about brightly colored toys, streamers, party decorations

and the like. Most of us have known them since we were

children. Some of them, like the paper or plastic wind-

mills on sticks which flew round gaily as we ran along

with them, we even learned how to make in school in our

pre-teen years. Others, such as those beautifully colored

honeycombed paper spheres three inches in diameter

which sometimes hung on Christmas trees or brightened

up the house at New Year, may have puzzled us a bit as to

how they were made; but we probably didn't give them a

second thought. As for piggy banks — well, they usually

were shaped like a pig and encouraged us to save our

pocket money, and that was that.

Indeed, these things are an accepted part of life

everywhere; and in industrialized countries they are

mass-produced in factories which probably also make

fireworks, balloons and other toys.

Thailand makes them too — but with two rather

subtle differences. Firstly, the Thais' natural love of

brilliant color combinations and strong sense of decora-

tion makes them perhaps just a little bit more skilled and

imaginative in designing these toys; but more impor-

tantly, making them is a viable cottage industry or family

business, though admittedly on a small scale and getting

smaller. In the Bangkok area there used to be about ten

families making paper toys, while a "guesstimate" now

puts the number at only five or so, scattered in various

parts of the city.

In a typical family making those globe-shaped,

honeycombed paper lanterns, a team of three — mother,

selling them direct and making a daily profit of around

all the gadgets made by other members of the family as

well. They make a reasonable living, and are indeed

lucky to have their inventiveness and manual skill to lift

them out of the depths of poverty they might otherwise

be in.

But this particular family has had its share of pro-

blems. Originally they lived in a small community of toy-

makers along the bridge at Ban Dok Mai, "The Flower

Village", near Bangkok's beautiful Golden Mount. But

fire destroyed their home, so they moved to another

district, from which they were in turn forced to move out

when it became part of a building site . . . Now they live

in Samlae, a district in Thonburi across the river.

law at the glue-press table, my wife and daughter sitting

on the floor cutting the glued paper and making it into

round lanterns, my brother over there making aero-

planes and "jakkajan", his wife putting the lanterns on

bamboo sticks and fixing the streamers and paper flowers

on. Sometimes I dye the lanterns if they're made of white

paper instead of colored. My daughter still lives in our old

place and earns a living making 'pong-paeng' or 'drum'

sticks." (They are like tiny models of the cloth-dyer's

drum, with bright pink cellophane instead of buffalo-

hide).

Just how are those honeycombed-paper spheres

pattern onto large rectangular sheets of white or colored

paper, fifteen inches by twelve, by means of a press con-

apart, mounted on a frame with a handle. The glue is

brushed onto the wooden strips and the frame is then

pressed down onto the first paper sheet. The second

sheet is placed on top, and the glue stamped on again,

left to dry. They are then cut out across the glued lines

into three-inch crescent shapes like orange slices, opened

out, and presto! There's your honeycomb lantern.

The 'jakkajan' or cicada in real life is a shrill-

sounding insect. The toy-makers produce model 'jakka-

jans' out of clay and bamboo, tied with cotton to a thin

bamboo handle. When whirled round they make the

same shrill, chattering sound as in nature. The toy aero-

planes make a similar noise when swung round.

Attractively dyed chicken feathers are also used as

decorations, including silver birds in flight, multicolored

wings outstretched. The feathers are used in making

dragon heads out of the glued paper left over from

making honeycomb ball-lanterns. But this is a time-

consuming operation, so only a few are made.

The brightly colored plastic fish mobiles seen on sale

in tourist and souvenir shops are a relic of older times

when they were also children's toys. Known in Thai as

'pla tappien', they are still made from dried and painted

palm leaves. Some mothers hang one above their baby's

cradle, and the baby talks to it in the early morning.

One or two households which used to make paper

toys in Ban Dok Mai near the Golden Mount now con-

centrate on fireworks. These, as well as paper toys made

in other areas, are on sale at the Golden Mount Fair held

every year in October around the full-moon of the

twelfth lunar month.

Thai piggy banks are made by the thousands out of

ago they were often the only colorful toy a child would

which each year represents a different animal; a child is

given a piggy bank in the likeness of its birth-year animal.

Today one can still see these gaily-painted piggy banks,

looking like characters out of Disney land, being sold on

pushcarts in the streets and lanes of Bangkok. Because of

the great importance attached to every individuals

birth-year, this is a thriving business, and likely to remain