Village of Chansoma Golden Brocade, Ban Tha Sawang

The Village is highly recognised for its 1,416-heddled, gold-brocaded silk, being offered to Her Majesty the Queen. The handicraft was initiated by the Chansoma cloth-weaving group which has revived and preserved the weaving of golden brocade used in the royal court in the past. The group is headed by Achan Wiratham Trakunngoenthai who has gathered the villagers of Ban Tha Sawang to weave cloth in their free time after farming in the fields. By combining attractive and exquisite designs of the past royal court with techniques of folk weaving, dazzling beautiful hand-woven cloth is produced and has become famous worldwide. The outstanding performance of the village is that it was selected by the government to weave cloth for the shirts of 21 APEC leaders and the shawls of their spouses, who participated in the APEC Meetings in Thailand in 2003. Thus, it is also a well-known village of weaving cloth for the APEC. The village won a five-star OTOP product award as well. The prominence of the Chansoma golden brocade stems from the selection of fine and delicate silk threads from the innermostpart of the silk cocoon to be bleached, boiled, and dyed with natural substances. The three main colours used are red from lac, yellow from Kaelae (Maclura cochinchinensis) heartwood, and blue from indigo. Golden threads spun with the yarns are inserted in patterns. More than one hundred heddles and the supplementary weft threads are used to create patterns. A 2-3 metre deep hole must be dug around a loom to accommodate the length of cords in the heddles, and allow some people to stay inside and harness the many heddles, with the help of a wooden marker. In the weaving process, 4-5 people are needed: 2-3 people to raise the heddles, one to insert the wooden marker, and one weaver. Because of the complicated weaving techniques, only a length of 6-7 cm. is done a day. To get there: From the city of Surin, take Highway So Ro 4026 for around 10 km. on an asphalt road.