Read Article about Ikat Patterned Textiles in Vietnam, Warp Ikat Textile in Vietnam, Weft Ikat Textile in Vietnam

By: Michael C. Howard

A variety of peoples living in Vietnam have traditions ofweaving Ikat patterned textiles, both warp Ikat and weft Ikat. Essentiallythere are two traditions: 1) northwestern Vietnam among certain Tai-speakinggroups and 2) central and southern Vietnam where they are associated with thelowland Cham and several neighboring highland peoples.

Warp Ikat

The warp Ikat technique is clearly the older of the two andI will deal with it first. Wrap Ikat refers to a resist-dyeing process bywhich the warp threads are patterned prior to weaving. In their importantsurveys of Southeast Asian textiles, both Fraser-Lu (1988: 42) and Maxwell(1990: 75) indicate that they believe warp Ikat weaving to be of greatantiquity in Southeast Asia, and they associate it with some of the oldestweaving traditions in the region.

While Bϋhler (1942: 1606) argued in a pioneeringarticle that warp Ikat weaving probably originated in eastern Indonesia (alsosee Loebr 1903: 45), later writers have tended to look elsewhere for itsorigins. Jayakar (1955) argued that, although some form of simple Ikat weavingwas probably previously known in Indonesia, the influence of Indian Ikatweaving led to a significant refinement of the technique.

Pointing to how extensive warp Ikat weaving was in Indonesiaand noting the widespread use of back-strap looms, Buhler (1959: 10-11)disputed the notion of dominant Indian influence.

Drawing heavily on Buhler's work and new evidence fromvarious parts of the world, Jack Larsen and Bronwen and Garrett Solyom (Larsen1976) re-analyzed the problem of the origin and diffusion of warp Ikatweaving. Citing old Chinese reports indicating that the warp Ikat technique"was not used by the Chinese themselves but by various non-Chinese tribesof present-day south and southwest China (Szechwan Province) and probably ofthe northern parts of mainland Southeast Asia," Larsen (1976: 135) then hypothesizedthat warp Ikat textiles were being produced in southern China by the sixthcentury CE and that the technique spread from these tribal cultures south into otherparts of Southeast Asia and north and west through China, with India servingas a "secondary center for this diffusion." He thus moves the centerof attention away from Indonesia and India to southern China. If Larsen iscorrect, and I believe that he is, this makes the study of Ikat weaving insouthern China and adjacent regions of Southeast Asia especially important forunderstanding the origins and diffusion of warp Ikat weaving.

At present warp Ikat weaving in northern Vietnam isassociated with two groups if Taispeaking peoples living in the northwesterncorner of the country: the southern Thai of Hao Binh, Thanh Hoa, and Nghe Anprovinces.

Similar weaving traditions are found among Tai-speakingpeoples living in neighboring areas of Laos as well.

Beeswax is the traditional material used to resist the dye,but it is now common to use strings of various sorts. At present warp Ikatpatterning is found only on cloth used for women's tube skirts. The warp Ikatpatterns found on such textiles are relatively simple, consisting essentiallyof small dashes.

These warp Ikat patterns are easily missed on textiles that also feature much more elaborate weft Ikat, supplementary weft, and supplementary warp patterns. In fact, they are not all that easy to distinguish from the decorative use of single brightly colored warp threads. Given its subtlety, it is perhaps surprising that the technique has survived at all. It is interesting to note in this regard that in recent years the warp Ikat technique has fallen into even further decline among the Thai in Vietnam to the point that it may not survive much longer.

