The Tai Dam or Tai people originated from Northwest Vietnam in an area so beautiful it’s called Muang Then, the Land of God. The legend goes that God created people in a gourd in this valley, and the first people to emerge from the gourd were the Xa, followed by the Tai, the Lao, the Lu, the Mong and finally the Kinh  (the Vietnamese ethnic majority). The gourd then became a mountain, which stands today in the middle of the Muang Then Valley. Master weavers, the Tai tell stories of the spiritual world, through their beautiful textile designs. 

In one story, the Phaya Naga, a magical serpent, is the ruler of a great kingdom. When his son falls in love with a human princess he is killed by one of the princesses’ huntsmen and, mad with revenge, the powerful Phaya Naga destroys the town and vanishes into the depths of the river, becoming a legend of the past.