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    As told by a Visual Storyteller Unknown stories from Asia.

    Photos from Thailand

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    The process in Ban Thasawang, a village weaving silk for the elites, is much more complicated than on the semi-automatic loom. It requires four to five people working together on one piece of fabric. Even though they work as a team, one person always sits below the ground level. Immersed in semidarkness and isolated from the gossips above, staring blankly ahead. This figure is perhaps the best metaphor for the state of the nation's homegrown industry. Views[1073] Each handmade silk cloth is unique and easily recognizable because of its distinct patterns and occasional knots. The patterns are often a signature of the village or even a family, secretly guarded for generations. In spite of its beauty, the handmade silk attracts less and less buyers every year. Since the markets are overflowing with cheap factory-made silk from China, small looms struggle with distribution. Views[2034] Cocoons are boiled to ease the silk threads out. Pimnipa Pasakanon squints in the acrid smoke from her small wood-burning stove while performing the process. Doing it for the upteenth time, she's skilled and swift. If not for the irritating fumes and the fierce heat, she would have finished in time to serve the boiled silkworms for breakfast. Views[1096] Nuan Jaohmaoh, age 77, is sitting next to the cocoons she cultivated herself. The silk produced by the family in summer, once a source of pride and entertainment, is in the hands of the passing generation. Sadly and probably, they will die alongside. Views[769] A housewife contemplates dying caterpillars on their way to forming cocoons. Recent summers have been way hotter than usual and that has killed thousands of silkworms, dealing a big blow to the meager earnings of the poor villagers. The villages around Surin in eastern Thailand were once a hub of silk production. The women in the household used to take care of each step of the silk making process, from rearing the worms to weaving the fabric. Views[1197]
     

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