Oriental Fan

For thousands of years, women of most Asian cultures have used the simple bamboo fan to accentuate their beauty, distract their suitors, and disguise their emotions. And what better tool might a cultured lady possess? There is elegance in it's design, nostalgia in it's materials and grace in it's use. The hand-painted masterpiece on it's saa paper canvas; the deceptively strong lacquered bamboo; the subtle emotions evoked from the slightest flick of a thin wrist; all this speaks volumes for the unexpendable yet often overlooked Oriental fan.

Yet the origin of the fan was highly practical. Early man used a palm frond or other broad based leaf to fight the heat of the sun. He soon found other uses for his discovery and began refining it. Soon thereafter, the fan became prominent in religious rites, shooing flies from the early Romans' sacrificial offerings or coaxing the flames tended by Egyptian priestesses at shrines built to the goddess Isis. The fan's usage in religious rites soon led to the fan itself being considered sacred in many cultures, including those of China, Egypt, Assyria, Phoenicia, Greece, and Rome.

Since gods were often believed to take human form as rulers, the fan soon became a regal emblem as well as a religious one. Chinese emperor Hsien Yuan (circa 2697 BC) reputedly used fans. Murals in the Pharohs' tomb attest to the importance of the fans in ancient Egypt. In India, fans fashioned from the "eye" feathers of peacocks' tails symbolized the vigilance and magnificence of the king.

Today, many of the finest hand and wall fans are hand-crafted in Thailand, the jewel of Southeast Asia. Thailand has an abundance of the finest bamboo, a world-renown for fabrics (such as Thai silk) and a distinguished reputation for the finest artists. As such, the are rivaled only by China in the creation of exquisite bamboo fans. The craftsmen of Thailand use mai-ruak, a superior variety of bamboo in the creation of their wall fans, keeping this precious tradition alive.