Imagine a lush and charming garden in the Bangkok
of a hundred years ago. In the afternoon, the housewife
and her ten-year-old daughter stroll across to the jasmine
bushes and break off buds to make garlands for their
household Buddha altar. Back in the house, they sit on
the floor and the mother shows her daughter how to use
a ten-inch needle and white thread to sew the petals into
a traditional, sweet-scented 'puang malai' or flower-garland.
The delicate and charming art of making flower
decorations still thrives in Thailand today. Thai women
teachers must be able to mold their pupils into good
citizens, and must themselves be adept in all the house-
wifely arts including flower arrangement; and part of
every young girl's education consists of cultivating
patience by sitting down quietly, stripping petals care-
fully off fresh flowers and learning how to make a good garland.

This skill is possessed even by the poorer and less
fortunate; one can see garlands being made by women
and children sitting on Bangkok's sidewalks, near the
Rajprasong intersection, for instance. Garlands of slightly better quality are also made in the markets. Besides jasmine, other local flowers such as 'champee', 'champa', red roses and purple orchids are used. In earlier times, the dried outer layer of a banana tree cut into long thin strips, was used as thread, and some garland-makers still use this today; most, however, use white cotton.

The most favored and expensive garlands are seven colored. For special occasions, such as weddings or seeing off relatives or friends going abroad, garlands with colored ribbons are given as a token of good wishes for future prosperity. Later the same garlands will be given to the local temple to ensure a safe journey — or a happy marriage, as the case may be.

Because flower arrangement is considered part of every Thai girl's education, garlands and other floral decorations are also made in colleges of education as part of the teacher-training curriculum. Another lovely and popular floral arrangement is the 'Room, a rounded pyramid shaped like a large fir cone, about six or eight inches high, which rests in an ornamented bowl atop an equally ornate pedestal. The whole surface is covered with petals in a colored pattern against a white background; the so-called "everlasting flower" is used, because it keeps its appearance without wilting for long periods, and without needing water. But it lacks the bloom and luster of freshly-picked flower petals. Thai flower arrangement reaches its peak of delicacy and distinction in the decorations made inside the Grand Palace. Here every day, sitting on mats in the flagged courtyard in small groups of eight or so, women of all ages are at work. A few are elderly and white-haired. Some wear the light khaki uniforms of government servants, showing them to be members of the Royal Household; the others have retired from public service but have kept their superb skill with flowers, and are called upon whenever they're needed. All together, some sixty women can be mustered, depending on the volume of work to be done each day. All these women's output of magnificent floral craftsmanship is used for one purpose only: the functions and activities of Royalty.

Every day orders come in from Chitrlada Palace, residence of the Royal Family — garlands for either of Their Majesties, for one of the Princesses or the Royal Consort of the Crown Prince. For big functions such as state visits or a Royal birthday, the entire area where Their Majesties or the Princess concerned will grant a public audience, is decorated with flowers. It is immediately before these official and state functions that all of the sixty skilled women are kept busy.

The garlands, 'Room' and other flower decorations fashioned inside the palace, are made on the same principles as those on sale to the public, but their quality is much higher. Instead of the dull, matt petals of the "ever-lasting flower," the palace 'poom' have fresh jasmine petals, sewn over a core of plastic foam, earth or sawdust thoroughly soaked in water, which keeps them moist and fresh. The Royal 'pooms' are also crowned with pointed flower-petal pinnacles, and their bases have petals arranged in an open-lotus pattern. Some are further decorated with garlands, others with dazzling pat terns of purple and pink, or arrangements in horizontal layers of different colors like a wedding-cake. The seven-colored garlands made in the palace are built up from petals of jasmine, roses, 'dork anchan (thebutterfly pea) and 'dork pakakrong or red sage. The intricacy with which these garlands are fashioned involves using red rose petals to provide two different colors; in those parts of the pattern which are to be deep red, the petals are sewn with the tops facing outwards, while for the pink areas, the undersides of the petals are used. The other colors may be blue, green, yellow, purple and the background of creamy white jasmine.

Three basic types of garland are made in the palace: 'nvdai gram', with a fully-rounded cross-section; 'malaiseek', of semicircular cross-section, used for decorating 'Rooms', the flat side of the garland being in direct contactwith the moistened core; and 'malai huang, multiple-looped intertwined garlands, made mainly in the palace but also elsewhere for use as window decorations on special occasions.