Sin Tin Chok: The Lanna Skirt with a Woven Chok Hem

Sin tin chok (สิ้นฯตีนฯจ฿กฯ, Kham Mueang reading sin tin chok) is the tube skirt of Lanna women whose lower hem is joined with a band of intricate chok weaving. The Moradok Lanna dictionary describes it as a skirt built in three parts, the head, the body and the foot, with patterns that set it apart from the skirts worn every day.

So a sin tin chok is not just clothing: it is craftwork that tells of its home district, beliefs and the skill of its weaver. This article introduces each part of the skirt, the many kinds of sin in the Lanna language, and the chok patterns of the main weaving centres.

"Sin" in the Lanna language

For sin (สิ้นฯ, sin), the dictionary's first meaning is "a tube skirt, a woman's wrap-around". It also has an interesting second meaning: "a cloth wrapped around the base of a grown tree that has not yet fruited, believed to help it bear fruit".

Putting on a skirt is nung (นุ่ง, nung); the dictionary's example is "nung sin", to wear a skirt. A skirt whose two ends have already been sewn together into a tube is called tuang sin (ต่วฯงสิ้นฯ, tuang sin).

Head, body and foot: a skirt in three pieces

A Lanna skirt is sewn together from three pieces of cloth. The dictionary calls this kind of skirt sin to tin to aeo (สิ้นฯตํอฯตีนฯฯตํอฯแอวฯ, sin to tin to aeo), "a skirt with a joined foot and a joined waist", and explains: "the waist is usually a piece of white or dun (brown) cotton sewn on, the hem is usually a beautiful chok-woven band sewn on, and the body is usually plain or horizontally striped".

Udom Roongruangsri (อุดม รุ่งเรืองศรี) writes in the Encyclopedia of Thai Culture: Northern Region, Volume 8, that the waistband is a separate cloth sewn on, "a plain white or red cloth"; the body is woven in horizontal stripes, most often yellow alternating with thin red or black bands, called "sin ta manao"; and the foot is the hem, where "the well-to-do used a foot decorated with chok".

The chok hem has layers of its own

Udom Roongruangsri explains that the chok band itself has sections: the upper part is usually woven with birds, triangles or other motifs; the middle with diamond shapes; and the lowest part with lines hanging down, called "hang sa pao" ("junk tail").

What is chok? Weaving patterns by "reaching in"

In the dictionary, chok (จ฿กฯ, chok) means "to reach in, to scoop out: putting the hand in to feel for or take hold of something". The name describes the technique exactly: the weaver reaches in and lifts the warp threads a section at a time, then slips in extra coloured threads to form the pattern.

A 2024 study by Chanthrapha Ruchinam (จันทราภา รุจินาม) and Rattathai Phoncharoen (รัฐไท พรเจริญ) describes chok weaving as "lifting the warp threads with a porcupine quill, then adding colourful, special weft threads section by section across the cloth". The work demands great precision and is slow, so it is usually woven as small pieces for decoration.

A loom in Lanna is a huk (หูก, huk) or ki (กี่, ki); weaving is to huk (ทํอฯหูก, to huk); and the thread is fai (ฝ้ายฯ, fai), which the dictionary explains as "cotton fluff; thread used for weaving or other work".

Kinds of sin in the dictionary

The Lanna language has many names for skirts by pattern and weaving method. Here are examples recorded in the Moradok Lanna dictionary:

The dictionary also records lai dok buang (ลายฯดอฯกบ้วฯง, lai dok buang), an architectural ornament of flowers inside diamond-shaped frames, which also means "the flower pattern on the hem of a skirt". The patterns on cloth and on Lanna temple halls share the same names.

Chok patterns from the main weaving centres

The Moradok Lanna dictionary lists the places that make sin tin chok "still keeping their local character": Mae Chaem District in Chiang Mai, Wiang Sa and Na Noi Districts in Nan, Long District in Phrae, and Si Satchanalai District in Sukhothai. Each has its own chok patterns and colours. Here are three with studies to cite:

Where sin tin chok came from, and how it is worn today

The origin of sin tin chok is still not settled. Chanthrapha Ruchinam and Rattathai Phoncharoen (2024) suggest that the sin tin chok of many districts "probably" descends from the skirts of the people of Chiang Saen, who resettled in Chiang Mai, Lampang, Nan and elsewhere in the reign of King Rama I. Old Chiang Saen skirts often had a red hem woven with bird motifs; in Lanna belief the bird is an auspicious animal that stands for the journey to heaven. This is the authors' hypothesis, not a settled historical fact.

The same study says that in the past every Lanna woman was expected to weave, and to own at least one sin tin chok to wear at important ceremonies. Today sin tin chok is still worn to merit-making festivals such as poy luang, salak phat and Pi Mai Mueang (the Lanna New Year) and chunla kathin, as well as for the traditional dress days of government offices and schools.

Summary

• Sin tin chok (read sin tin chok) is the Lanna tube skirt with a chok-woven hem, in three parts: head, body and foot.
• Chok means "to reach in": the weaver lifts the warp threads and slips in coloured threads section by section to make the pattern.
• The Lanna language has many more skirt names, such as sin ta, sin pong, sin man, sin yok and sin mai kham.
• The main weaving centres have distinctive patterns: Mae Chaem (16 patterns), Doi Tao ("flood skirts") and Long (yellow as the main colour).
• Sin tin chok is still worn to the important merit-making festivals of Lanna today.

Look up more Lanna words about cloth and dress in the Moradok Lanna dictionary (in Thai), and read about a festival where Lanna women wear sin tin chok in Poy Luang (in Thai).

Sources

• Moradok Lanna dictionary (in Thai): สิ้นตีนจก · สิ้น · ตีนจก · สิ้นต่อตีนต่อแอว
• อุดม รุ่งเรืองศรี [Udom Roongruangsri]. ผ้าซิ่นตีนจก [Sin tin chok]. In Encyclopedia of Thai Culture: Northern Region, Vol. 8 (published by the Northern Thai Information Center, Payap University Library). In Thai.
• ชุติมา งามพิพัฒน์ [Chutima Ngamphiphat]. (2021). การประยุกต์ลวดลายผ้าซิ่นตีนจกอำเภอแม่แจ่ม จังหวัดเชียงใหม่ สำหรับการสร้างสรรค์แฟชั่นร่วมสมัย [Applying Mae Chaem sin tin chok patterns to contemporary fashion]. Journal of Liberal Arts, RMUTK 3(2), 25–36. In Thai.
• จันทราภา รุจินาม และรัฐไท พรเจริญ [Chanthrapha Ruchinam and Rattathai Phoncharoen]. (2024). ผ่าความงามซิ่นตีนจกดอยเตา สู่กระบวนการพัฒนาต่อยอดในยุคโควิด 19 [The beauty of Doi Tao sin tin chok and its development in the COVID-19 era]. Journal of Architecture, Design and Fine Arts, Naresuan University 15(1). In Thai.
• กรมหม่อนไหม [Department of Sericulture]. ผ้าจกเมืองลอง: มหัศจรรย์ผ้าไหมไทยวน ลวดลายวิจิตร จังหวัดแพร่ [Mueang Long chok cloth: the marvel of Tai Yuan silk, Phrae]. Leaflet. In Thai.