Gittinger and Lefferts (1992: 35) believe that warp Ikat weaving was once more widely practiced among Tai and other Daic-speaking groups, but that it was gradually replaced by other techniques. Especially important for an understanding of the antiquity and dispersion of warp Ikat weaving among Daicspeaking peoples are the warp Ikat textiles of the Li of Hainan Island in southern China (see SlUbe11937, Gittinger and Lefferts 1992: 32-34, and Howard and Howard 2002a: 29-35). The Li speak a Kadai language and settled on Hainan well before the third century BC. They subsequently lived in isolation from other Daic-speaking peoples as Chinese influence spread southward on the mainland. The Li produce a number of styles of textile that are strikingly similar to those of the Thai of northwestern Vietnam. Their warp Ikat patterned cloth is made employing indigo dye and using an archaic style of foot-braced backstrap loom. Li weaving suggests considerable antiquity for the warp Ikat technique among Daicspeaking peoples, well beyond the somewhat conservative sixth century date Larsen mentions, and points to a common tradition among Daic peoples in southern China and northern Vietnam that has survived only at the margins of Chinese influence.

Let me turn briefly to the much more elaborate warp Ikat patterned textiles of certain Malaya-Polynesian peoples of the Philippines, Borneo, and Indonesia that are certainly better known than the warp Ikat textiles of the Daic peoples of southern China and northern Vietnam.

Despite difference in the degree of elaboration, is it possible that there is, nevertheless, a link between these traditions?

Despite Bϋhler's assertions of its antiquity, and although widely distributed in this area, firm evidence of warp Ikat weaving being an ancient tradition in island Southeast Asia is hard to come by. Looking at motifs is one possible avenue to explore, but the evidence is ambiguous at best. While Indian-influenced warp Ikat motifs abound in Indonesia, there are also plenty of motifs that are clearly not of Indian origin.

But do such motifs points to the presence of warp Ikat weaving prior to the spread of Indian influence across much of Indonesia?

Perhaps some support for the notion of an early presence can be found further north in the Philippines. Thus, the warp Ikat patterns on textiles of the Ifugao and Isinai of the southern Cordillera region of Luzon show no signs of Indian influence and can be said to resemble those of the Li of Hainan.

Further south it is possible that early warp Ikat weaving is associated with the influence of the so-called Dongson culture of northern Vietnam (as evidenced by the distribution of large bronze drums) a little over 2,000 years ago (see Swadling 1996 on early trade relations between the Dongson area and the eastern Indonesian archipelago). The possible Dongson connection leads us back to the Tai-speaking peoples of northern Vietnam, to whom this cultural tradition belongs.

Interesting hints of the presence of warp Ikat patterning among the MalayoPolynesian people s of Southeast Asia prior to the spread of Indian influence also comes from the Cham of central and southern Vietnam. Linguists estimate that the Sundic speaking ancestors of the Cham arrived along the coast of southern Vietnam from northeastern Borneo around 600 BC. Some eight hundred years later the Cham established a kingdom along the coast of central and southern Vietnam that showed strong evidence of Indian influence. Prior to their conquest by the Vietnamese the northern boundary of Cham territory is generally associated with Ngang Pass in Quang Binh Province, although there is evidence of Cham living further north as far as Nghe An and Thanh Hoa provinces, where they came into contact with the Tai and later Viet.

Maspero (2002/1928: 1) cites early Chinese sources that describe the Cham as growing mulberry trees to rear silkworms as well as what are described as "cotton trees". The latter apparently refers to Gossypium arboretum, which was grown prior to the introduction of Gossypium herbaceum.

The same source states that such cloth is dyed "with five colors" and that something called "speckled cloth" is also made. While such Chinese sources provide general descriptions of Cham clothing (Maspero, pp. 2-3, 16, 18) and weaving (Cham weavers "knew how to mix gold thread into the weft and weave, wrong or right side out, a different pattern on each side" and they "embroidered complicated motifs made more dazzlingly luxurious with gold, silver, pearls, and gemstones", Maspero p. 20), there is no specific mention of Ikat patterning.

It is perhaps not surprising that early Chinese accounts fail to mention Ikat patterning.

