Place
Koh Dach
Koh Dach (កោះដាច់), also called Silk Island, is an island in the Mekong (ទន្លេមេគង្គ) just upstream of Phnom Penh, known for silk weaving.[1]
Location
In 2013 the island lay about 15 kilometers outside Phnom Penh.[2] It sits east of the city, close to where the Mekong meets the Tonle Sap (ទន្លេសាប).[3] In 2024 an old car ferry carried traffic over to it, and a bridge at its southern end led on to a smaller island, Koh Toch.[3] An undated craft page names the neighboring island Koh Oknhatei.[4]
Silk and weaving
In 2017 Koh Dach was the main silk-producing area around Phnom Penh, while mulberry trees had become scarce across Cambodia, most of them destroyed in the Khmer Rouge (ខ្មែរក្រហម) years.[5] The island's weavers are known above all for the krama (ក្រមា), and in 2018 looms stood in the shaded space beneath its stilt houses.[1]
An undated account describes weavers working frame looms under their houses to make sampot (សំពត់) and chang kben (ចងក្បិន) worn at weddings and ceremonies. They fit the work around other jobs, such as rice planting and harvesting, and most finish only a few sampot a year. Some have turned the front room of the house into a shop, and a small silk farm on the island is part of an effort to revive local silk.[4]
In 2013 an economics magazine wrote of the sound of looms across the island as part of the recent past, as money pressures pushed artisans to give up the craft.[2] In 2024 a visitor saw silkworms feeding on shredded mulberry leaves at the Silk Island site, which charged a dollar for entry, and thread being spun with a pair of reused bicycle wheels.[3]
References 5
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Cambodia Daily, Fashion goodness from Cambodia to Canterbury (December 19, 2018, from Stuff)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Open Development Cambodia, Weaving woes: Cambodia's silk sector faces possible extinction (November 26, 2013, from Economics Today)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 The Mango Road, The silk islands of Koh Dach (August 28, 2024)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Emily Lush, Koh Dach, Cambodia, The Textile Atlas (undated)
- ↑ Open Development Cambodia, Silk weavers find it tough (March 17, 2017, from Khmer Times)
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