Clothing, Traditional—Thailand

Clothing, Traditional—Thailand

The numerous ethnic groups of Thailand traditionally have produced a wide array of cotton and silk textiles. Each ethnic group wove textiles in distinctive patterns for clothing, domestic, and ceremonial purposes, thus transforming textiles into markers of identity. The various Thai linguistic groups, as well as the Khmer, Kui, and Malay ethnic minority groups living in the lowland areas of Thailand used cotton and silk fibers to create their textiles. A combination of fiber, color, and technique distinguishes a textile of one group from that of another, but the structure of textiles made throughout Thailand is similar.

Women's Traditional Dress

The pha sin, or tube skirt, is the traditional lower garment for women of the various ethnic groups of lowland Thailand. The pha sin consists of three sections: hua sin (head or top), tua sin (body or midsection), and tin sin (foot or border). The three sections of the pha sin are either woven in one piece of cloth with patterns differentiating the three sections or are made from two or more pieces of cloth sewn together.

The top section is made from plain-woven cotton cloth of various colors. The Tai Lue of northern Thailand and the Lao Song Dam of central Thailand use indigo cotton for the top section, while the Tai Yuan living in the north prefer natural or white cotton, sometimes with a strip of red cotton, for this section. The Tai Lao and Khmer use a single piece of material for all three sections of the pha sin; they distinguish the top section by the absence of motifs.

The midsection is the largest section of the tube skirt. Weavers of the various ethnic groups use a variety of techniques to decorate the midsection, including ikat (tye-dying the thread before weaving it), tapestry, and supplementary warp and weft patterning. The Tai Lao, Lao Khrang, Khmer, and Kui weavers favor weft ikat or mat mii technique, while the Tai Lue employ tapestry and other techniques to create complex patterns. The Lao Phuan of Sukothai and Uttaradit provinces weave an overall supplementary warp pattern for the midsection and attach a complicated patterned border to their tube skirt.

The skirt border is either plainly woven or very elaborate. The most intricately patterned border is the tin chok, a border pattern with decorated chok, or discontinuous supplementary weft motifs. The skirt border is highly valued, and many women of various ethnic groups possess a pha sin tin chok (a pha sin, or tube skirt, decorated with a discontinuous supplementary weft border ) for special occasions. The Tai Lue prefer a simple border of plain indigo cotton, while the Phu Tai and Lao Song Dam weave a thicker border, approximately five centimeters wide, decorated with supplementary patterns or stripes. Some women dress in tube skirts or sarongs with an overall pattern. Mature Khmer women of northeast Thailand often wear tube skirts with a checked or plaid pattern. Malay women in the south favor batik or wax-resist-dyed sarongs similar to Malay dress of neighboring countries.

The chong kraben wasthe lower garment traditionally worn by women of central Thailand and Cambodia. Central Thai women used a variety of textiles for the chong kraben including Indian chintz; they also used different types of silk textiles such as silver and gold brocades on silk made locally or from India; local weft ikat silk; and imported Chinese and Cambodian silk. The use of an upper garment by women varied until the beginning of the twentieth century. Most women did not wear an upper garment, but wrapped a rectangular cloth, pha sabai, around the breasts or across a shoulder when attending religious or ceremonial functions. Prior to the twentieth century, women belonging to ethnic groups originating in colder climates (for example, the Tai Lue, Lao Song Dam, and PhuTai) wore blouses or shirts of indigo or black cotton decorated with silver buttons, embroidery, or appliqué. For special occasions, an elaborately patterned shoulder or breast cloth was added to complete the outfit. The Phu Tai pha phrae wa was an outstanding example of a shoulder cloth; this red silk textile is decorated with bands of complex patterns and is approximately three meters long. Women began to wear European-style blouses in the 1900s.

Costumed lakorn dancers perform at the Lak Muang shrine in Bangkok in 1995. (KEVIN R. MORRIS/CORBIS)

Men's Traditional Dress

Unlike women, men no longer commonly wear traditional clothing. The traditional clothing of men was not as elaborate as women's dress and did not vary much among the different ethnic groups. Men wore a short version of the chong kraben as a loincloth, made of plain or plaid patterned cotton. This shortened version of the chong kraben exposed the wearer's thighs, which were usually tattooed. Men reserved a silk chong kraben for special occasions such as weddings and ordination ceremonies into the Buddhist monkhood. A plaid or checked cotton sarong was another lower garment favored by Malay men in the southern region of Thailand.

Men did not wear an upper garment on a daily basis, and draped a cloth over one or a both shoulders for special events. Men of ethnicities from colder climates dressed in cotton shirts with a shoulder cloth for ceremonies and religious activities. Men also used a plaid cotton cloth or pha khao ma as a sash, bag, belt, head cloth, scarf, and towel. Both sexes carried a shoulder bag that could be plainly or elaborately patterned. A young woman might create an intricate bag to give to a man as a token of her affection.

