Weaver's Heaven, Part One

Yesterday we visited Prek Bonkong, a village on an island upriver from Phnom Penh that specializes in traditional Khmer weaving. The houses are all built on stilts. The family lives upstairs while the looms and livestock are under the house on the ground level. The looms range from 2 shafts to very sophisticated ones with 2 shafts for the ground cloth and up to 16 for the pattern. Silk is the fiber of choice, and they raise silkworms, reel and dye the thread. The looms are very long (maybe 10 feet from front to back), and the warp beam is a flat board held in place by pegs. Puppies and small children play underneath, along with the chickens and ducks.