Shan Hills Go-cart

[Joel Barlow]

Shan-hills go-carts

From what’s often (or at least sometimes) a great place to be a kid)

These simple carts fro kids are common throughout the Shan hills. Four solid cross-cuts from an eight-inch diameter tree, a couple sturdy meter-plus straight branches and a few cross-pieces and one can put together a great toy. Some long used nails and short pieces of PVC pipe help, but aren’t 100% essential.

One I saw up on the border had a broken steering mechanism. Two kids and I readily fixed it, with just two knives and a rock (for a hammer – a big block of wood was useful too, to hammer against).

A generation and more ago in the USA there were “Soap-box derbies” where kids raced home-made carts. I suspect they faded away, but don’t know. In the modern world, unfortunately, everything’s about money – even a bicycle requires some cash for up-keep. Cash is rare in the Shan hills, but fun and smiles aren’t. Lots of things are still hand-made, with beauty and glory the manufactured can’t compete with.

[Crow Boy]

The push pedal steering is a pretty interesting idea in ingenuity.

I remember making my own carts as a kid - we had a lot of working dogs and I attached them to the front of the go-cart and had heaps of fun doing sled races across the tundra but at 40C plus temperatures.

Thanks for posting the pictures

CB

[donna]

nice pics Joel Barlow. i remember seeing many kids playing with those billy carts up in the hilltribe villages. one village in particular had a spate of accidents where kids would be getting their fingers caught between the wheel and the other main frame part. i had a queue going out the door of my hut with kids holding their bleeding fingers whilst i administered first aid to them. not one tear from them either.

[Priceless]

Thanks for reminding us that some simple joys of life are still possible

/ Priceless

[Joel Barlow]

These pics are from a Hmong house at the CR flower festival. This is the only example of toy construction in this form I’ve seen (pretty different from the go-cart, no?).

It’s long bothered me – spandex bike clothes, silly looking helmets, knee pads, gloves. I suspect over-protected kids don’t come out quite properly prepared for the world. Professor (author of "Guns, Germs and Steel" and the less impressive "Collapse") Jared Diamond says tribal people of Borneo have it over the modern and “civilized” in some ways, being more adaptable, observant, dexterous and inventive… I suspect he has a point but took it a bit too far.

The Lahu, interestingly, not only rarely cry, but don’t bother with hello or good-bye, please, thank-you or other “civilities”! Yet they’re hardly rude (well, my wife sometimes is, to me…), certainly not unfriendly to any who take the time to recognize them as individuals, and despite their minimal material simplicity, hardly uncivilized. They are experiencing adjustment pains, going from hunting to agriculture, but are sure to manage. I only wish I could feel as confident about the TaiYai/Shan!

[dsys]

These pics are from a Hmong house at the CR flower festival. This is the only example of toy construction in this form I've seen (pretty different from the go-cart, no?).

It's long bothered me – spandex bike clothes, silly looking helmets, knee pads, gloves. I suspect over-protected kids don't come out quite properly prepared for the world. Professor (author of "Guns, Germs and Steel" and the less impressive "Collapse") Jared Diamond says tribal people of Borneo have it over the modern and "civilized" in some ways, being more adaptable, observant, dexterous and inventive… I suspect he has a point but took it a bit too far.

The Lahu, interestingly, not only rarely cry, but don't bother with hello or good-bye, please, thank-you or other "civilities"! Yet they're hardly rude (well, my wife sometimes is, to me…), certainly not unfriendly to any who take the time to recognize them as individuals, and despite their minimal material simplicity, hardly uncivilized. They are experiencing adjustment pains, going from hunting to agriculture, but are sure to manage. I only wish I could feel as confident about the TaiYai/Shan!

Great photos, how did they make the wheels?

[chownah]

These pics are from a Hmong house at the CR flower festival. This is the only example of toy construction in this form I've seen (pretty different from the go-cart, no?).

It's long bothered me – spandex bike clothes, silly looking helmets, knee pads, gloves. I suspect over-protected kids don't come out quite properly prepared for the world. Professor (author of "Guns, Germs and Steel" and the less impressive "Collapse") Jared Diamond says tribal people of Borneo have it over the modern and "civilized" in some ways, being more adaptable, observant, dexterous and inventive… I suspect he has a point but took it a bit too far.

