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Lanna Passa - About Us
Who & What is Lanna Passa?
Lanna Passa, the website, the store, us.. we’re a small family business, but Lanna—a term that translates to a million rice fields—was once the name for what is now Northern Thailand. In the 13th century, the kingdom of Lanna covered much of Siam (now Thailand) and its neighboring countries before becoming part of Siam in 1892.
Still today, Northern Thailand has a diverse Lanna culture all its own—food, dialect, textiles, customs— its own language.
The word Passa is Thai for ‘language’; together, we have Lanna Passa.
Who is behind Lanna Passa?
We feel it’s always nice to see the real faces and people behind any small business like ours, so we’d love to introduce ourselves first.
You might be surprised to find out that we’re a real family! Almost 10 years ago, we started crafting and creating at home during our (little) free time away from our regular jobs, initially opening stores on websites like Etsy. We have been lucky enough to have had some amazing customers and feedback, and over the years, we have gradually expanded to what you see now.
We have many people involved in various aspects—the fantastic Hmong people from whom we source items, creative friends behind the website design, etc.—all of whom deserve so much gratitude from our core team:
Saranya
Mother to a beautiful boy, two cats, and two dogs, Saranya is originally from the capital city of Bangkok but now resides in the northern city of Chiang Mai.
Saranya is the one with the lightbulb moments! She is always thinking of new ways to work with the amazing textiles and crafts that we're lucky enough to source, and she is the person you reach when getting in touch.
Mer (Saranya's Mum)
Mer is Saranya's mother, and she is probably where Saranya gets her artistic streak (and stubbornness) from. Owner of an impressive garden vegetable patch.
Her skilled hands can be found sewing and crafting away behind the scenes, often with some great design ideas thrown in. She's usually busy carefully packing your orders ready for shipment too.
Biak
Biak, father and partner, is the man behind the heavy lifting at Lanna Passa. He helps brings ideas to life, often improvising and perfecting various crafting methods.
His main task (besides putting up with Mer and Saranya) is sourcing various handcrafted items to repurpose, helping with packaging, and checking each item that is made to ensure everything works and is up to spec.
What are we about?
Repurposing and piecing together beautiful textiles and crafts from ethnic hill tribe communities like the Hmong and Lisu, both vintage and modern, we hope to not only showcase the amazing work of these artisans past and present but also bring the character and traditions into your home in the form of gorgeous homeware.
Sadly, today there are many imitations and mass-produced hill tribe-style items and textiles produced by various companies around the world, and many hill tribes themselves have taken to mass production methods, slowly losing the centuries-old traditions of hand weaving, organic cotton and hemp growth, and most notably, indigo plant dying methods.
We are proud to focus on and help continue these amazing traditions, sourcing our materials directly from Hmong and Lisu villages, and one day we hope to expand into other areas, supporting the hill tribe communities every step of the way.
What makes us different?
We don’t want to toot our own horn too much, but we are immensely proud of our commitment to authenticity. We use sustainable materials, support traditional craftsmanship, and produce genuinely handmade products. But it’s more than that.
Almost ten years after coming up with the idea to repurpose a woven fish trap into a pendant light and spawning Lanna Passa, we are still just a small family working from home. We are still packing and sending every order by hand. Almost all of our product photos are taken by us at home. Our social media is still all managed by us (which probably explains the sporadic posting!). You get the idea!
We believe this genuine, human touch and a love for what we do translate into our products, from the hill tribe table runners we stitch to the bamboo pendant lights we’ve become synonymous with.
Where are we based?
We’re based in the beautiful city of Chiang Mai, once the capital city of the Kingdom of Lanna.
When Chiang Mai was founded in 1296, the city was built in a square shape, bounded by walls and a moat. The purpose was to protect the city from any invasion from the neighboring Thai and Burmese kingdoms.
Today, the moat and many parts of the wall still exist, surrounding what we call Chiang Mai Old City, a popular tourist area always full of cultural events and activities and home to many hill tribes and traditional markets where skilled artisans work their craft.
Want to get in touch?
If you have any questions or queries or would like to know more, feel free to get in touch!