Silk Textiles from Laos
The tradition of silk weaving in Laos, a small country in Southeast Asia is over 1000 years old. Passed down from mother to daughter for generations, silk weaving continues to serve as a beautiful expression of an ancient culture.
In the past, Laotian women only weaved for themselves and their family, breeding the silk worms, extracting the silk and dyeing it with natural dyes before taking an heirloom textile as inspiration for their own piece. The many ethnic groups in Laos provide a vast pool of influences and have led to a wonderful variety of patterns, colour schemes and shapes over past centuries. The court clothes of Luang Prabang were often made with refined silk, using gold and silver thread. Formal wear was at one time influenced by the tradition of the Khmer empire, with long cloth woven in ikat techniques, often with a tin sin, a border brocade woven in supplementary weft technique and sewn at the foot of the skirt. Other influences include the supplementary weft brocades from India and China. These designs were incorporated into men's pantaloons, women's tube skirts, blouses and shoulder cloths. The classic Lao shoulder cloth, woven in brocade and bright silk and intricately decorated was worn wrapped around the torso with the loose end hanging down across the left shoulder. The royal courts influenced the styles of silk weaving in distant villages. Village weavers imitated court clothes and wove their own interpretations of court designs, often learned of through word of mouth and travelling theatres. Silk textiles of specific design are still worn today during ceremonies marking birth, puberty, marriage, death or the elevation of a person's social status. In Laos, textiles play an important role in healing rituals and Buddhist ceremonies.
Revival of the Tradition of Silk Weaving in Laos
After a long period of decline in the art of weaving, this most excellent tradition experienced a revival in the early 1990s. Today several studios in Laos are weaving silks of breathtaking quality and design and are receiving deserved recognition from around the world. The demand for loom woven silk textiles from Laos is on the rise as more and more people come into contact with and have the opportunity to appreciate this wonderful art form.
The women of Laos are proud and passionate about silk weaving, and describe it as a work of great joy. Silk weaving plays an important role in Laos's tradition and as demand grows, it is helping to stimulate a tiny economy with few exports by providing a valuable source of income for women and their families as well as serving to boost tourism.
Thanks to hundreds of years spent perfecting the cultivation of silk, the thread used in Laos is of a consistently high quality. The silk taken from a cacoon consists of a single filament up to 3000 feet long. Five or so filaments are normally combined to make a usable silk thread. The thickness or fineness of silk filament yarn is expressed in terms of denier, which is defined as the weight, in grams, of 9,000 meters of the yarn -the lower the denier, the finer the silk. Silk that contains sericin is called raw silk. The gummy substance affords protection during processing and so is usually retained until the yarn or fabric stage. It is then removed by boiling the silk in a mildly alkaline solution. This process, called degumming, leaves the silk soft and lustrous, but it can reduce the weight of the silk by as much as 30 percent.
After the silk is dried and spun it is then dyed using extract from the indigo plant (producing blue, black and green), mahogany tree (dry earth and brick red), ebony fruit (grey), annatto seeds (orange), jackfruit (yellow) the bark of the Indian trumpet flower tree (green) and almond leaves (olive). Ancestral dyeing techniques are of a very high standard and great care is taken selecting the plants from which the dye is extracted in this time consuming practice. Most fabrics in the world today are dyed with synthetic dyes, which lack the natural beauty of dyes produced from plant extracts. Some studios in Laos have elected to use synthetic dyes from Germany to achieve certain colours and because they are more resistant to fading.
Once a design has been decided on, silk weaving begins on a traditional wooden loom. It's an amazing experience to watch a detailed motif slowly emerge day by day. One quickly develops an appreciation for the skill and patience required by the weaver. A single piece can take days, weeks, even months to complete. Traditional designs and patterns, called motifs include ancient symbols such as diamonds, temples, birds, mythical serpents (Naga), elephants, and other animals as well as flowers. These are not merely ornamental. They have significance offering both status and protection to the owner. The starflower and other geometric designs bring good luck and prosperity. Animal characters are believed to bring fertility and protection, while patterns such as the firestone and spinning tools represent wisdom and creativity.