Contemporary warp Ikat patterns woven by the Cham in the Phan Rang area consist of dashes running across fairly narrow bands. Such patterns are far less eye-catching than the various supplementary weaves, especially those employing gold thread. Nevertheless, such patterns appear to represent the survival of a very ancient weaving tradition among the Cham- one that they may well have brought with them when they arrived on the shores of Vietnam.

There are three distinct weaving traditions among Vietnam's roughly 120,000 Cham, only the first two of which are of relevance here. These are associated with the three main regions where the Cham live today. The first is of these is that of the Cham of Ninh Thuan and neighboring Khanh Hoa and Binh Thuan provinces, where more than two-thirds of the Cham live. The center of this tradition is the Phan Rang area; with most weaving today being done in the village of My Nghiep (located south of Ph an Rang). The second of these is centered in the Chau Doc area of An Giang province, near the Cambodian border. The third tradition is associated with the Cham subgroup known as Cham Hroi who lives in Phu Yen Province. Their dress is essentially indistinguishable from that of the neighboring highland Rade (Ede) and their weaving repertoire does not include Ikat patterning.

Let us turn to the textiles of the Phan Rang area first. The Cham of Phan Rang include both Hindu and Old Moslem (or Bani) Cham, as well as a small number of so-called New Moslem Cham. There are some differences in the ceremonial dress of the Hindu and Old Moslem Cham, but in general the dress of the two groups is similar. The traditional dress of the Cham in this area is largely fairly plain. It consists mainly of various styles of long-coat and wrap-around skirt made of plain white cotton cloth, sometimes with strips of decorative silk cloth along some of the edges. In addition, women also sometimes wear more decorative wrap-around skirts made of cotton and/ or silk. It is these that occasionally feature warp Ikat patterning. Skirts with warp Ikat patterns, however, at present are only worn by older women and never by young women.

The Cham in this area weave on two types of loom. The plain white cloth as well as the larger pieces of patterned cloth are woven on a back-strap loom, while the narrow strips of decorative cloth are woven on a distinctive type of long and narrow frame loom. Thus, warp-Ikat patterned cloth is only woven on the back-strap loom. Such warp-Ikat patterning consists of narrow bands of white and red dashes. The dashes are a good deal wider than those found on Tai cloth and come in a variety of shapes, but do not form distinct motifs and the images do not appear to have special names.

The Cham of the Chau Doc area migrated there from Cambodia in the nineteenth century (a large number of Cham having fled to Cambodia from Vietnam originally in the eighteenth century following the final conquest of the Cham by the Viet). Oral tradition has it that in the past these Cham wove with a backstrap loom. but at present they only weave on a frame loom, which appears to have been adopted from the Cambodians. All of the Cham in the Chau Doc area are New Moslems and their style of dress is influenced by Malay Moslem dress. Chau Doc Cham attire includes clothing made of white cotton cloth as well as colored cotton and silk cloth. Men dress includes colored cotton or silk and cotton sarongs.

These often feature checks in Malay fashion, but sometimes also have warp Ikat patterning as well. The cloth may be woven entirely of cotton or a mixture of silk and cotton. For religious reasons, males never wear pure silk cloth. Women's dress includes a variety of sarong or tube skirt styles.

Among the styles of skirt is one made from silk with weft Ikat patterning resembling cloth made by the Khmer.

However, the Cham sew the cloth into a tube and add a waistband that is usually made of plain cotton cloth (often red or white).

The weft Ikat patterned silk cloth of the Chau Doc Cham is clearly adopted from the Khmer, although the motifs appear to be different. The warp Ikat patterned cloth; however, is an interesting hybrid. The warp Ikat technique itself is obviously linked to the warp Ikat tradition also found in Phan Rang, although here the cloth is used for male attire, whereas in Phan Rang it is for female dress. The checked pattern, likewise, is clearly derived from Malay male fashion.

But, unlike the simple warp Ikat dashes of the Phan Rang cloth, that of Chau Doc sometimes features much more elaborate patterns, including wavy lines, large and small diamonds, and a motif said to represent some kind of flower. It is possible that such elaboration reflects the influence of Khmer weft Ikat patterning which covers large open spaces rather than being confined to narrow bands.

