organizers of this local religious festival, and it also has been held in Sakon Nakhon Province.
April 26, 2011
The leading carpet and textile publication, HALI, introduces its readers to the Tilleke & Gibbins Textile Collection. David Lyman, Chairman & Chief Values Officer of Tilleke & Gibbins, is a well-known carpet collector and he unintentionally began the Tilleke & Gibbins Textile Collection in the late 1980s. The law firm first acquisitioned textiles from the diverse cultures of mainland Southeast Asia to decorate its offices. He soon recognized the need to build a collection of the region’s textiles to preserve this heritage for present and future generations.
