Kantel

Kantel (កន្ទេល) is the Khmer woven mat, made by hand from sedge, palm leaf, pandanus or rattan for sleeping, sitting and drying rice. Villages of Kandal (កណ្ដាល) province weave sedge mats, and weavers around Siem Reap use palm leaf, pandanus and rattan. The craft passes from parents to children, and in both provinces older weavers have said that fewer young people take it up.

Woven motifs on a Cambodian red mat, 2022. Photo: Willuconquer, CC BY-SA 4.0

Tradition details
Khmer name	កន្ទេល
Practice type	Craft practice
Subjects	Crafts & Material Culture

Materials

In Kandal the two main raw materials are kak (កក់) and krachau (ក្រចៅ). Villagers grow them on their own land or buy them from growers close by. Grey sedge, known locally as chorjod, is also made into mats, as well as bags, hats and baskets.

In Siem Reap province, weavers use pa'av (Licuala spinosa), a mangrove fan palm. Near Krabei Riel, south of Angkor, the pandanus called romchek (Pandanus pierrei) grows along rivers, ponds and irrigation canals, and it goes mainly into mats. Rattan is prized in Khmer culture for its strength and beauty, and for that reason Krabei Riel weavers seldom use highland rattan for mats.

Sedge mat (កន្ទេលកក់)

Villagers of Peam Oknha Ong commune, in Lvea Aem district of Kandal, weave sedge mats. In Prek Ta Ong village, weavers grow krachau to make the cord for their mats, and they scrape away the outer layer of its stem. One weaver said that ten kilograms of krachau are enough to weave 100 kilograms of kak. The mats are woven on a loom.

Koh Santepheap Daily wrote in 2021 that nearly every household there once wove mats, but that many looms had been put aside. Young people had gone to work in factories, and the COVID-19 pandemic had made the mats harder to sell. One weaver in her thirties had woven since she was 17, as her grandmother had before her.

In August 2020 a mat-weaving group in Peam Oknha Ong had 20 member families, and a mat sold for 80,000 to 120,000 riel depending on its design. In October 2021 a weaver in the same commune said she wove two mats a day and sold them to traders for 60,000 riel for a small mat and 80,000 riel for a large one.

Across the Mekong from Phnom Penh, Arey Ksat became a city in December 2022, formed from parts of Khsach Kandal and Lvea Aem districts. Tours of the area stop at sedge mat workshops as well as silk workshops.

Red mat (កន្ទេលក្រហម)

Weavers in Peam Oknha Ong also make red mats. In 2021 an elderly weaver of red mats in Prek Ta Ong 1 village said that fewer people there wove them than before, because the young had left for factory work. Weavers in the commune kept making red mats through the COVID-19 pandemic, and traders came to their homes to buy them at somewhat lower prices. The weavers asked Cambodians to buy their red mats, both to keep an inherited craft alive and to give rural families work and income.

Palm-leaf mats

In Leang Dai commune of Angkor Thom district, in Siem Reap province, weavers make mats from mangrove fan palm. Ouerm Kor, a weaver in Ta Brok village, learned the craft from her parents at the age of seven and had woven for more than 60 years by 2020. She said a mat once took her half a month, and up to a month as her eyesight weakened with age. Ho Pach, also of Leang Dai, learned from her mother at 13.

Ho Pach said that weavers choose leaves that are green, long, flexible and smooth, and pass over older stems. They split them into narrow strips and dry them, and dye them when they want color. In 2023 she said that a typical mat measures about 1.5 by 2 meters (about 4.9 by 6.6 feet), takes about two weeks to make and sells for 40,000 to 120,000 riel. Because the palm had grown scarce near her home, she traveled in groups as far as Kampong Thom province, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) from Siem Reap, to gather it.

Son Sok, a palm-leaf mat weaver of Preah Dak village in Banteay Srei district, said in 2025 that these mats last nearly two years and serve for sitting and drying rice, but are too stiff to sleep on. Ho Pach said that a pa'av mat is comfortable to sleep on in hot weather. Elder weavers from Siem Reap showed their palm-leaf mats to visitors during Angkor Sangkranta, held April 14 to 16, 2025.

Pandanus and rattan mats

Around Krabei Riel, romchek was once woven into household mats in most villages. Im Sokrithy and four colleagues wrote in 2025 that only a few weavers there used it, as nylon and other modern materials spread, and that in some villages the number of romchek weavers had fallen from five to one. The paper's catalog lists a romchek mat of 130 by 200 centimeters (about 4.3 by 6.6 feet) that took seven days to weave, priced at 50,000 riel, and a mat of rattan and khleng por of 120 by 200 centimeters that took 15 days, priced at 100,000 riel.

Uses

Mats are used at home for sleeping and sitting, and in villages to dry paddy rice. They also serve at ceremonies and celebrations. Ouerm Kor said she kept some of her mats back from sale for such occasions, so that she would not need to borrow from neighbors. Son Sok said she wove her mats for her own use and for village celebrations, not to sell. In the Krabei Riel area, villagers also seek several kinds of woven goods as offerings to monks and for religious events and ceremonies at Wats.

Passing on the craft

Weavers learn at home, most often from a parent, and pass the craft on to their own children. Ouerm Kor said in 2020 that some of her children had begun to learn, but that they also had work in the city. Khmer Mat (2024), an 18-minute film by Thy Rath from the Bophana Center, is about Phan Sokmon, a weaver from Kandal province who learned the craft from her mother as a child. In her community only a few elders weave mats, since many young people have moved away for work.

References