Household Textiles

Women produce an array of textiles used for such purposes as mattresses, blankets and covers, pillows, and mosquito nets. These items are made from cotton, but items reserved for a wedding may be silk or decorated with silk and often contain elaborate motifs. The Tai Lue favor black and red geometric motifs on a natural cotton background. The Lao Song Dam adorn their special household textiles with green, red, orange, and white silk appliqué. The Lao Khrang prefer a natural cotton blanket with elaborate supplementary patterns at the ends, bordered with red cotton.

Religious or Ceremonial Textiles

Women also weave textiles for religious or ceremonial purposes. Laywomen provide dyed cotton cloth for Buddhist monks' robes, as well as household textiles. Family members usually donate these items to monks at ordination ceremonies and at subsequent religious festivals. Ceremonial textiles are also donated to hang inside and outside a temple and to cover palmleaf manuscripts.

Textiles for the Royalty

Until the beginning of the twentieth century, Thai royalty consumed textiles that were similar in design and structure to villagers' textiles but were of higher quality. Court weavers produced gold and silver supplementary-patterned silks for the royal family and aristocracy. The elite also commissioned highly skilled weavers throughout the kingdom to supply finely woven silk and cotton textiles. The royalty imported specially designed textiles from India, China, and Cambodia; their laws restricted the use of the imported fabrics to the higher strata of society. Thai kings wore tClothing, Traditional—Thailand

The numerous ethnic groups of Thailand traditionally have produced a wide array of cotton and silk textiles. Each ethnic group wove textiles in distinctive patterns for clothing, domestic, and ceremonial purposes, thus transforming textiles into markers of identity. The various Thai linguistic groups, as well as the Khmer, Kui, and Malay ethnic minority groups living in the lowland areas of Thailand used cotton and silk fibers to create their textiles. A combination of fiber, color, and technique distinguishes a textile of one group from that of another, but the structure of textiles made throughout Thailand is similar.

Women's Traditional Dress

The pha sin, or tube skirt, is the traditional lower garment for women of the various ethnic groups of lowland Thailand. The pha sin consists of three sections: hua sin (head or top), tua sin (body or midsection), and tin sin (foot or border). The three sections of the pha sin are either woven in one piece of cloth with patterns differentiating the three sections or are made from two or more pieces of cloth sewn together.

The top section is made from plain-woven cotton cloth of various colors. The Tai Lue of northern Thailand and the Lao Song Dam of central Thailand use indigo cotton for the top section, while the Tai Yuan living in the north prefer natural or white cotton, sometimes with a strip of red cotton, for this section. The Tai Lao and Khmer use a single piece of material for all three sections of the pha sin; they distinguish the top section by the absence of motifs.

The midsection is the largest section of the tube skirt. Weavers of the various ethnic groups use a variety of techniques to decorate the midsection, including ikat (tye-dying the thread before weaving it), tapestry, and supplementary warp and weft patterning. The Tai Lao, Lao Khrang, Khmer, and Kui weavers favor weft ikat or mat mii technique, while the Tai Lue employ tapestry and other techniques to create complex patterns. The Lao Phuan of Sukothai and Uttaradit provinces weave an overall supplementary warp pattern for the midsection and attach a complicated patterned border to their tube skirt.

The skirt border is either plainly woven or very elaborate. The most intricately patterned border is the tin chok, a border pattern with decorated chok, or discontinuous supplementary weft motifs. The skirt border is highly valued, and many women of various ethnic groups possess a pha sin tin chok (a pha sin, or tube skirt, decorated with a discontinuous supplementary weft border ) for special occasions. The Tai Lue prefer a simple border of plain indigo cotton, while the Phu Tai and Lao Song Dam weave a thicker border, approximately five centimeters wide, decorated with supplementary patterns or stripes. Some women dress in tube skirts or sarongs with an overall pattern. Mature Khmer women of northeast Thailand often wear tube skirts with a checked or plaid pattern. Malay women in the south favor batik or wax-resist-dyed sarongs similar to Malay dress of neighboring countries.

The chong kraben wasthe lower garment traditionally worn by women of central Thailand and Cambodia. Central Thai women used a variety of textiles for the chong kraben including Indian chintz; they also used different types of silk textiles such as silver and gold brocades on silk made locally or from India; local weft ikat silk; and imported Chinese and Cambodian silk. The use of an upper garment by women varied until the beginning of the twentieth century. Most women did not wear an upper garment, but wrapped a rectangular cloth, pha sabai, around the breasts or across a shoulder when attending religious or ceremonial functions. Prior to the twentieth century, women belonging to ethnic groups originating in colder climates (for example, the Tai Lue, Lao Song Dam, and PhuTai) wore blouses or shirts of indigo or black cotton decorated with silver buttons, embroidery, or appliqué. For special occasions, an elaborately patterned shoulder or breast cloth was added to complete the outfit. The Phu Tai pha phrae wa was an outstanding example of a shoulder cloth; this red silk textile is decorated with bands of complex patterns and is approximately three meters long. Women began to wear European-style blouses in the 1900s.

