“Lookwha” a small group of young volunteers who create the big impact.

“Lookwha” a small group of young volunteers who create the big impact. 

Ages and periods passed bring about many changes, maintaining and keeping something would not be easy, it’s the same at Phetchaburi Province towhich local heritable arts and handicrafts belong. “PHETCHABURI’S ART AND CRAFT” have been well known for ages, but itstarted to be lessened these lately decades, same for artisan masters.

Teacher Jamlong Buasuwan, the mainstay of a small group in Phetchaburi who have been trying to save their heritage and trigger the spirit of the people to realize about their province. Teacher Jamlong said “We cannot separate arts out of our life, everything is involved with arts in any aspects”. There’re many kinds of arts which are the province’s heritages, for examples; stuccoworks, printable works, gold works, Thai lacquer works, and etc. Teacher Jamlong said that artworks will be existed if that generation’s people try to save it, and make it trendy for the modern age. “Lookwha” is a small group of young people who were born and raised in Phetchaburi, the group’s name is originated from “Lookwha” which’s the name of Phetchaburi’s Tree. Lookwha group opened the creative places which were sponsored by the good supporters in order to encourage the people learning aboutarts and crafts. The places are also used as work stations for passing on the knowledge of crafts’ history and creative methods of this Phetchaburi to the people. The creative places are located at Arts Hall, Suwannaram temple and at Khao Wang Cable Car.

Sunisa Prathummeung or Nong Noodaeng who is one of the young volunteers in this Lookwha group, and inherits the crafts of this Phetchaburi. Nong Noodaeng leads us to know how to make a unique garland’s budor PuangMahot in Thai which she has learned together with making printable papers from teacher Pittaya Silapasornand teacher Yuwannda Silapasorn, the handicrafts experts of Phetchaburi. The buds will be used as decoration for the flag strips in auspiciousand religious ceremonies, it’s made from squared knit-making paper in many colors, then it’s folded into triangle shape before cut, and piled up as a long garland’s bud. Making Puang Mahot was chosen to be the main lesson of the study of arts because it’s a part of printable paper arts which is rarely found, and there’re less inheritors, it’s almost no longer in existence. It’s not too difficult to learn how to make it with short time spent before taking it with us.

When walking along the Krachang canal, in the local community by the Phetchaburi River, roads with many beautiful Puang Mahot will be seen, they’re lively moved by the winds like a symbol of existing and creative arts. It shows the people’s ideas, intentions, conservation and preservation of arts by the young people and other groups inPhetchaburi, they have tried to improve and develop their vanished arts to become more important and valuable. It might be said that “When seeing Puang Mahot, it means that conservation and preservation of arts already reached there, and it would be passed to the others places