Sompot chong kben

Khmer ballerina Neang Sok (also "Mi Soc") in a sampot chong kben for Émile Gsell, 1860s.

Sompot chong kben (Khmer: សំពត់ចងក្បិន, sâmpót châng kbĕn [sɑmput cɑːŋ kɓən]) is a unisex lower-body wraparound garment. It originated in ancient Cambodia and was later adopted in neighbouring countries including Laos and Thailand, where it is known as pha hang (ຜ້າຫາງ [pʰȁː hǎːŋ]) and chong kraben (โจงกระเบน [tɕōːŋ krābēːn]) pha chung hang (ผ้าจูงหาง [pʰȁː tɕuːŋ hǎːŋ]). It is most commonly worn by women, particularly those of middle to high socio-economic status.

Etymology

Sompot chong kben (សំពត់ចងក្បិន) combines three Khmer words: សំពត់ (/sɑmpʊət/, sampot), a long, rectangular cloth worn around the lower body; ចង (/cɑɑŋ/, chang), refers to the part of the cloth that's twisted into a bunch; and ក្បិន (/kbən/, kben), to the bunch's role in concealing "private parts". Chong kraben (โจงกระเบน) is used among Thai people and derived from these Khmer words.

History

According to scholars, one can contend that the Khmer chong kben corresponds to the Indian dhoti.

Different styles of chong kben are apparent on Ankorian bas-reliefs. The garment's end panels can present as follows: rolled into a bunch, pulled through the legs, and then secured in the back waistband, or with a belt; deities and kings present a style that entails pulling one front end to the back as the other end drapes the front with the tip secured in the waist-area, creating a pocketfold; knotting the chong kben at the waist with one end hanging front and center and the other pulled back through the legs and slid under the fabric to hang in the center, and a minimal chong kben resembling a loincloth, carved onto “austerely-garbed Brahman priests,” laborers, soldiers, slaves from the mountains, and prisoners of war in bas-reliefs. An exuberant version, or “flared” chong kben, is shown on protagonists of the Mahabharata-epic bas-reliefs, as well as high-ranking soldiers and warrior kings.

By the 17th century, the royal court of Siam had also adopted the sampot chong kben. In 1856, Siamese King Mongkut gifted US President Franklin Pierce four Khmer silk garments. Three were woven silk sampot chong kben in hol pattern, a textile achieved from the distinct, sophisticated Khmer uneven twill groundweave.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Angkor Database (2024). "Mi-Soc (Neang Sok), the enigma of a "Cambodian woman" revealed". angkordatabase.asia.
  2. 1 2 "SEAlang Dictionary". www.sealang.net. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  3. 1 2 "Everything You Need to Know About Traditional Thai Dresses". Amazing Thailand. 6 March 2021. Men and women alike wear Chong Kben, a lower-body silk wrap-around garment adopted from Cambodia.
  4. ↑ Kasetsiri, Charnvit (29 April 2022). Thailand: A Struggle for the Nation. ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. p. 192. ISBN 978-981-5011-25-8.
  5. ↑ "SEAlang Dictionary". www.sealang.net. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  6. ↑ "SEAlang Dictionary". www.sealang.net. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  7. ↑ Green, Gillian (2025). INDIC IMPETUS INNOVATIONS IN TEXTILE USAGE IN ANGKORIAN PERIOD CAMBODIA (PDF). p. 279.
  8. ↑ "SEAlang Dictionary". www.sealang.net. Retrieved 11 October 2023.
  9. ↑ Green, Gillian (2025). INDIC IMPETUS INNOVATIONS IN TEXTILE USAGE IN ANGKORIAN PERIOD CAMBODIA (PDF). p. 279.
  10. ↑ Green, Gillian. "Textiles at the Khmer Court". Arts of Asia. 30 (4): 92.
  11. ↑ Greene, Gillian (2003). Traditional textiles of Cambodia : cultural threads and material heritage. p. 29.
  12. ↑ Berthon, Magali An (2021). Silk and Post-Conflict Cambodia: Embodied Practices and Global and Local Dynamics of Heritage and Knowledge Transference (1991-2018). p. 108.
  13. ↑ Green, Gillian (2003). Traditional textiles of Cambodia: cultural threads and material heritage. pp. 45, 89, 109.