Advent Calendar day 4 - Laos

Next from the exhibition: this stilt house (with animals beneath and baby in a swinging cradle)  is made in  Laos,   which came out of colonialism into dogmatic Socialism and economic chaos and lost 10 per cent  of its people to emigration in the 70s.  It is  now stabilizing and opening up cautiously  to the West, though its human rights record remains poor   The country is about 60 per cent Buddhist and not, therefore,   an obvious place to go looking for  Nativity scenes.   However,  this 14-inch high hardwood and bamboo house  is a particularly winning one. 
        American Mennonite missions have set up enterprises for fair trade and this  was made by a family in the village of Nakhoun Noy, not far from  Vientiane.  Mon Sipasert and two her her sons,  Bounthanom  and Som Nuk Sinnachack, in  one year  carved, thatched and wove a thousand of these... 
        They are Buddhists,  but missionary reporters say that they responded keenly to the story of the saviour born in a stable;  like many other families,  they were driven off their land  by poverty.  The hope is to put the money these artefacts raised towards some chickens and a rice field.