Warp Ikat patterned textiles are also found among several groups in the Central Highlands of Vietnam (this material is covered in greater detail in Howard and Howard 2002b).

There are essentially three warp Ikat traditions in the Central Highlands:

that of the Koho of Lam Dong Province and neighboring Mnong Bih of Dak Lak Province and possibly the Chru of Lam Dong Province;
that of the Brao of Kon Tum Province; and
that of the Bahnar and Regnao who live primarily in Kon Tum Province.

All three of these traditions appear to have developed as a result of contact with the lowland Cham, but with Cham in different regions. There are ancient traditions of trade between the Cham and such highlands peoples. Included in the items traded by the Cham are textiles.

The term Koho (or K'ho) is used to refer to about a dozen related small groups living primarily in Lam Dong Province. We have come across warp Ikat patterning only among three subgroups of Koho:

the Koho Lach, who live in the eastern part of the province near Dalal;
the Koho Sre, who live in the central part of the province on the Di Linh Plateau; and
the Koho Nop, who live in the western part of the province to the southwest of Bao Lac.

It is certainly possible, however, that in the past other sub-groups of Koho also wove warp Ikat patterned cloth. The type of warp Ikat patterning found among the Koho consists of simple dashes within stripes on women's wraparound skirts. These are similar to the patterning is found on textiles of the Ph an Rang Cham and they reflect the history of close relations between the Cham of Phan Rang and the Koho of the adjacent highlands.

It is interesting that Malayo-Polynesian speaking peoples of the Central Highlands generally do not use the warp Ikat technique. The only exception that I know of is the Bih sub-group of Rade who live in Krong A Na District the southern part of Dak Lak province. Warp Ikat patterning among the Bih is found only on one type of wrap-around skirt, the type known as a yeng sut, which is worn for dances. This type of skirt employs numerous decorative techniques with warp Ikat patterning being limited to a thin black and white warp Ikat patterned stripe running down the center. It is possible that these warp Ikat stripes represent the only surviving examples of a once more wide-spread tradition of warp Ikat weaving among highland Malayo-Polynesian speakers. It is more likely, however, that it reflects influence from the lowland Cham of Phan Rang via Dak Lak province.

I have also encountered a wrap-around skirt with relatively simple warp Ikat patterning from the Malayo-Polynesian speaking Chru of Don Duong District, Lam Dong Province.

However, it appears as if the piece was woven by Koho (probably the nearby Lach sub -group) and obtained by the Chru through trade. Vietnamese authors commonly simply state that the traditional dress of the Chru is similar to that of the Cham, but that it has largely vanished. Chu Thai Son (1997: 25-26) notes that weaving is not well developed among the Chru and that they often obtain cloth from the Cham, Koho, Roglai, and Maa. This does not, however, rule out the possibility that at some time in the past the Chru .did produce warp Ikat patterned textiles themselves.

There are only a few Brao in Vietnam living in a single village Ngoc Hoi District, Kon Tum Province. Most Brao live in Laos (where they are known as Lawae) and Cambodia. I have encountered a blanket from the Brao in Vietnam that features bands with diamond shaped warp Ikat patterning. Similar blankets are also found in Laos and Cambodia among the Brao and have also been identified by Laotian sources as coming from the Taliang. In Vietnam the Taliang are included in the JehTrieng ethnic category. The JehTrieng in Vietnam are not known to have produced cloth with warp Ikat patterning.

However, they are known to make blankets like the Brao example, but without warp Ikat patterning. Similar cloth without warp Ikat patterning is known to have been produced by other groups in southern Laos as well. It is uncertain whether the Taliang in Laos weave Ikat patterned cloth or obtain it through trade. There is a longstanding tradition of trading cloth among groups in southern Laos and adjacent Vietnam.

