CAM: Angkor Silk Farm

Puok District, Siem Reap, Cambodia
Daily: 8.00am - 5.00pm

Opened by the National Silk Centre in 1993, the Angkor Silk Farm has been one of the most popular attractions of Siem Reap for visitors eager to discover the intricacy of silk production. As mentioned in the previous post on Artisans D'Angkor, my BFF and I took the shuttle bus that departed at 1.30pm.

The journey to the farm took around 20 minutes.

The shuttle bus wasn't full to begin with, but it stopped somewhere to pick up two more guests.

Ahhh, towards the lush countryside~

Upon reaching the farm, all of us were greeted by our guide. He gave each of us a visitor pass to be worn at all times before bringing us to the first room that contains a lot of textual information about the company and the silk farm itself.

The silk farm is 8 hectares big.

Approximately 5 hectares of the farm is dedicated to mulberry tree plantation. The leaves are used to feed silkworm larvae.

No mulberry fruits at sight though...

I hope the following pictures aren't repulsive to you.

Quite a fat silkworm! :P

Yellow cocoons~

As the amount of silk in each cocoon is small, about 2,500 silkworms are required to produce a pound of raw silk.

The intact cocoons were boiled to kill the pupae and degum the silk.

The silk filaments were then wound on a reel.

What colours do you like?

Boiling was performed to fix the green colour on the silk threads.

Time to wind them on the spools!

Those fine threads~

 

Finally, we got to see the adept weavers at work. Anyway, the development of the silk industry in Siem Reap and Bantey Meanchey provinces are funded by not only the Royal Government of Cambodia, but also the European Union.

Lovely combination of colours~ <3

Cute socks! xD

The Ikat technique is one of the most ancient weaving techniques in the world.

At the end of the tour, we had half an hour to wander around. There's a merchandise shop, similar to the one at the main workshop in town.

There's a Blue Pumpkin kiosk there for those who want to grab a bite.

Hey, that's the TripAdvisor owl!

That was the highlight of our last full day in Siem Reap.