Highlights: more information’s about silk villages to visit in Korat / Nakhon Ratchassima

Few entries & information’s found on the web about silk villages in Korat / Nakhon Ratchassima area if you wish to know more about this subject

woman at work with silk weaving, photo@buadhad

A great entry on another silk village on TeakDoor: Ban Pa-Ngat, a silk village north of Korat. Those villages are part of Silk Net, an organization that is encouraging villagers to grow Mulberry trees, raise their own silkworms and produce completely indigenous silk thread and fabric. Click to forum entry : a visit to Ban Pa Ngat Silk Village More pics on traditional production in Pak Thong Chai from Blurry travel blog
Pak Thong Chai on Wikipedia for basic info about the area.
Grumpy expat blog post about Pak Thong Chai Silk festival which is held in December

Korat silk mat

A very good article here by Pichaya Svasti (Bangkok Post) about research study on weaving in Korat: how important is weaving to rural Isaan women socially and culturally?You can still read it on Koratfart forum, a forum about art and culture in Korat
Siam Society used to organize cultural trips in the past. Check their website for highly interesting cultural trips in Thailand.
In Bangkok, few things to check for silk around Bangkok: A Bangkok Post article about Conserving communities with special skills: Local people are attempting to restore the cultural uniqueness and specialized expertise of six Bangkok communities: Ban Khrua community for silk. Click to article
One entry I found on the messy otop website which sound interesting while I was browsing: (the Otop site have not been updated from 2006 ( guess why!), I don’t guaranty this is still on): None Khu & None Chan Housewife Group ( Mudmee silk), 99 Moo 2, Baan None Khu, None Chan Sub-District, Bualai District, Nakhon Ratchasima 30120. Contact : Thippa Wongsingh.Tel. +66 1 879-4609, +66 44 434674

Things to think about when buying silk in Thailand: Be careful when shopping silk with small business here, you can check Otop fairs in Bangkok and all around Thailand if you wish to buy Korat silk but be aware that unfortunately everyone can register in Otop ( that s include importers!) and non ethical business in Thailand ( a lot when it come to silk!) will sell you a mix of polyester and silk for the real thing.( I don ‘t speak of 50 thb cushion in JJ. but silk shops as in the Old Siam center do that too) And will dare to tell you this in hand-woven silk ( try hand weaving polyester!). For serious buyer: everyone is running a factory: that’s not true in 90% of cases ( by my own stats), the only way to found out is to visit the place by yourself if you plan of buying large quantities, a shop is not a factory.
Wholesalers can buy from anywhere and sell whatever here, no ethics when it come to money: cheap products are often suspicious. This is a huge issue for real producer of Thai silk, government was unable to regulate this, plenty of fake are around, killing their own small producers and villages unable to compete with large national brands