2. HAIRSTYLES & HAIR ADORNMENTS
58: About half the hairstyles that I found.
3. JEWEL ADORNMENTS
59: Mixed jewelry – for the neck, waist, hands
60: Jewelry for the feet
61: Jewelry for the ears
4. RECENT TEXTILES
We now fast forward to the 19th century, where we find documentation by colonial rulers about Khmer textiles. Fourteen religious paintings on cotton cloth, suspended vertically down the pillars of the Buddhist vihear (temple) dated to 1877 have been documented. A French resident in the early 20th century has recorded the offering of ‘pidan’ canopy or banners as part of Buddhist religious rituals. Since Buddhism was practiced in the Angkorian period, it is likely that these textiles also existed then, and maybe what we see today is an evolved form of those. We will never know!
Pidans usually depict the Jataka tales or the life of Buddha. Other silk textile banners are woven in geometric patterns or as ship cloths. Some present-day pidans:
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The single ikat technique is used to weave pidans.
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5. ENDING NOTE
The textile weaving region of Cambodia is in the Takeo province, nearer to Phnom Penh than to Siem Reap. The nearby countries and the 6 hill tribes of the golden triangle produce some great supplementary weft weaving too. Someday I hope to go there to explore more Khmer, Siam, Cham, Laotian and hill tribe textiles……... One more desire added to my list!!
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This photo-essay is an abridged version of the travelogue posted on http://www.wovensouls.com/travelogues-and-articles.html. The long version covers other adornments in detail, and also interesting aspects of Khmer life from my viewpoint.
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