The last day at Siem Reap, Cambodia, day 4 of the trip, we visited a Silk farm, a spice factory and a craftsman workshop on Tutu. Fittingly, we went around on a Tuk-Tuk*, the most iconic way to get around in Siem Reap.
This day's activities were totally different from our typical vacation activities - hiking, kayaking, nature, wildlife ... They turned out to be very interesting! The silk farm visit in particular was fascinating to me.
Silk Farm and Silk making
The silk farm we visited has beautiful garden at the entrance, a guide greeted us there, introducing to us the history of the farm, and then showed us the whole process of silk making.
The life cycle silk worm last about 47 days.
The adult silk moths don't eat or drink, their only function is to reproduce. They survive solely on the stored energy from their larval stage when they fed on mulberry leaves, and their primary focus as adults is mating and laying eggs. The silk moths mate for 12 hours. The male dies after the mating, the female dies after laying eggs.
The eggs hatch and become silkworm. The silkworms eat mulberry tree leaves. In the farm, the eggs were laid on papers. When hatched, the silkworms are placed in mulberry tree leaves.
Once cocoons are formed, 10% of the cocoons are cut open at one end, and are left to live for reproduction. The rest are boiled to make silk!
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| silkworm eggs |
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| silkworm on mulberry tree leaves |
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| cocooning worms are placed in special baskets for later easy harvesting |
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| harvested silk cocoons |
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| silkworm life cycle |
Extract silk threads from silkworm cocoons - Reeling
The cocoons are placed in warm water to kill pupa (matured worm). Then using a brush like stick to locate the start of a silk thread - a single continuous thread can be pulled. The heat can also help to connect threads from different cocoons.
The guide told us that Cambodia silk has a golden color, which is 300 - 400 meters long from a single cocoon, Chinses silk is white and is 800 meters long from a single cocoon. They prefer the Chinese silkworm.
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| manual reeling - extracting silk from cocoons |
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| A machine for silk reeling |
There are several steps after reeling, to clean the silk thread, separate high quality silk threads from lesser quality silk. The silk is then dyed using natural coloring agent (typically extracted from plants).
The dyed silk yarns are then used to make silk fabric using mechanical wooden machine. It is amazing to see a worker with 6 month training can make silk with various beautiful patterns.
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| making of a silk |
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| a silk royal garment |
No computer, no sensor, of course no AI, all local natural sourced material, with proper training, a person with basic education can make beautiful silk.
Spice factory and craftsman workshop
Making spice and carving sculptures are closer to our daily life, and have a less wow effect on me.
One item at the craftsman workshop, however, intrigued me - Unalome **- a Buddhist symbol representing the path to enlightenment or the life's path.
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| garden at the spice factory |
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| craftsman workshop |
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| Unalome on workbench |
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| Unalome symbol in a pound at the craftsman workshop campus |
Notes
*Tuk-Tuk - a motorcycle drawn carriage is a economic and traditional way to get around. It is quite romantic when we rode on it in busy streets. It is quite a different feel when we rode it to the silk farm, which is 15km away from town center. Without windshield - wind blows into our eyes, and facial skin pulled backward!
** interpretation of Ualome
