Southeast Asian Mainland Textiles

 

Much of mainland Southeast Asia's textile production technology, design repertoires, and consumption patterns are shared with other Asian regions to the north (China) and west (South Asia, India), as well as insular Southeast Asia. The student of mainland Southeast Asian textiles must be concerned with Indian, Bhutanese, and Northeast Indian textiles, as well as those of Southwestern and Southern China, including Hainan Island and aboriginal Taiwan, as well as the more traditional areas of the mainland, which include Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma (Myanmar), and peninsular Malaysia. Exploration of the continuities and discontinuities between "traditional" Southeast Asia and the peoples, cultures, and textiles of these "peripheral" regions yields significant rewards. Many Southeast Asian cultures originated in southern China, and mainland Southeast Asia's major religion, Theravada Buddhism, and its textiles originated in South Asia; additionally, South Asia and China supplied royal textiles that became models emulated even in rural Southeast Asia.

Tube skirts, shawls, blankets, and other items made on back-tensioned looms with circular warps are among the region's "traditional" textiles. These can be embellished in various ways, including resist tie-dyed warp or weft elements, intricate supplementary weft or warp floats, tapestry weaves, appliqués, embroideries, and other techniques. Southeast Asian textiles also include Buddhist monk's robes, which the Buddha created to contrast with South Asia's uncut textile tradition, as well as tailored coats, pants, and robes derived from Chinese forms.

Early Southeast Asian Textiles

While it is commonly claimed that the region's tropical and semi-tropical climate makes preservation and recovery of Southeast Asian textiles difficult, recent creative archaeological research has filled in some gaps. Textile fragments adhering to bone as a result of bronze deposition have been discovered in Ban Chiang (Northeast Thai) sites. Asbestos was used to make cloth, according to innovative archaeological recovery techniques from burials. Finally, Green's (2000) research on Khmer basreliefs used to decorate Angkorean temples reveals that they were made from designs found on Indian block-printed and ikat-motifed cloth, which was also discovered in Fustat, Egypt. This pioneering work demonstrates that earlier eras of textile production and consumption need not be lost.

Historical Southeast Asian Textiles

With European contact, one gains a more comprehensive understanding of the complex world of mainland Southeast Asian textiles. Unfortunately, the majority of early information focuses on textile display and consumption within the worlds of Southeast Asian monarchies. The extensive use of textiles in Louis XIV's French ambassadors' discussions of their 1685 reception at Ayutthaya (then capital of Siam) reflected the significance of their reception, as well as designated the ranks of the various people involved in these ceremonies. Many of the textiles returned by King Narai were from Persia, Hindustan, Japan, and China. This demonstrated Southeast Asian kingship's cosmopolitan connections. Beautiful and sumptuous non-Southeast Asian pieces with block prints and metallic interweave served as markers of god-king status and as gifts to subjects to secure their status, roles, and allegiances to the monarchy. As part of their monopolistic takeover of world trading patterns, European adventurers and trading companies sought to imitate and insert themselves into this lucrative, royally controlled South Asian trade.

However, little is known about nonelite textiles prior to the mid-1800s due to the rigors of Southeast Asian environments, the intensive uses of cloth, and the difficulties of production prior to industrial manufacture. Local production of silk and cotton yarn, as well as trade in this yarn and textiles, are assumed to have been a part of local life. Early European explorers venturing into mainland, particularly upland, northern Southeast Asia were impressed by the amount of cotton and silk yarn trade with southwestern China: cotton was traded north, silk was traded south. Furthermore, explorers who visited the royal families of the northern principalities were impressed by the use of Chinese textiles in the repertory, which replaced textiles traded or granted by southern kings.

The willingness of local women to trade homemade textiles for European goods astounded members of the Mekong expedition of 1866-1868. Finally, textiles served as currency in addition to being used as clothing. During the early reigns of the Chakri dynasty (1782-c. 1830), careful examination of tax receipts flowing into Bangkok from upcountry dependencies reveals that white cotton cloth was a major tribute item. This cloth was requisitioned in part for royal funerals; white cloth is required for wrapping the deceased in many Southeast Asian cultures. More was required for royal funerals to honor the cremation bier and participants' attire (Lefferts, 1994). Some upland Lao cultures adorn coffins with magnificent lengths of tiedyed weft silk cloth.

Southeast Asian textiles are produced at the household level in rural areas. Women are in charge of growing cotton, raising mulberry trees and silkworms, controlling production technology, weaving, and finally distributing the cloth. However, as evidenced by the evidence of cloth for tribute, this does not imply that women could engage in this production without interference from the elite. Under strict royal control, severe constraints on local production could be imposed, according to Bowie. Northern Thai villagers used to dress in rags and patched clothing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. However, elite control of textile production was likely less severe in many other locations, laying the groundwork for the fluorescence of wondrously woven textiles that emerged in the late twentieth century.

Twentieth-Century Textiles

Industrially produced textiles, initially from English and French looms, but later from pre-World War II Shanghai, South Asian, and American factories, combined with the intrusion of European tailored clothes, wrought major changes in rural Southeast Asian textile production and urban and rural consumption.

Domestic production of white cloth has dramatically decreased. White cloth, rather than remaining a major consumer of a woman's production, became a byproduct intended for donation and personal use. Aside from funerals, it was widely used in monk's robes. Cheap, factory-made white cloth, smooth (in contrast to rough home-spun and home-woven pieces), cut, sewn, and dyed the appropriate saffron color, appears to have quickly replaced much of rural women's demand for white cloth. At the same time, white cloth tribute was phased out and replaced by government levies to fund expanding bureaucracies. Finally, chemical indigo dyes manufactured in Euro-American factories, quickly followed by the development of other artificial colors, replaced locally produced natural dyes. Brilliant chemical dyes were a boon to Southeast Asian weavers and consumers who desired bright colors that stood out from the dull dyes they had endured for generations.

