On Hmong Quilt, Every Stitch Holds Years of History and Culture

The intricately stitched quilt hanging in the student center at Cal State Fresno holds thousands of years of Hmong history and culture in its multicolored threads.

Scene by scene, it tells how the agrarian Hmong, pushed from China in the 1800s, trekked south to the mountains of Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. It tells how those in Laos fought the Communists as mercenaries hired by the CIA in the 1960s and how they escaped to Thailand when the Communists took over in the 1970s.

It tells how nearly 30,000 Hmong ended up resettling in Fresno and how they’ve adapted to American life.

Called pa ndau, or flower cloth, the 8-by-10-foot quilt is a modern example of a cherished and revered art.

“To the Hmong, pa ndau is just as important as the American flag is to the American people,” said Thong Ly, a student. “The pa ndau is the Hmong’s freedom banner.”

The Hmong lived peacefully in the forests of China for thousands of years until the 19th century, when rulers launched a campaign of persecution to extinguish the Hmong language.

“The Hmong women, in order to preserve the language, put it down on the pa ndau,” Ly said. “For the Hmong women, pa ndau is a way for them to express themselves.”

The quilt shows how thousands of Hmong ventured to Southeast Asia, where they began raising livestock, weaving baskets and stitching the colorful garments decorated with pa ndau.

They embroidered geometric shapes onto the backs of their shirts, one group employing indigo batik and another specializing in reverse applique. They stitched funeral garments for burials and carriers to hold babies.

And when the Hmong eventually lost their written language, the pa ndau became a form of documentation.

“The pa ndau was the only way for Hmong people to retain their cultural identity,” said Shur Vangy, a deputy city manager.

Katsuyo Howard, coordinator of Fresno State’s Southeast Asian Student Program, commissioned artist Kau Vang to design a story cloth showing the heritage of the college’s 1,000 Southeast Asian students.

Vang, a Fresno City College student who spent most of his youth in Thai refugee camps, learned about the rituals from his father.

Kidnapping, he explained, was a common method of winning a bride. And in one scene, a newly married couple leaves the ceremony with a pig--a traditional wedding delicacy--jutting out of a knapsack.

The quilt shows how the Hmong cremated the dead by lighting branches piled on top of the body and how they celebrated the new year with bullfights and courtship games.

During the Vietnam War, the CIA recruited the Hmong to fight the Communists. When the United States withdrew in 1975, many Hmong--including Vang’s family--fled Laos because they feared persecution from former enemies.

One scene shows parents trying to appease hungry children during the arduous trek across the border.

“If they make noise because they’re scared, we give them some opium,” Vang said.

At a refugee camp in Thailand, Vang learned to embroider his lively drawings to bring in extra money.

“When we got to Thailand, we had nothing to do,” Vang said. “So we learned to sew.”

Beginning in 1975, some Hmong were allowed to resettle in the United States. More than 150,000 Hmong have emigrated since then, mostly to California, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The bottom third of the story cloth is devoted to life in America, where apartment complexes and grocery stores replace the thatched homes and jungles of Hmong life past.

The quilt shows that many Hmong have adapted customs: Some perform ancestral worship rites in their living rooms, and others don traditional costumes during the Hmong New Year.

It took Vang a week to sketch the scenes with a ballpoint pen. His wife, mother and two friends helped with the stitching. When the quilt was three-quarters done, Vang sent it to his sister in Wisconsin for finishing.