The Symbols of Lao Silk Weaving - Ancient Motifs
The rich symbolism expressed through the motifs woven into Lao silk textiles originated in the natural environment, Buddhist tradition, local culture and the Lao world view. The most important symbols are:
Naga (Phanya Naak/Nguak) – a serpent of the water systems with magical powers and appearing throughout Lao mythology. The Naga is a symbol of fertility and also worshipped as a guardian of human life in a society that depends on water to cultivate rice, a staple food. The Naga is also believed to exercise influence over the moral behaviour of humans.
Garuda – the Garuda is a sun bird and is the counterpart to the Naga. Thought to be a heavenly being, the Garuda wanders between the human and heavenly world.
Elephant – the elephant stands for wisdom, nobility and strength and guardian of the traveler. White elephants in Laos are regarded as sacred and in the former Lao Kingdom, Laan Saang, were bred at the king’s court.
Rajaiha – a mythical figure whose form has elements of the lion, dragon, and bird and in the eyes of some, the king of all animals. The Rajaiha is thought to offer protection against natural catastrophes and accidents.
Flower – in Asia, flowers have been used for thousands of years in rituals and as offerings to the Buddha, guardians and ancestor spirits and symbolize the offering of respect. Palm leaves symbolize the ‘tree of life’ and are understood as an element connecting earth and heaven.
Stars / Diamonds – often appearing in rows or patterns symbolize the cosmos with its four or eight directions (N, E, S, W; NE, SE, SW, NW). The star symbol (daa lao) is often used as a protective symbol during ceremonies with family or community. The star symbol is said to cast off negative energy and malevolent spirits.
Palace – the palace motif represents the heavenly worlds where the gods and angels reside. These beings have magical powers and may help humans out of compassion for their predicaments.
Stupa – the stupa is a Buddhist symbol and a physical structure that contains relics of the Buddha along with Buddhist manuscripts, Buddha images and other works of art. The stupa is used in meditation practice, symbolizing enlightenment.
Ancestor figure – ancestor sprits are represented by the human form. They are thought to maintain a close relationship with the human world and when moved, intervene in worldly affairs and protect human beings from illness and mishap.
Silk Weaving Techniques in Laos
Terms referring to the weaving techniques used include warp, weft, supplementary weft, matmee or ikat and tapestry. Warp refers to the silk threads stretched lengthwise on the loom to be crossed by the weft, which then forms the cloth. Supplementary weft refers to a decorative technique in which the motif is created using additional threads. This ingenious technique can appear as though the design were embroidered onto the cloth. Matmme or ikat is the process of adding a pre-dyed pattern into the warp. Silk threads are dyed in a pattern and woven into the piece creating an artistic effect where the colours appear to bleed into one another. This technique is also employed in Indonesia and India. Tapestry is a freestyle weaving technique popular in the north of Laos.
Unlike machine made textiles the surfaces of loom woven silk are not perfect, but instead show the beautiful characteristics and nubs of hand-woven and dyed silk. We carefully handpick every silk to ensure the highest possible quality. When considering the value of a silk please take into account the time and skill required to create these mesmerising textiles. Silk is a durable fibre but we do recommend dry cleaning. Silk can be ironed with a moderately hot iron, using a thin cloth between the iron and the silk.
Our silk textiles can be used as wall hangings, table runners, bed runners or wraps. Certain pieces also look wonderful framed. Our antique silks sometimes combine cotton with silk, especially the pieces that were originally skirts worn by Laotian women. These pieces are in short supply and will increase in value over time.
The exquisite textiles woven by the women of Laos lend a wonderful, warm ambience to the home and capture much of the mystical, exotic and playful sense of Southeast Asia.
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