![]() Just east of Udon Thani in Northern Thailand, lie the excavated ruins of Baan Chiang which date back to approximately 1,500 B.C. The Mystery of Thai Silk Origins A basket full of Thai hybrid white silk cocoons. Most historians generally agree that silk and/or sericulture came to present-day Thailand by these ancient Chinese trading routes. ![]() One particular route went through modern day Thailand to a port on the Andaman Sea for export by boat to India. Chinese traders established and expanded a whole network of silk routes to Eastern Europe and Indochina to satisfy demand. Chinese sericulture was well developed and silk quickly became a much sought-after commodity. She watched the silk cocoon begin to unravel in her warm tea and so silk was discovered. Empress Shiling Ti was relaxing under a mulberry tree, enjoying a cup of tea, when a silk cocoon dropped from the tree into her tea. The video below, produced by the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles, is a wonderful overview of the entire traditional Thai sericulture process, including the making of silk yarn and mudmee weaving.Ī Brief History of Thai Sericulture Silk was first found in The Kingdom 3,000 years ago.Įveryone knows that silk was discovered by the Chinese around 2600 B.C. You simply can’t fully understand Thai silk fabric without a basic understanding of raw silk and silk yarn. This blog post about Thai sericulture, is a companion piece. It takes about 4,000 cocoons to produce enough silk fabric to make a woman’s two-piece business suit.Īlthough sericulture primarily concerns itself with the rearing of silkworms, I will go beyond sericulture and also detail how silk yarn is made from these cocoons and the different grades of silk yarn and their specific use in creating silk fabric.Ī year ago, I wrote a blog post entitled “Buying Thai Silk in Thailand” which delved into the world of silk weaving and how to judge a bolt of silk fabric for quality and above all else, authenticity. It takes roughly 2500 silkworm cocoons to weave a sarong. It’s useful to understand sericulture by the following facts: It takes about 600 silkworm cocoons to yield enough yarn to weave a scarf. The breeding and rearing of silkworms to produce silk cocoons is called sericulture. White cocoons produce the finest silk filaments. A thai hybrid white silk cocoon being harvested in the village of Ban Phon. So regardless of a weaver’s skills, if she doesn’t use quality and appropriate silk yarns, she will never weave quality silk fabric. After all, raw silk is no more equal in quality than diamonds, lumber, granite, cars and almost everything else in life. You can’t really appreciate or understand the quality of a bolt of Thai silk fabric without knowing something about the raw silk it was woven from. The following simple equation speaks to an inherent truth about silk fabric: Quality silk yarn + Expert Weaver = Quality Silk Fabric. ![]() But that’s not really true in the strictest sense.Ī better explanation for my silk safaris is that my purpose is to buy Thai silk fabric, not raw Thai silk. When I go on a “silk safari” to Khon Gan, Surin, Khorat, or any of the dozens of isolated silk weaving villages spread across Isaan (Northeastern Thailand), I often say that the purpose of my trip is to buy silk. Read on for a full explanation about the art of Thai sericulture and silk yarn making. That’s right-not only do they hand-weave silk fabrics, but they also raise silkworms and produce raw Thai silk. In Thailand, the rural silk weaving villages produce their own raw silk and make their own silk threads and yarns. The process of making Thai silk is called Thai sericulture. Most raw silk in Thailand is produced by small farmers in Isaan (Northeast Thailand). Raw Thai silk hangs on a rack near Khon Gan. ![]()
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