The Development of Local Wisdom on the Locally Woven Clothes to Community Innovation in the Border Communities in Ubon Ratchathani Province

Abstract

     The work was a qualitative research. It aimed to study the local wisdom used in the locally woven clothes in the border communities in Ubon Ratchathani province, and to develop the community innovation model for the locally woven clothes according to the concept of a creative economy. The research instruments were an in-depth interview, and a participatory and non-participatory observation. The targets were local scholars, community leaders, and local cloth weaving groups. The research found that the local wisdom employed in the locally made cloth weaving process could be classified into two categories. 1) Local wisdom for production of the cloth weaving equipment could be subdivided into a loom, a bobbin, a spindle, a shuttle and a cotton swap. 2) Local wisdom used in the local industry and cloth weaving handicraft could be divided into the following. 2.1) Tied cloth dyeing featured the following patterns: a circular-shaped pattern, a common tied cloth pattern, a heart-shaped pattern, a rice stalk pattern. 2.2)The design called Laikhit had the following patterns: a flower pattern, a butterfly pattern, an elephant-shaped pattern, a squid-shaped pattern. 2.3) The weaving pattern called Phalaijok was commonly known in the following local names: Laijokdao, Laijokphatam, Laijochang, and Lajjokplabeuk. The cloth weaving steps were as follows: growing cotton crops, harvesting, sorting out the texture, spindling cotton, dyeing the cotton, spinning cotton and weaving. The development of the local innovation model in the border communities of Ubon Ratchathani province had four stages. 1) A forum was organized to gather the opinions of the communities concerned. 2) The innovation model for the local cloth weaving was developed. 3) Acquired knowledge was returned to the communities concerned. 4) The community innovation involved an application of innovation in a creative economy. With the innovation fully used, the local wisdom would be useful to the community economy, a communal strength and stability. The items which were the products of the community innovation were home-madebelts, a mobile case, keychains, and a book cover.