Rice Gallery on Exhibit

Mountains of Rice: Beauty and Toil


High in the rugged mountains of the northern Philippines, indigenous peoples have for centuries planted a most unlikely crop: rice.


Rice in the Weave


Rice in the Weave

Why?
"Everyone is a rice farmer here," says 59-year-old Ms. Sumaly, owner of a silk weaving cooperative in Saphay Village, Sanasomborne District, Lao PDR. "Rice and weaving have always gone together."

She explains that the weavers are inspired by what they see around them—and everywhere, there is rice. It's just natural.

About a hundred women are members of the cooperative, but their numbers are beginning to dwindle as they find more lucrative ways to earn money. At least for now, however, the knowledge and skills involved in weaving are being passed to the next generation. Girls today are still learning to weave when they are as young as nine or ten years old.