A sampot ( /sÃÂmpÃÂÃÂt/ ), a traditional dress in Cambodia. The traditional dress is similar to the dhoti of Southern Asia.).
Sampot () is a modern Khmer term that refers to "cloth", "woman's skirt", and "a piece of cloth used as a lower garment, specifically the Khmer sarong." It is derived from several terms, including "saá¹Âbata, sambata, saá¹Âbà «ta, saá¹Âmbuta, sambattha, and sabvata," which can be found in groups of the Inscription Modern Angkor Wat (IMA) from the 16th and 17th centuries CE, during the middle Khmer period. The root of the word sampot is ba't and ba'ta, which mean "to encircle, surround." The terms *sbat and sba'ta are derived from this root and mean "to gird, wrap, or envelop (the body)."
Indian scholar Ramanlal Nagarji Mehta suggests that the Khmer word sampat-hol for textiles may date back to the Sanskrit word sam-patola (), meaning "like a Patola." It is highly likely that the fabric and technique were brought by Hindu immigrants in the 3rd or 4th centuries CE, if the Khmer word is derived from Sanskrit.
The term "Sampot" also entered the Thai court as sompak () and song pak. () According to historical records, "An official letter from the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in Ayutthaya to an official in Surat", dated 2 December 1662, during the 16th and 17th centuries of the Ayutthaya period, the Siam court ordered textiles from India and Cambodia known as "pha poom, sompak poom (pha sompak puum), and sompak lai." These textiles were later narrowed down by the Siamese court as the traditional attire worn by Siamese nobles that was bestowed upon Siamese nobles by the King of Siam.
The sampot dates back to the Funan era when a Cambodian king ordered the people of his kingdom to wear the sampot at the request of Chinese envoys. Scholars conclude it can be contended that the Khmer chong kben corresponds to the dhoti worn in the Indian subcontinent, and the sampot samloy with bunched pleats secured in the waist to the sari and the knotted form to the lunghi. Inscriptions, bas-reliefs, and Zhou Daguan's report have shown that backstrap looms were used to weave since ancient times. The ancient bas-reliefs however provide a complete look at what fabrics were like, down to patterns and pleats. Silk woven sampots are used in weddings and funerals.
Male and female deities in the pre-Angkor era are depicted in short and longer free-hanging sampot samloy, respectively, that are knotted at the waist. These are depicted in bas-reliefs and sculpture only on women starting at about the 900s. With it emerged styles retained by Cambodians to this day: the first entails pleating edge panels of the sampot into a bundle that hangs forward then is fastened with a belt. The second style is simple: the sampot is wrapped around and casually tucked into the waist. Then, into the late 12th-early 13th century, we see the sampotâÂÂs central field pattern pushed back into a fold on itself and secured with a belt. The contrast this method creates between the central field and the patterned end panels displays the intricately patterned sampot very well.
Two even more intricate styles during this time include first the refined sampot fashion of the apsaras seen on Angkor Wat. Pieces of fabric sweep out from the waist of the sampot, from a chong kben undergarment, permitting the panels to cascade elegantly over and down the sampot skirt cloth. The central field of both pieces of fabric bear floral patterns and âÂÂweft-oriented bandsâ on the end sections. The elaborate sampot counterpart for male depictions is a chong kben richly adorned with added lengths of fabric. A pendant sash, or pamn muk, hangs front and center. During the pre-Angkor era, unadorned or plain âÂÂwarp-stripedâ pieces of fabric were used. By the Baphuon period in the 11th century, pleated cloth was popular. âÂÂRandom or orderedâ floral patterns for the sampotâÂÂs central field became fashionable by the 12th and 13th century.
For an 1856 Gift of Mutual Respect, Siamese King Mongkut and his Second King Phra Pin Klao presented US President Franklin Pierce three woven pairs of Khmer silk sampot chong kben of hol variety, in addition to âÂÂa similarly-patterned silk shoulder cloth.â The method and design showed high sophistication, suggesting a long history of practice for such skill to develop over time and refine. Author and archaeologist Lisa McQuail wrote that King Mongkut describes the Thai silk items included in the Harris Treaty Gifts as âÂÂsecond quality,â likely because they were not as fine as the Khmer hol silks included.
