Jantima Sukmetta, 52, gradually unfolds a batik fabric. It has distinguished colours of golden yellow and brown, the naturally dyed colours from turmeric and leaves of khonthi (beach vitex). The khonthi plant is easily found along beaches in tambon Na Thap of Chana district in the southern province of Songkhla, where her Me-D Na Thap Batik Group is located.
"The cloth is specially designed because of the patterns initiated by Her Royal Highness Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana Rajakanya and integrated with the identity of our province," she said.
The 4-metre-long cloth shows the design of majestic peafowls, referring to the princess, the royal Khid fabrics with Nariratana Rajakanya pattern and the royal "Khor Chaofah Sirivannavari" motif, represented by the letter 'S' written backwards. The fabric also has motifs that feature a nora headdress -- a nora is a traditional southern performance -- and mermaids, the identity of Songkhla.
"We make the reversed S to show that the princess looks back to help her people. The magnificent batik designs of the princess helped to change my life and the lives of people in my group for the better," she said.
Back to the start
Ms Jantima has always loved drawing and painting since she was young, although no one in her farming family in Nakhon Si Thammarat has an artistic background. When she grew up, she learnt to make batik by trial and error. When she was in her third year at Prince of Songkla University (Pattani Campus), she sold a gold bracelet her mother gave her to buy tools to pursue her passion and support her study. She managed to sell her hand-made batik items, including hair accessories, handkerchiefs and T-shirts, in a cooperative shop at the university.
After graduating, she got married and settled into life in a small community near Ban Khiri Wong in Nakhon Si Thammarat. She devoted her time to raising three kids and turned her back on batik for eight years. When all the kids were old enough to go to school, she opened her house as a batik learning centre and also sold batik fabrics and clothes.
"One day, a team from the Community Development Department in Nakhon Si Thammarat brought representatives of Unesco ("The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization") to visit my house. I was speechless as it was so unexpected to find out that foreigners were interested in my work," she said, adding that the officials wanted to show the foreign visitors a place where children and youths learn to make batik so that they can later develop the skills for a living.
In addition, it led to an opportunity to welcome former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra into her humble house in Nakhon Si Thammarat.
"It was a nice surprise," she recalls.
Surrounded by the mountain ranges of Khao Luang, her batik designs show the beauty of natural patterns which, coupled with a keen eye for detail, have made her handmade products widely popular to the extent that she says she was barely able to get a moment's rest.
"I worked day and night because there were too many orders. Every day, I used a tjanting pen to draw designs for about 50 pieces of fabric. My hand and my arms started aching. I took painkiller medicines almost daily. Later my back was in pain. One day, when I woke up, I could not walk. I was shocked," she said.
She had to stop working and started taking care of her health. Her mother asked her one more time to become a teacher in a public school.
"My mother always wanted me to be a civil servant. She told me that I had the educational degree, so I should make use of it," she said.
Learn to be stronger
She decided to fulfil her mother's dream and took an examination to become a teacher when she was almost 40 years old. She became an art teacher in a school in Narathiwat near the border with Malaysia. Also, during that time, she passed an examination to study for a master's degree at Prince of Songkla University (Pattani Campus). At that point, she was a teacher in Narathiwat on weekdays before taking an hour-long bus ride at weekends to study in Pattani. She also tried to fit in visits to see her kids in Nakhon Si Thammarat, which is around a four-hour drive from Pattani.
Being away from her family for almost three years, her marriage turned sour and later, her husband asked for a divorce.
It was a heartbreaking period in her life as, on Oct 8, 2015, she received the devastating news that her mother had died during an ambush by a group of separatists.
On the morning it happened, her mother, 62, and her stepfather, 69, were driving their pick-up truck from their home in Nong Chik district to a fresh market to sell raw pork, as they did every day. When a separatist group opened fire on their vehicle, they died at the scene.
"I cried my heart out. My mother hadn't had conflicts with anyone. I didn't think such a thing could happen to us, especially to my mother. It was a heartbreaking situation, like so many that people in the deep South have to face," she said.
From the moment she began receiving financial assistance from the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre for family members of those killed by insurgency-related violence in the South, she was reminded of her mother's teaching.
"My mum told me that we never know when we will die. But before we die, we should repay debts of gratitude to our homeland. So I told myself that I must continue doing what I am good at to make the land that I'm now living in famous," she said.
She formed the Me-D Na Thap Batik Group in Songkhla's Chana district with the support of her partner in 2015. Her batik clothes were later selected as tambon Na Thap's One Tambon One Product (Otop) offering by the Community Development Department (CDD) of Songkhla.
The turning point
In 2020, a CDD team from its Chana office encouraged Ms Jantima to enter her batik into a contest organised for all Otop communities in the southern provinces. Her work won first prize in the batik fabric category.
Later in the same year, her group had a chance to present batik fabrics to Her Royal Highness Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana Rajakanya in Narathiwat, and that proved to be another turning point in her life.
"Officials from the CDD told us that the princess liked naturally dyed colours. I looked around and found that we have a lot of khonthi plants in our village. I grilled and boiled its leaves. It gave our batik silk cloth a brown colour. When our son presented the fabric to the princess, she asked about the process and told us to bring the khonthi plant to show to her next time," she said.
In 2021, the Me-D Na Thap group attended an event in Hat Yai. The group had various batik fabric designs dyed using natural ingredients as well as a few that had been done using chemical dyes. The princess visited her booth and said she was especially impressed by our naturally dyed colours.
"I remember the princess told us that our fabrics were soft and beautiful. Then the princess said 'It's time for shopping'. I was overwhelmed with happiness," she said.
Later, the group received three batik patterns designed by the princess through officials of the CDD in Songkhla. The patterns show the beauty of nature, local culture and way of life of locals in the South, she said.
Following in the footstep of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit The Queen Mother, the princess is widely known as the patron of Thai crafts and fabrics. She has helped make the traditional cloth more lively with contemporary designs fit for people to wear for all occasions, holding the concept "Fun with Thai Fabrics" (Pha Thai Sai Hai Sanuk).
"The princess' designs are magnificent. The CDD told me that I could apply and adapt those designs as patterns for my batik cloth any way I see fit," Ms Jantima said.
Shortly after the group released the collection that featured the designs by the princess, their products sold like hotcakes. They received many orders, especially from government agencies near and far.
"We used to earn about 30,000 baht a month, but since we received the princess' patterns, we can sell up to 100,000-150,000 baht's worth a month. Our business is growing by leaps and bounds," she said.
The group has created jobs for youngsters to gain valuable work experience as well as promoted local woven cloth in their work.
The latest batik cloth the group created in golden yellow and brown colours and with distinguished patterns won the first prize in the batik contest in the South and runner-up at the national level.
Ms Jantima says she intends to present the winning batik fabric to the princess when she visits Phatthalung next month. "I never thought my passion for batik would bring me this far. I have fulfilled my mother's ambition for me to pay back the country. I have created work for the young generation, teaching them batik skills and introducing Na Thap to more people. I am proud of the group's achievement."
Note: This is the third of a series of four stories about Her Royal Highness Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana Rajakanya's work in carrying out Her Majesty Queen Sirikit The Queen Mother's initiative to support, conserve and promote Thai textiles.
