Suggested Topics for Other Scholars
Much of what has been published about Cambodian silk was written decades ago. Before the Internet was as powerful a tool as it is today. Before Sappho Marchal’s excellent book, Khmer Costumes and Ornaments of the Devatas of Angkor Wat, had become available in print again. Before I had identified which Angkorian figures were mythical, and which were mortal.* Before we had cell phone cameras (I could not possibly do what I do without being able to take hundreds of high-resolution color photos and study them when I get back home). And before weavers faced the complexity of problems that they do today - ikat production is declining because weavers are taking factory jobs, but what are the underlying causes of this shift? I suspect a researcher would find that ikat weavers are very good at making their product, but don’t know how to sell it in the 21st century; this is a major problem with some chorabab brocade producers.
Here are topics where you can make a difference:
When did the “Chan Flower” pattern reach what is now Cambodia from India? (See the Uniquely-Cambodian Patterns tab of this website.)
What is the historical relationship between Khmer ikat and Cambodian Cham ikat? How do they differ (in pattern, in color, in how colors are combined, etc.)? (See the The Origin of Cambodian Ikat tab.)
What are the different types of lac insects, and how do the the qualities of the dyes produced from their nests differ? (See the Networking Cambodian and Thai Weavers tab.)
What are the reasons that ikat production in Cambodia continues to decline? Can this trend be reversed?
But doing research in Cambodia is rough - and it isn’t getting any easier. Be sure to read the For Scholars tab of this website, and the introduction to What the Queens Wore - the Silk of Angkor.
* Some of what we see worn by yakshī at Angkor is mythical clothing, which has been mistaken for real clothing. This is like looking at the Statue of Liberty and concluding that women in late 19th-century Manhattan wore togas. Here is a good “test”. Compare the yakshī to kings and queens of the same time period. If you don’t see the royals wearing an item of clothing you see on the yakshī, it was probably not real clothing. Here is another “test”. If it is not possible to make the fabric today, it is probably mythical. For example, in Preah Khan we see Queen Indradevī wearing a brocade sash where the weave curves. But her sister Jayarājadevī is wearing a similar sash where the weave is straight. Indradevī has been portrayed as a goddess, but Jayarājadevī has not - thus the impossible weave in Indradevī’s sash.