Costumed lakorn dancers perform at the Lak Muang shrine in Bangkok in 1995. (KEVIN R. MORRIS/CORBIS)

Men's Traditional Dress

Unlike women, men no longer commonly wear traditional clothing. The traditional clothing of men was not as elaborate as women's dress and did not vary much among the different ethnic groups. Men wore a short version of the chong kraben as a loincloth, made of plain or plaid patterned cotton. This shortened version of the chong kraben exposed the wearer's thighs, which were usually tattooed. Men reserved a silk chong kraben for special occasions such as weddings and ordination ceremonies into the Buddhist monkhood. A plaid or checked cotton sarong was another lower garment favored by Malay men in the southern region of Thailand.

Men did not wear an upper garment on a daily basis, and draped a cloth over one or a both shoulders for special events. Men of ethnicities from colder climates dressed in cotton shirts with a shoulder cloth for ceremonies and religious activities. Men also used a plaid cotton cloth or pha khao ma as a sash, bag, belt, head cloth, scarf, and towel. Both sexes carried a shoulder bag that could be plainly or elaborately patterned. A young woman might create an intricate bag to give to a man as a token of her affection.

Household Textiles

Women produce an array of textiles used for such purposes as mattresses, blankets and covers, pillows, and mosquito nets. These items are made from cotton, but items reserved for a wedding may be silk or decorated with silk and often contain elaborate motifs. The Tai Lue favor black and red geometric motifs on a natural cotton background. The Lao Song Dam adorn their special household textiles with green, red, orange, and white silk appliqué. The Lao Khrang prefer a natural cotton blanket with elaborate supplementary patterns at the ends, bordered with red cotton.

Religious or Ceremonial Textiles

Women also weave textiles for religious or ceremonial purposes. Laywomen provide dyed cotton cloth for Buddhist monks' robes, as well as household textiles. Family members usually donate these items to monks at ordination ceremonies and at subsequent religious festivals. Ceremonial textiles are also donated to hang inside and outside a temple and to cover palmleaf manuscripts.

Textiles for the Royalty

Until the beginning of the twentieth century, Thai royalty consumed textiles that were similar in design and structure to villagers' textiles but were of higher quality. Court weavers produced gold and silver supplementary-patterned silks for the royal family and aristocracy. The elite also commissioned highly skilled weavers throughout the kingdom to supply finely woven silk and cotton textiles. The royalty imported specially designed textiles from India, China, and Cambodia; their laws restricted the use of the imported fabrics to the higher strata of society. Thai kings wore the finest materials when their dress mimicked the deities.

The adoption of Western-style clothing among the Thai elite began in the mid-nineteenth century. Western missionaries also introduced and persuaded women to wear blouses with the traditional lower garment in the late 1800s. Men more readily adopted Western clothing (such as trousers) during the first quarter of the twentieth century. The pha sin continues to be worn in rural areas on a daily basis by some women, and the elite are returning to modernized versions of traditional dress inspired by Her Majesty Queen Sirikit of Thailand for special events. Local and foreign interests alike currently sustain traditional textile production, and perhaps will continue to do so into the near future.

Further Reading

Fraser-Lu, Sylvia. (1988) Hand-woven Textiles of Southeast Asia. Singapore: Oxford University Press.

Gittinger, Mattibelle, and H. Leedom Lefferts. (1992) Textiles and the Tai Experience Washington DC: Textile Museum of America.

Maxwell, Robyn. (1990) Textiles of Southeast Asia: Tradition, Trade, and Transformation Melbourne, Australia: Australian National Gallery of Art.

National Identity Board (NIB). (1996) Thai Textiles: Threads of a Cultural Heritage Chiang Mai, Thailand: Chiang Mai University Press.

Songsak Pranwatthanakul, ed. (1993) Asia's Textile Heritage Chiang Mai, Thailand: Chiang Mai University Press.

This is the complete article, containing 1,348 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page).he finest materials when their dress mimicked the deities.

The adoption of Western-style clothing among the Thai elite began in the mid-nineteenth century. Western missionaries also introduced and persuaded women to wear blouses with the traditional lower garment in the late 1800s. Men more readily adopted Western clothing (such as trousers) during the first quarter of the twentieth century. The pha sin continues to be worn in rural areas on a daily basis by some women, and the elite are returning to modernized versions of traditional dress inspired by Her Majesty Queen Sirikit of Thailand for special events. Local and foreign interests alike currently sustain traditional textile production, and perhaps will continue to do so into the near future.

Further Reading

Fraser-Lu, Sylvia. (1988) Hand-woven Textiles of Southeast Asia. Singapore: Oxford University Press.

Gittinger, Mattibelle, and H. Leedom Lefferts. (1992) Textiles and the Tai Experience Washington DC: Textile Museum of America.

Maxwell, Robyn. (1990) Textiles of Southeast Asia: Tradition, Trade, and Transformation Melbourne, Australia: Australian National Gallery of Art.

National Identity Board (NIB). (1996) Thai Textiles: Threads of a Cultural Heritage Chiang Mai, Thailand: Chiang Mai University Press.

Songsak Pranwatthanakul, ed. (1993) Asia's Textile Heritage Chiang Mai, Thailand: Chiang Mai University Press.

This is the complete article, containing 1,348 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page).