Textile Society of America
Date of this Version
2008
Abstract
The difficult supplementary warp weaving technique appears to have been developed initially by Tai-speaking peoples in what is today southern China. The decorative technique subsequently diffused across Mainland Southeast Asia as far as Bhutan as well as to the southern Philippines and Indonesia. Use of the technique has declined considerably in recent years, until today it is still employed by only a few peoples in Southeast Asia. In the case of the Cham of southern Vietnam, the technique has not merely survived but it remains one of the dominant decorative techniques used by Cham weavers. The paper provides an examination of the the supplmentary warp weaving technique used by the Cham and of the textiles produced using this technique.
Comments
Presented at Textile Society of America 11th Biennial Symposium: Textiles as Cultural Expressions, September 4-7, 2008, Honolulu, Hawai'i. Copyright © 2008 Michael C. Howard