Dear Sir or Madam,
I am a Hmong from Laos. Currently, I am doing Master in Thailand.
I reached your website accidentally. I am very happy that the Hmong art and history have a permanent place to be storage-they will not be lost any more.
You have done a really good job to save our traditional art and history.
I believe that your site will be a source of learning for the Hmong for century.
Best wish
–
Peexiong Gniachong
Master of Rural Development Management, Khonkaen University
–
Dear Peexiong Gniachong,
Thank you for your note. I am pleased that you found our website file that celebrates the Hmong people, their encounters with tragedy, their beliefs, religion, and festivities, and most especially, their needlework. The culture is a very old one, and has many facets.
Many Hmong Americans from Laos whose parents came here after the end of the Vietnam War do not have strong ties to their country of origin, as they never lived there, and never lived the traditional ways of the Hmong. I have told by a number of young Hmong women, who are college age now, that they want to learn to do the Pa Ndau embroideries of their grandmothers.
Much of the Hmong culture is already lost in America, as immigrants have scrambled to learn a new language and way of life. In my web file, my goal was to share traditional embroideries and to provide a glance back to the effects of war, the “camps” in Thailand, and all that your people have suffered just because they befriended Americans and were our staunchest allies during the war against North Vietnam.
Thank you for your letter. Best wishes for continued academic success!
Patricia Cummings
Quilter’s Muse Publications
