Today, more Hmong people live in the West (the United States, France, Australia, Argentina) than in the hills of Laos. We live in apartments in Fresno, brick row houses in Providence, and suburbia in St. Paul.
When a Hmong elder says, "I hold the Duab Toj Siab close to my heart," they are not talking about a landscape painting. They are talking about a —a mental or physical representation of the exact location where their father, mother, or grandfather rests under the red clay of a distant mountain. duab toj siab
These families left behind their most precious anchors: the graves of their ancestors on the mountaintops of Laos. Today, more Hmong people live in the West
For txiv neeb (shaman-priests), Duab Toj Siab represented the journey to the upper world. During trance, the shaman’s soul ascended a mountain to negotiate with the gods. The pattern was often embroidered on the shaman’s roj kab mob (belt) or dawb (white head cloth). The false paths in the design remind the shaman which way not to go, serving as a mnemonic device for the perilous journey between realms. When a Hmong elder says, "I hold the