In the run-up to the 1993 Cambodian general election, Khmer leader Son Sann in a heated debate called for a sampot test to be used to establish whether or not women could vote or not in the election; walking a few yards in a tight sampot would be a sign of true Khmer identity, in contrast with the Vietnamese women who would usually wear pants under the áo dài.
Silk weaving was an important part of Cambodia's cultural past. People from Takéo Province have woven silk since the Funan era. Complex methods and intricate patterns have been developed to make the cloth, one of which is the hol method which involves the uneven twill technique. The reason they adopted such an unusual method remains unclear.
In 1858âÂÂ1860, Henri Mouhot, a French naturalist and explorer, embarked on a journey to mainland Southeast Asia (Indochinese Peninsula) where he had the opportunity to meet the king of the Khmer court. In his diary, Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China (Siam), Cambodia, and Laos, during the years 1858, 1859, and 1860, Mouhot described the attire of the Cambodian king during his encounter:
In George Groslier's Recherches sur les Cambodgiens (1921), a French director of Cambodia Arts during the French protectorate of Cambodia, observed the sampot:
In 1936, Harriet Winifred Ponder, a British traveller who journeyed through Southeast Asia and the South Pacific, documented her experiences in Cambodia. In her writings, Cambodian Glory, she described the traditional Cambodian attire:
In Angkor Empire (1955) by George Benjamin Walker, recorded the origin of the modern sampot, which was compiled from these historian authorities: R. C. Majumdar, Reginald Le May, Kalidas Nag, Horace Geoffrey Quaritch Wales, George Charles Brodrick, Lawrence Palmer Briggs, Cedric Dover, and French scholars of the French School of the Far East:
' refers to the Khmer ikat technique. For patterns, weavers first resist-dye portions of weft yarn prior to weaving. The noun "kiet" in the Cambodian dictionary is defined as, "a silk material dyed by the Cham method, i.e. by binding up different areas in turn so that they do not take up the color." "Kiet" as a verb means, "tighten, roll up, draw up." In Khmer, chong kiet means "tying strings."
Hol (á áÂÂ) is a weft chong kiet (ikat) silk bearing multi-colored designs achieved via resist-dying. Hol utilizes uneven twill ground weave, yielding single or two-color fabrics produced by weaving three threads so that the "color of one thread dominates on one side of the fabric, while the two others determine the color on the reverse side." The result is a brighter tone one side than the other, while the shade of the hol pattern itself remains consistent. From this comes sampot hol. Khmer people living in the eastern part of present-day Thailand also utilize this uneven twill, unlike the Thais who weave hol in plain weave, demonstrating a practice learned long before modern borders. During at least the 18th century, it was common for powerful Siamese officials to request hol silk garments from Khmer weavers in Cambodia. Traditionally, aside from the natural color of the silk, the hol palette consists of the following colors: yellow; indigo; maroon; red; blue for highlights; red "overdyed with indigo" to get purple, and yellow "overdyed with indigo" to get green.
Phamuong áÂÂáÂÂáÂÂáÂÂáÂÂáÂÂá¶áÂÂá½á /pðaa muÃÂà Â/ are single-colored, weft-faced twill (or taffeta) silks that may utilize contrasting warp and weft colors for a shimmery, "shot silk" effect. Always woven in plain groundweave, the silk fabric is typically unpatterned. The etymology of the word comes from the Thai words à ¸Âà ¹Âà ¸²à ¸¡à ¹Âà ¸§à ¸ which used to refer to the cloth being originally purple but became to be a generic term for the type of silk. The textile is usually hand-produced using a two-framed traditional loom. There are currently 52 colors used in phamuong. The phamuong chorabap is a luxurious fabric using up to 22 needles to create. Phamuong variation are rabak, chorcung, anlounh, kaneiv and bantok. It usually uses floral and geometric motifs. The most valued silk used to create the phamuong is Cambodian yellow silk, known for its fine quality in the region. New designs draw inspiration from ancient patterns on old silk.
The sampot is deeply rooted in Cambodian culture. Despite the French bringing a degree of westernisation to the country, Cambodians continued to wear the sampot. Royalty and government officials wore the sampot chang kben with a formal jacket. Cambodians still wear the phamuong sompot chong kben on special occasions today, and rural and poor Khmers still prefer them to western-style clothing for their comfort.
The material used by poor and rural Cambodians is not hand-woven silk but printed batik-patterned cloth imported from Indonesia. It is still popular with both men and women alike and is regarded by the people of Cambodia as their national garment.