In Thailand, Kratip is widely used among the inhabitants of the northern and northeastern regions as the main occupation in those regions relates mostly to agriculture.
Kratip is a container for steaming glutinous rice, consisting of three major parts: a stand, body and lid. The traditional one is made of 100 percent natural materials, which are bamboo, palm and rattan.
good work proceeding from the whole man, heart, head, and hand in proper blance.
Soetsu Yanagi
It seems to me that there is something so basic, so natural in the hand that the urge to utilize its power will always make itself felt. Moreover, the chief characteristic of handcrafts is that they maintain by their very nature a direct link with the human heart, so that the work always partakes of a human quality.
Soetsu Yanagi
-How does the unlettered craftsman produce beauty?
Soetsu Yanagi
-He may be unlettered, uneducated and lacking any particular force of personality, but it is not from these causes that beauty is produced. He rests in the protecting hand of nature. The beauty of folkcraft is the kind that comes from dependence on the Other Power. Natural material, natural process, and an accepting heart—these are the ingredients necessary at the birth of folkcrafts. Hence it is the kind of beauty that seves us. The craftsman has not the power to save himself. It is nature that does the saving.
Its strong structure is intentionally designed to provide durability for long-term usage.
A great number of thin bamboo sticks are woven into the Kratip’s body. Its curved supporting stand is made of palm stalk. Each part of the Kratip is stitched together with lengthy rattan sticks.
-What is the special quality of beauty in crafts?
Soetsu Yanagi
The special quality of beauty in crafts is that it is a beauty of intimacy. Since the articles are to be lived with every day this quality of intimacy is a natural requirement. Such beauty establishes a world of grace and feeling. It is significant that in speaking of craft objects, people use teams such as savour and style. The beauty of such objects is not so much of the noble, the huge, or the lofty as a beauty of the warm and familiar. Here one may detect a striking difference between the crafts and the arts. People hang their pictures high up on the walls, but they place their objects for everyday use close to them and take them in their hands.
After the Kratip is dried and smoked, it will also protect from bacteria.
Its body and lid have double layers for preserving the heat of the steaming sticky rice. The rice in the Kratip can be kept for a longer period of time compared to plastic containers, as the humidity inside can slowly be released through the small holes that are part of the Kratip’s weaving pattern.
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