The Lahu, interestingly, not only rarely cry, but don't bother with hello or good-bye, please, thank-you or other "civilities"! Yet they're hardly rude (well, my wife sometimes is, to me…), certainly not unfriendly to any who take the time to recognize them as individuals, and despite their minimal material simplicity, hardly uncivilized. They are experiencing adjustment pains, going from hunting to agriculture, but are sure to manage. I only wish I could feel as confident about the TaiYai/Shan!

Great photos, how did they make the wheels?

It's a special high tech aluminum sintering process after which they are painted to look like slices of a small diametre tree trunk.

Chownah

[dsys]

These pics are from a Hmong house at the CR flower festival. This is the only example of toy construction in this form I've seen (pretty different from the go-cart, no?).

It's long bothered me – spandex bike clothes, silly looking helmets, knee pads, gloves. I suspect over-protected kids don't come out quite properly prepared for the world. Professor (author of "Guns, Germs and Steel" and the less impressive "Collapse") Jared Diamond says tribal people of Borneo have it over the modern and "civilized" in some ways, being more adaptable, observant, dexterous and inventive… I suspect he has a point but took it a bit too far.

The Lahu, interestingly, not only rarely cry, but don't bother with hello or good-bye, please, thank-you or other "civilities"! Yet they're hardly rude (well, my wife sometimes is, to me…), certainly not unfriendly to any who take the time to recognize them as individuals, and despite their minimal material simplicity, hardly uncivilized. They are experiencing adjustment pains, going from hunting to agriculture, but are sure to manage. I only wish I could feel as confident about the TaiYai/Shan!

Great photos, how did they make the wheels?

It's a special high tech aluminum sintering process after which they are painted to look like slices of a small diametre tree trunk.

Chownah

you know as soon as i hit "add reply" , i thought to myself that is probably the dumbest question i have ever asked - total brain fart.

[chownah]

These pics are from a Hmong house at the CR flower festival. This is the only example of toy construction in this form I've seen (pretty different from the go-cart, no?).

It's long bothered me – spandex bike clothes, silly looking helmets, knee pads, gloves. I suspect over-protected kids don't come out quite properly prepared for the world. Professor (author of "Guns, Germs and Steel" and the less impressive "Collapse") Jared Diamond says tribal people of Borneo have it over the modern and "civilized" in some ways, being more adaptable, observant, dexterous and inventive… I suspect he has a point but took it a bit too far.

The Lahu, interestingly, not only rarely cry, but don't bother with hello or good-bye, please, thank-you or other "civilities"! Yet they're hardly rude (well, my wife sometimes is, to me…), certainly not unfriendly to any who take the time to recognize them as individuals, and despite their minimal material simplicity, hardly uncivilized. They are experiencing adjustment pains, going from hunting to agriculture, but are sure to manage. I only wish I could feel as confident about the TaiYai/Shan!

Great photos, how did they make the wheels?

It's a special high tech aluminum sintering process after which they are painted to look like slices of a small diametre tree trunk.

Chownah

you know as soon as i hit "add reply" , i thought to myself that is probably the dumbest question i have ever asked - total brain fart.

that's ok....the paint jobs are really good so most everyone gets fooled on this one.

Chownah

[Crow Boy]

These pics are from a Hmong house at the CR flower festival. This is the only example of toy construction in this form I've seen (pretty different from the go-cart, no?).

It's long bothered me – spandex bike clothes, silly looking helmets, knee pads, gloves. I suspect over-protected kids don't come out quite properly prepared for the world. Professor (author of "Guns, Germs and Steel" and the less impressive "Collapse") Jared Diamond says tribal people of Borneo have it over the modern and "civilized" in some ways, being more adaptable, observant, dexterous and inventive… I suspect he has a point but took it a bit too far.

The Lahu, interestingly, not only rarely cry, but don't bother with hello or good-bye, please, thank-you or other "civilities"! Yet they're hardly rude (well, my wife sometimes is, to me…), certainly not unfriendly to any who take the time to recognize them as individuals, and despite their minimal material simplicity, hardly uncivilized. They are experiencing adjustment pains, going from hunting to agriculture, but are sure to manage. I only wish I could feel as confident about the TaiYai/Shan!

Great photos, how did they make the wheels?

It's a special high tech aluminum sintering process after which they are painted to look like slices of a small diametre tree trunk.

Chownah

you know as soon as i hit "add reply" , i thought to myself that is probably the dumbest question i have ever asked - total brain fart.

that's ok....the paint jobs are really good so most everyone gets fooled on this one.

Chownah

Very good Chownah 55555555555

CB