Although at this point it is difficult to ascertain with any degree of certainty just how widespread the actual production of Ikat patterned cloth as found on the Brao example was in the past, I do have an idea about the source of origin of this type of patterned cloth. The motif bears a striking resemblance to a warp Ikat motif produced by the Cham of Chau Doc and, therefore, by the Cham in Cambodia in the past as well.

I believe that this particular warp Ikat tradition from the highlands of northeastern Cambodia, southern Laos, and the Brao of Vietnam is linked to the Cham of Cambodia and reflects relations between these lowland and highlands peoples in the past.

Finally, warp Ikat patterned cloth is also woven by the Bahnar and Regnao. The warp Ikat patterns are fairly simple and are found on cloth used for women's wrap-around skirts and blouses. The Bahnar live primarily in Kon Tum Province, but are also found in Gia Lai Province and in the western parts of Binh Dinh, and Phu Yen provinces. The Regnao live adjacent to the Bahnar in Kon Tum Province and are sometimes treated as a sub-group of the Bahnar.

The Bahnar have a long history of relations with the Cham of Quang Ngai and Binh Dinh provinces.

The Bahnar may in fact once have lived near the coast and there are also Cham architectural remains in the upland Bahnar area. Even today Bahnar sometimes visit markets in neighboring lowland areas. While the Cham in this area long ago vanished following their conquest by the Vietnamese, it is likely that Bahnar and Regnao warp Ikat weaving was learned from the Cham.

Weft Ikat

Weft Ikat patterning is much more common among the Tai peoples of Vietnam than warp Ikat weave. Weft Ikat refers to a resist dyeing process where the weft threads are patterned prior to weaving. In contrast to warp Ikat weaving, weft Ikat weaving in Southeast Asia is commonly perceived as being a more recent innovation linked to Indian influence. Fraser-Lu (1988: 45) notes: "it is generally believed that the technique of tying and dyeing weft threads to create textile patterns was introduced into South-East Asia via Indian traders around the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries." This is quite obviously the case with the weft Ikat cloth woven by the Khmer in Cambodia, Thailand, and southern Vietnam. The Khmer in turn influenced weavers in Burma.

Indian influence is also apparent with the weft Ikat silk cloth woven in coastal Sumatra and neighboring islands, along coastal Borneo, and among the Moslems of the southern Philippines.

While the Indian origins of most weft Ikat weaving in Southeast Asia is undeniable, there remains the possibility that not all weft Ikat weaving in the region came from this source and that there was an earlier tradition of weft Ikat weaving that is local in origin. This possibility was raised by Buhler (1942: 1604) in an early article where he commented in regard to weft Ikat cloth woven on Bali and Java that "on technical grounds ... there is no reason to assume that this development did not take place in Indonesia." Few students of Indonesian textiles today would agree with this position and it is much more likely that these particular weft Ikat traditions also owe their origins to Indian sources. More problematic, however, is the weft Ikat weaving tradition of the Tai speaking peoples of Vietnam and Laos.

Weft Ikat woven textiles in Vietnam are associated primarily with the Thai of Thanh Hoa province. Similar textiles were also produced by various Tai speaking groups in neighboring Nghe An and Hoa Binh provinces and are woven by Tai in Houa Phan Province in Laos. The Thai region of Muang Kasa in Thanh Hoa Province appears to have been an important center for weaving weft Ikat patterned textiles.

One type of weft Ikat cloth produced by the Tai in this area features wide weft Ikat horizontal bands, the ground usually alternating between dark indigo blue or rust red. In between the Ikat bands are bands with several narrow lines, some of these are plain in various colors, others may feature weft Ikat patterning In white and blue, or supplementary warp patterning.

This cloth is used to make skirt bodies (with the bands being worn vertically) and well as segments of the waistbands (or breast-covers). Another type of cloth features alternating wide and narrow vertical bands bordered with stripes of white geometric supplementary warp patterning. The wide bands have rectangles with weft Ikat human figures on a black or dark blue ground bordered with horizontal lines of geometric supplementary warp patterning.

