Bo Sang Umbrella Village

Bo Sang has made paper umbrellas for a couple of centuries, and the workshops on its main street still run the whole sequence in the open where you can watch it. Bamboo is split and shaved into ribs and lashed into a frame; sa paper, beaten from mulberry bark, is pasted on wet and dried; the surface is oiled to shed rain, then painted freehand with peacocks, dragons and flowering branches, no stencil and no pause. The same painters will put those designs on a phone case or a bag while you wait, which is how most of them now make a living. In January the village hangs the whole street with parasols for a festival.

What you actually see

• The bamboo framing - ribs split, shaved and lashed by hand.
• The sa paper - mulberry bark beaten, pasted and dried on the frame.
• The freehand painting - designs laid down without stencils.
• The January festival - the street hung end to end with parasols.

When to go

Weekday mornings are when the painting benches are fully staffed rather than half working. The umbrella festival in January dresses the whole village and adds parades and a lantern-lit street, but brings the crowds with it. Combine the visit with the craft road that continues east toward San Kamphaeng and its silk and silver shops.

Honest expectations

It is a working village turned largely to retail, and the demonstration areas are sized for tour groups. Prices run higher than Chiang Mai's markets for the same object, guides may steer you to the shops that pay them, and a full paper umbrella is awkward to carry home unless you commit to the shipping box.

Nearby

The San Kamphaeng craft road, with silk, silver and celadon workshops, runs on east.