Akha women typically weave in a space near their dwelling since their homes are usually constructed on the ground or at least near the ground, allowing for no space for activity under the house. Weaving typically happens after the rice has been planted in the rainy season or during the cycle of cutting down trees to make a highland rice field (slash and burn agriculture) in the dry season. Women, like this one in the village of Phate (PC 4793) in Houa Khong Province, continue to wear their traditional dress with particularly ornate headdresses of silver and dyed gibbon fur on a daily basis. Usually after a fortnight, they remove all the pieces of the headdress and wash their hair and clean the silver.
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