The space between these bands is either plain or sometimes there are thin lines that are either plain or occasionally feature simple warp Ikat patterning. This type of cloth is used only to make skirt bodies with the wide weft Ikat bands being worn vertically.

The Tai Muang and Tai Thanh of Nghe An province produced only the first type of weft Ikat patterned cloth and used it only on skirts worn at funerals. Skirts made of this type of cloth are also occasionally encountered among the Black Tai in the Muang Thanh (Dien Bien Phu) area of southern Lai Chau Province. These are relatively old pieces and formerly were worn exclusively at funerals as well. It is unclear, however, whether these skirts were made by the Black Tai in this area or were imported from Thai communities to the south.

It is possible that the range of weft Ikat patterned textiles associated primarily with the Thai of Thanh Hoa Province formerly were made by otherTai as well and that the present distribution of such textiles reflects the relative isolation of those communities still weaving such cloth. It is also possible that such weft Ikat weaving, even in the distant past, was only associated with particular groups of Tai. Interesting in this regard is the fact that among Thai in Nghe An and Lai Chau provinces tube skirts with weft Ikat patterning are associated with funerals, whereas among the Thai of Thanh Hoa Province such skirts are worn on many occasions, and some Ikat patterning is even found on everyday wear.

This may indicate that those groups reserving weft Ikat patterned skirts for funeral wear borrowed the technique from the Thanh Hoa Thai and in so doing assigned such skirts special status. However, this may simply reflect more recent developments as a result of the weaving of such cloth becoming rarer in some areas.

The Lao of southern Lai Chau Province also produce cloth with weft Ikat patterning. This cloth is especially interesting since it appears to be an imitation of the warp Ikat weaving on skirt cloth by the Thai. This weft Ikat pattern consists of simple dashes in white and dark blue on the bodies of tube skirts. When worn the patterning on the skirts looks much the same as that on the Thai skirts because the Lao weave their skirt cloth on the loom just as it is worn on the skirt, whereas the Thai turn their cloth when taking it from the loom and making it into a skirt.

Thus, the vertical warp Ikat patterning on a piece of cloth while still on the loom woven by a Thai becomes a horizontal line when made into a skirt. In contrast, a horizontal weft Ikat line on a piece of cloth that is still on the loom of a Lao weaver remains a horizontal line on the skirt.

The arrangement of weft Ikat patterns on Thai cloth into narrow bands is interesting and contrasts with weft Ikat patterning among some other peoples, such as the Khmer of Cambodia.

Although the Thai now weave on a relatively wide frame loom, rather than a narrower backstrap loom such as the one used by the Li on Hainan Island, the patterning is still produced in bands reminiscent of the strips woven by the Li. This layout is perhaps a survival of the earlier type of weaving and may indicate that the origins of weft Ikat weaving among these Thai is local and not derived from India. This relates back to the initial question concerning weft Ikat weaving among the Thai in Vietnam and Laos. Is their weft Ikat tradition their own invention or did it develop as a result of Indian-derived influence via the Khmer? Thus, are we looking at a chain of diffusion from Khmer to Lao-Phutai to Thai in Vietnam or at two independent sources of weft Ikat weaving and a point of contact in between?

My inclination is to favor a local origin. Some support for this comes from the absence of any clearly Indian-inspired motifs on the Thai cloths.

Further west in Laos there are other weft Ikat patterned cloths that do feature motifs derived from Indian cloths, but these seem to be absent on the Thai cloths.

Conclusion

In concluding I would like to comment on the current state of weaving these Ikat patterned cloths. Clearly these cloths represent only a limited survival of what was once a very widespread tradition among the Daic and Austronesian speaking peoples of Vietnam. And while there have been signs of a further decline in the weaving of such cloth in recent years both among the Cham and the Thai, all is not lost.

