Silk Grandmothers

Voice 1:
Welcome to Spotlight. Joshua Leo

Voice 2:
And I'm Liz Waid. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no matter where in the world they live.

Voice 1:
For years, Mister Kikuo Morimoto has studied the art of making cloth. Each culture has different ways of making cloth. Each culture has particular designs. Each culture's cloth is special. Today's Spotlight is on the silk cloth of Cambodia and the people working to bring it back.

Voice 2:
When Mr. Morimoto was younger, he worked painting traditional Japanese clothes in Kyoto. In 1980 Mr. Morimoto started helping at refugee camps in Thailand. He worked with weavers - people who make cloth. Later, he began studying traditional methods of making cloth from silk. He left his old job and started doing more research about silk cloth.

Voice 1:
In 1994, the United Nations sent Mr. Morimoto on a special trip to Cambodia. For many years, Cambodia faced times of war. The Khmer Rouge ruled the country and killed many people. It was a very harmful government. After the Khmer Rouge was removed from power, the country faced civil wars. Families became separated. Businesses closed. Silk cloth was not being made by many people any more.

Voice 2:
The government did not know who still knew how to make Cambodian silk cloth. It was Mr. Morimoto's job to find people in Cambodia who still knew the old silk cloth traditions. He needed to find if this thousand-year old art was still alive.

Voice 1:
Workers from the United Nations gave Mr. Morimoto a map written by hand. It showed some areas in Cambodia where some of these silk cloth makers may be living. He went to one of the villages on the map and saw old women weaving. He saw the beautiful cloth the women were making. Mr. Morimoto wondered if there was a way to work with these women. Together, he hoped they could bring back these cloths.

Voice 2:
Mr. Morimoto lived in the Cambodian capital city of Phnom Penh while he did his research. One day he met a man who had just returned from a refugee camp. Mr. Morimoto asked the man if he knew of anyone who was good at making traditional silk cloth. The man thought for a while and then remembered his mother's sister. Mr. Morimoto asked to meet her.

Voice 1:
The man took him to meet his aunt, Chan Sot. Chan Sot is 74 years old. She has been making silk cloth all her life. She learned from her mother. She experienced war for much of her life, so she never was able to go to school. But she says there were two things she did learn how to do well. She knew how to grow rice and make beautiful silk cloth.

Voice 3:
"From my mother to my grandmother, it has always been silk weaving for us"

Voice 2:
Mr Morimoto asked if Mrs. Sot would come work for him making silk. He also asked six other old women. The women agreed. These old women were the only people left in Cambodia who still knew the old ways of making silk cloth. Mr. Morimoto had big plans for these women. He wanted them to keep the tradition of silk cloth-making going.

Voice 1:
Making silk is a long process. Silk is a material produced by an insect, the silk worm. The worm eats leaves from mulberry trees. The worm then covers its body with silk to form a cocoon - a kind of shelter to protect itself. The women then collect these cocoons and boil them in water. This separates the silk into long, very thin rope-like thread. The women use natural chemicals from plants to add color to the thread.