This week on 5 we’re taking a trip to the lower Isaan region of Thailand to visit a silk village. Thai silk comes from the cocoons of Thai silkworms. The silkworms are raised on a diet of mulberry leaves and the resulting silk is considered one of the finest fabrics in the world.

Before we get to the photos and further information, a quick reminder for those in Taiwan. I’ll be hosting another Photowalk this Sunday. Meet at 3:30pm at Xin Beitou MRT station if you’re interested in joining us. The photowalks always feature some good conversation, laughs and photo opportunities.

Thai Silk

The oldest known use of silk in Thailand dates back to fibers found in the ruins of Baan Chiang, considered to be Southeast Asia’s oldest civilization. Thai silk comes from Bombyx mori, a small silk worm that comes from the eggs of a silk moth. Silk thread of varying colors, ranging from light gold to very light green is produced from the cocoon with lengths up to 1500m possible from a single cocoon.

Thai Silk

A single thread filament is too thin to use on its own so silk workers combine many threads to produce a thicker, usable fiber. They do this by hand-reeling the threads onto a wooden spindle to produce a uniform strand of raw silk. This can take nearly 40 hours to produce a half kilogram of Thai silk.

Thai Silk

The silk fabric is then soaked in hot water and bleached before dyeing in order to remove the natural yellow coloring of Thai silk yarn. To do this, skeins of silk thread are immersed in large tubs of hydrogen peroxide. Once washed and dried, the silk is then woven using a traditional hand operated loom. This hand weaving means that each silk fabric is unique.

Silk Hand Loom

Thai silk has a unique luster, with a sheen that has two unique blends: one color for the warp and another for the weft. Color changes as you hold the Thai silk fabric at varying angles against light. If burned, Thai silk smells like hair due to the natural silk fiber that is similar to human hair and fingernails. Interestingly, if the flame is moved, the silk stops burning. This is different to artificial silk which has a plastic smell if burned.
In terms of price, Thai silk is usually 10 times more expensive than artificial silk, with the US and UK being the two biggest markets.

Thai Silk

These images come from a small silk village outside Surin. This village provided the silk fabric for the 2003 APEC conference in Thailand.

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Situated on top of a 525m cliff in the Dangrek mountains of northern Cambodia is Prasat Preah Vihear. Straddling the border between Cambodia’s Preah Vihear province and Sisaket province in Thailand, the 11th century Angkorian temple lies on disputed ground. Over the past millenium, the temple has been located at times in both Cambodia and Thailand. A 1962 ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague stated that the temple was a part of Cambodia.

Access to the site was soon restricted by the civil war in Cambodia. With its position atop a remote clifftop, the temple was easily defensible. Long after the Cambodian plains below had been taken over by the Khmer Rouge, soldiers loyal to the Lon Nol government continued to hold Prasat Preah Vihear. In wasn’t until late May 1975, one month after Phnom Penh had fallen that the Khmer Rouge managed to gain control of the temple. It was reported as being the last place in Cambodia to fall under Khmer Rouge control.

After the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in 1978, Prasat Preah Vihear became one of the locations that the Khmer Rouge fled to. The continued guerilla war throughout the 1980s and 1990s meant that, save for a brief time in 1992, access to the temple was still restricted. It wasn’t until 1998 that access from the Thai side was possible, after the last remaining Khmer Rouge soldiers negotiated their surrender to the Cambodian government. Ironically, after being the last location to fall to the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s, it was the last site that any significant numbers of Khmer Rouge fighters controlled at their final surrender. Access from the Cambodian side only became possible in 2003 after the completion of an access road.

In 2007 the process to have Prasat Preah Vihear listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site began. After Cambodia proposed the listing of the site, Thailand protested stating that it should be a joint proposal. Both countries were in full agreement that the site met the requirements for listing as a World Heritage site, and it was decided that Cambodia would submit the proposal and Thailand would back it. However, protests from opposition political parties in Thailand in June 2008 led to Thailand withdrawing its support of the nomination. In response to the protests, Cambodia closed the border and continued with the application process, and on July 8th UNESCO awarded World Heritage status to Prasat Preah Vihear.

A week later, on July 15th, tensions rose after three Thai nationals crossed the border and attempted to place a Thai flag in the temple grounds. Several dozen Thai soldiers were reported to have crossed the border, with one losing his leg to a landmine leftover from the Cambodian civil war. Over the next few days, more troops entered the temple, with as many as 1000 soldiers being stationed in the area. 400 Thai soldiers occupied a pagoda in the temple itself, claiming it as Thai territory. High-level talks the following week couldn’t resolve the dispute and more soldiers and heavy weapons moved to the area. In August, Cambodia claimed that a second Angkor-era temple complex, Ta Muan, was being occupied by Thailand, to which Thailand Fine Arts Department Director, Kriengkrai Sampatchalit, responded, saying that the temple ” is located just about 100 metres from the border on Thai soil”. (Note – I’ve been to that temple and it’s more like 10m from the border).

Talks later in the month saw an agreement to reduce troop levels at Prasat Preah Vihear ahead of a meeting between the two countries’ foreign ministers. Tensions were raised again in October, with firefights between Thai and Cambodian forces that left a number of soldiers dead and wounded. The dispute is still unresolved, although both sides have agreed to seek peaceful solutions.

UPDATE – News the morning, April 4th is reporting more fighting with at least 3 dead.

Si Nian Buddhist Temple, Taiwan

Apologies for the lack of posting lately. I’ve had the flu for the past few days and haven’t felt like sitting in front of a computer. Here’s an old shot from Thailand in the meantime.

I was honored to have a photo from Khao Luang Caves in Petchaburi, Thailand selected to appear on National Geographic’s website.

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