True, the warp Ikat weaving of the Thai may soon face extinction.

However, there has been something of a revival in the production of weft Ikat patterned cloth among the Thai of western Thanh Hoa Province. This is in part due to the marketing activities of the Thai of Mai Chau. Only a few years ago there was a sharp drop in the quality of this cloth, but over the past couple of years the quality seems to be improving and a number of weavers continue to produce such cloth for domestic consumption as well as for the market.

In the case of the Chau Cham, weaving of Khmer-inspired weft Ikat cloth has ceased completely. But production of warp Ikat patterned cloth is in quite a healthy state. In fact, weavers are not only producing the more traditional cloth with checks and Ikat patterns, but are experimenting with new styles. Such innovation is largely linked to a growing commercial tourist market as Chau Doc has emerged as an important tourist destination in recent years. In regard to Phan Rang warp Ikat patterned cloth, at present it is produced both for domestic use and for the large commercial market, although most Ikat patterned cloth appears destined for use by the Cham themselves with tourists and Vietnamese preferring other styles of more brightly colored cloth.

A significant issue in My Nghiep concerning the continued production of warp Ikat patterned cloth is the number of people able to weave this style of cloth. Only about six women know how to weave Ikat patterned cloth, with differing levels of skill, and the best of the weavers are fairly old. The limited market interest in Ikat patterned Cham cloth, combined with the shortage of weavers able to produce it does not bode well for the sustainability of Ikat weaving in this area.

References:

Bϋhler, Alfred. "The origin and extent of the Ikat techniques," Ciba Review, no.44, 1942, pp.1604-1611.
"Patola influences in South- East Asia," Journal of Indian Textile History, vol. 4, 1959, pp. 1-46.
Chu Thai Son, Les Chu Ru, in Nguyen Van Huy, Mosaique Culture lie des Ethnies du Vietnam. (Hanoi: Maison d'Edition de l'Education, 1997), pp. 25-27.
Fraser-Lu, Sylvia, Handwoven Textiles of South-East Asia (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1988).
Gittinger, Matttiebelle, and H. Leedom Lefferts, Jr., Textiles and the Tai Experience in Southeast Asia (Washington: DC: The Textile Museum, 1992).
Howard, Michael C., and Kim Be Howard, Textiles of the Daic Peoples of Vietnam (Bangkok: White Lotus Press, 2002a).
Kim Be Howard, Textiles of the Central Highlands of Vietnam (Bangkok: White Lotus Press, 2002b).
Jayakar, Pupul, "A neglected group of Indian 'Ikat' fabrics," Journal of Indian Textile History, vol. 1, 1955, pp. 54-65.
Larsen, Jack Lenor, The Dyer's Art: Ikat, Batik. Plangi (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1976).
Loebr, J.A., Jr., Het Weven in Nederlandsch-Indie (Amsterdam: Koloniaal Museum te Haarlem, Bulletin No. 29, 1903).
Maspero, Georges, The Champa Kingdom: The History of an Extinct Vietnamese Culture (Bangkok: White Lotus Press, 2002). [Originally published as Le Royaume de Champa (Paris & Brussels: Les Editions G. Van Oest, 1928).
Maxwell, Robyn, Textiles of Southeast Asia: Tradition, Trade and Transformation (Melbourne: Oxford University Press/Canberra: Australian National Gallery, 1990).
Stϋbel, Hans, Die Li-Stamme der Insel Hainan: Ein Beitrag zur Volkskunde Sudchinas (Berlin: Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1937).
Swadling, Pamela, Plumes from Paradise: Trade Cycles in Outer Southeast Asia and Their Impact on New Guinea and Nearby Islands until 1920 (Boroko: Papua New Guinea National Museum, 1996).

Presented at the "Southeast Asian Textiles: Life, Culture, History" symposium, University of Washington. Southeast Asia Center, Seattle, 5 October 2002.

About the Author:

The author is associated with Simon Fraser University.