I visited a silk farm on the
outskirts of Siem Reap in Puok District, a half-hour drive from the city centre.
I was on a free tour arranged by Artisans Angkor, an establishment that creates
job opportunities for young people living in rural areas, while promoting traditional
Khmer craftsmanship and industry. Although our tour guide was down with high
fever that morning, he made a fair attempt to engage and joke with all of us.
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| Mulberry farm |
The tour was highly informative;
we were given a detailed understanding of the silk manufacturing process. We
saw how mulberry leaves are grown, larva feeding on the leaves till they weave
a cocoon around themselves which can be up to 1 km in length! The cocoons are
then sunned so that they soften and the silk fibre can be easily obtained,
during this process most of the silkworms die. This was particularly discomforting
to learn about.
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| Silkworms feeding on mulberry leaves |
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| Life cycle of a silkworm |
The next step is reeling, where
the filament from the cocoon is unwound. There were a couple of women seated
next to a large round container with boiling water, delicately executing this
task. We then got to see and feel the
raw silk that had been obtained thus far. It takes between 2000 to 3000 cocoons
to make one pound of silk! Upon learning this fact, I realized that silk production
or sericulture is an extremely time consuming and delicate process requiring
absolute precision, without which you would need to redo any part of the line process
again. I also thought back to all those times that I had bought a silk scarf
while having negotiated hard for a good rate. Of course, I had no insight into
how complicated the process can be.
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| Raw silk in different dyes |
We then learnt about how raw silk
is made into fine silk, and then dyed into different colours using natural dyes.
It was interesting to see women there using their lower legs to fine tune a
design in the silk scarves. In the end, we saw lots of women, most of them
pregnant, weaving beautiful silk scarves of different colours and designs in
handlooms. A wrong move while the fine strands pass through the loom meant
redoing the entire process again. Just for context, it takes 4 – 5 days to complete
one silk sari. India being the world’s second largest producer of silk has a
lot of variety.
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| Colourful, well designed silk scarf |
After seeing the entire process,
I made a small mental note to myself that the next time I go silk shopping, I
will not negotiate hard.