While there is no secure data, it appears that the period preceding and following World War II, as well as the subsequent one to two decades, resulted in the production of an extraordinary range of indigenous village textiles with complicated designs and patterns, a creative explosion by many accomplished women. Following the end of the cold war and the opening of transportation and consumption across the entire broad swath of northern mainland Southeast Asia and southern China, these textiles flooded the textile markets of Southeast Asia. Many were used, but many were saved for future use. It is fair to say that these textiles exemplified Southeast Asian women's artistic and technological prowess. This was especially true of the cloth that women wove for their own garments, including skirts and sashes. In some areas, beautiful tie-dyed patterns predominated, while in others, complicated brocades produced by a loom with a multistrand vertical pattern heddle became popular. Finally, complex tapestry weaves and double-warp cloth with supplementary weft became standard in some areas.

Southeast Asian textiles became known to Euro-American and Japanese connoisseurs as a result of the dispersal of Southeast Asian refugees fleeing the American-Indochinese War. These groups included highlanders, some of whom, like the Hmong (Miao, Meo), were recent Chinese migrants to Southeast Asia; others, like the Thai Dam and Thai Khaaw (Black and White Thai) and ethnic Lao of Laos, had been wet-rice cultivators for several generations. All had been displaced by war and arrived in refugee camps and final settlement countries with their traditions, handmade textiles, and demands to reestablish their culture. Cohen has documented the evolution of indigenously produced textiles into articles of consumption by neighbors becoming aware of these refugees, such as the Hmong's "story quilts" and other changes to their design repertory. Other weaving traditions, such as those practiced by Lao women in the United States and France, have also survived. Several mainland Southeast Asian textile producers have received personal recognition, such as through the National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellowship program in the United States.

Mainland Southeast Asian Textiles Production

Detailed studies of mainland Southeast Asian textile production technologies are now bearing fruit. The woman producer's relationship with her materials and equipment is more holistic than that of the typical Euro-American loom. Typically, the loom and much of its equipment are made by a man and given to the woman as a mark of respect or an inducement to begin production, given that textiles are one of the most important ways for a household to earn additional income and prestige.

Cloth production is magically powerful in some cultures; men are forbidden from touching the loom. A weaver can be thought of as producing a changeable substance, resulting in something of a different quality than she started with. Thus, textile production may symbolize a girl's maturation to womanhood, with the ability to bring new humans into the world.

Women control the means of textile production as well as knowledge of its technology in both mainland and insular Southeast Asia. Women's control over weaving and production disposition generates symbolic and cultural capital in many Southeast Asian cultures.

Women's textile production may contribute significantly to household income. While textile production may vary throughout the year depending on the needs and opportunities for other employment, textile production was and continues to be an important skill for many women. At the very least, women can produce cloth for which the household would have to spend money. The majority of weaving is done on long warps with several pieces that can be cut off as needed. The weaver can give pieces to different people, save others for future gifts, or sell some or all of them as opportunities arise. The opportunity cost of time, combined with the savings on textile purchases and the possibility of income generation, may make a woman's weaving an essential part of household survival.

Modern Southeast Asian Textiles

In the early 1990s, the global reach of market forces into upland mainland Southeast Asia resulted in the export of massive quantities of technologically significant and aesthetically pleasing indigenous textiles. The majority of these left the region without proper provenance or notes on their potential uses. Furthermore, future weavers of pattern cloths were deprived of models for future designs and techniques as a result of this export.

Despite the fact that commercialization and globalization have conspired to eradicate indigenous, home-based production of mainland Southeast Asian textiles, countervailing forces have emerged to preserve and record it. Western weavers and scholars' interest in mainland Southeast Asian textiles is relatively new, having begun in earnest in the late 1980s. This effort has resulted in in-depth studies of textile contexts, meanings, and applications. Importantly, accomplished foreign weavers have developed an interest in studying the complexities of mainland Southeast Asian production technology. Because textile manufacturing is a process, these studies must include a large number of still photographs or, better yet, detailed, focused video. Fortunately, this work is already underway, and important studies are beginning to emerge.

Finally, efforts are being made to preserve some of these customs. Her Majesty, Queen Sirikit of Thailand, has supported local craftspeople who are experts in modes of production and design for many years through her royally sponsored Support Foundation (the French acronym for Foundation for the Promotion of Supplementary Occupations and Related Techniques). Queen Sirikit received an ATA (Aid to Artisans) 2004 Preservation of Craft Award for her pioneering and ongoing efforts. The Lao Women's Union and private entrepreneur Carol Cassidy are working in Laos to preserve and expand the repertoire of Lao weaving, as well as to bring it international recognition. Similarly, in devastated Cambodia in the early 1990s, UNESCO launched a massive effort not only to reestablish textile production, but also to reintroduce mulberry tree cultivation and silk yarn production to support it. Some of the glory of Khmer silk weaving is returning in the early 2000s. All of these efforts rely on collaborating with locals, usually women, who recall what they accomplished so easily many years ago, informing them that their knowledge is valuable and encouraging them to share it with others. Most importantly, these and other efforts return income to villagers who have come to regard themselves as poor and lacking in meaningful resources.