TEXTILES OF THAILAND    

     Textiles have an ancient history in Thailand. Indeed, there is some evidence that the art of weaving may go back as far as the prehistoric culture of Ban Chiang, where silk, hemp, and cotton fibers dating at 700-500 B.C. Were among the items found at burial sites. Certainly, weaving was well established by the time of the first independent Thai kingdom of Sukhothai, as well as in northern Lanna Thai. Mural paintings in temples at Nan, Chiang Mai, and Lampang show costumes that may be silk or cotton, with patterns that can still be seen on textiles produced today. The great city of Ayutthaya was also noted for the quality of its silks: luxurious mat-maii (a kind of weft ikat) garments worn by members of a Thai delegation to the court of Louise XIV in 1686 caused a fashion sensation and soon were being copied by French manufacturers and marketed under the designation “Siamoise”.

Over the years, weaving spread to all four major regions of the country, often varying in design and serving a diversity of purposes. (Here it is perhaps worth nothing that describing such textiles as “Thai” can be misleading since weaving techniques and designs transcend present-day national borders; in the northeast, for instance, weavers may be ethnically Lao or Khmer, and the hill tribes of the far north include many other groups) The most basic use, of course, was clothing, which included such items as womens skirts (pha in) and men's loin cloths (pha khaoma or pha sarong) as well as an assortment of accessories like shoulder cloths. Even these, however, displayed considerable variety, come being for everyday use with relatively simple decorations and generally cotton while others were reserved for special, ceremonial occasions and were more often silk of complex design. There were also utilitarian textiles like mattress covers and blankets, ritual textiles like temple banners and door hangings, textiles woven in the service of Buddhism, and highly specialized examples like the pieces used to adorn elephants in processions.

Weaving in the past, and to a large extent today, was done exclusively by women, often on simple looms set up beneath the house. In northeastern Thailand, for example, girls learned the techniques from a very early age and each was expected to produce at least two superior pieces by the time she reached the age of marriage, one as part of her own wedding outfit and one to present to her future husband.    

In the nineteenth and early twenties, especially in urban centers like Bangkok, Thai textiles suffered from competition with cheaper, mass produced import from abroad. The art of weaving never disappeared, however, and in recent years it has enjoyed a notable revival among admirers of the distinctive beauty and high quality of its products.  

Many weavers still use natural dyes obtained from bark, wood, leaves and roots, while others have changed to longer lasting chemical dyes to meet the demand of an export trade.

     Village women use their free time after the rice crop has been harvested to weave cloth for household use or for presentation to the sangha in various religious ceremonies. The different designs of the cloth are taken from patterns found in nature and the beautiful handiwork is evident in pillows, mosquito nets, blankets, pasin (women's ankle length skirts), pa-kaowma (men's loin cloths), and pa-sarong (men's ankle length skirts); all of which are articles necessary for use in the household.

The raising of silkworms and the planting of cotton will commence in the months of May or June and after the rice has been harvested in January, a traditional ceremony called “Long Kwuang” will be held to usher in the weaving season.

The “Long Kwuang” ceremony is usually held on a full moon winter's night when villagers gather to spin cotton into yarn. In the afternoon of the auspicious day the young girls 'pai har lua' or gather fuel and after their evening meal congregate near a tree or in the yard of a designated house to build a bonfire. A wooden platform is raised in some villages varying in height from one to two feet with an earthen mound at the center for the bonfire. Sitting around the bonfire the village women undertake their tedious spinning chores and find the time to chat, to warm themselves, or to eat roasted tamarind pips.

The people of Isaan plant cotton in the months of May or June and by November the bolls of the popular “Fai Noi” are ripe for picking. While the bolls are left to wither on the plants, the cotton is dried in the sun for four or five days and then ginned in a ''Heeb Fai'' (roller gin) to separate the cotton from the seed, a process called ''Eew.'' The tangled cotton fibers are then put into a ''Kradong'', a round flat shallow winnowing basket woven of bamboo strips for carding by using a bow-like device. Similar to a hunting bow, the bow-string is rapidly plucked to make it vibrate sharply against the mass of cotton in order to fluff up the fibers and after the mass has been sufficiently plucked, the cotton is rolled around a wooden dowel resulting in elongated cigarette-like tufts to be spun into yarn.

Spinning is accomplished by placing an elongated tuft on the spindle and turning the hand wheel to rotate the spindle and the attached cotton while the fingers of the free hand are used to pluck and pull a few fibers from the revolving mass. The rotating speed of the spindle twists the fibers and picks up other fibers to form a continous thread of yarn which is then taken off the spindle and put onto a “Pier” or a stick with capped ends, approximately a yard long, prior to dyeing the yarn. After the process of dyeing, the yarn is then wound around a ''Kwag” or a foot long takraw-shaped rattan spool prior to being wound onto bobbins.