via Bangkok Post, 30 Nov 2019: 200-year-old knife making tradition in northern Thailand by the Tai Phuan people.
For nearly two centuries, the village of Ban Fai Mun in the far northern province of Nan has honed the craft of knife making by using both old techniques and modern materials.
The survival of this age-old profession has been buoyed by the presence of knifesmiths — whose talent have been honed as a community enterprise — and the marketing of knife production as a tourist attraction.
Ban Fai Mun is home to the ethnic Tai Phuan people who migrated to the area in 1834 from neighbouring Laos during the reign of King Rama III. They settled predominantly in the areas known today as Nan and Phrae provinces.
The village of Ban Fai Mun bears the hallmarks of this unique identity in the language the inhabitants speak, the beliefs they hold, and their way of life. Similarly, the knifesmiths are part and parcel of this distinction.
