A Cambodian mat also known as a ''kantael'' (Khmer: កន្ទេល) is a woven mat made from

palm Palm most commonly refers to: * Palm of the hand, the central region of the front of the hand * Palm plants, of family Arecaceae **List of Arecaceae genera * Several other plants known as "palm" Palm or Palms may also refer to: Music * Palm (ba ...

reed Reed or Reeds may refer to: Science, technology, biology, and medicine * Reed bird (disambiguation) * Reed pen, writing implement in use since ancient times * Reed (plant), one of several tall, grass-like wetland plants of the order Poales * ...

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailan ...

. The Cambodian mat consists of an ordinary mat, below which are fixed pads of strongly packed cotton, with the help of a special loom. They are specific to the Khmer people.

History

Mats have been woven in Cambodia since Angkorian times, as evidenced by carvings on the bas-relief of Angkor Wat. When the French missionary Charles-Émile Bouillevaux, after being the first Frenchmen to discover Angkor Wat, traveled to the Eastern bank of the

Mekong The Mekong or Mekong River is a trans-boundary river in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is the world's twelfth longest river and the third longest in Asia. Its estimated length is , and it drains an area of , discharging of water annual ...

and encountered the

Bunong people The Bunong (alternatively Phnong, Punong, or Pnong)Smith, P. (2010). ''The Bunong Culture of Silence: Exploring Bunong perspectives on participation at the interface between Bunong culture and development organisations.'' are an indigenous Ca ...

, he considered it an honour to be invited to sit on a Cambodian mat. During his exploration trip in the 1880s, the French anthropologist Edouard Maurel acknowledged that there was something unique to the Cambodian mat, which he took as evidence of the luxury of the once flourishing Khmer civilization: Auguste Pavie during his exploration of Cambodia, noticed that the King of Cambodia himself could sit on this type of Cambodian mat. At the end of the XIXth century, the Cambodian mat was seen as the model for all the straw mats across Asia. Thus, French explorers in Vietnam refer to these straw mats as "Cambodian mats" while explorers in Yunnan described the beads of Chinese peasants as made of three planks on wooden

trestles ATLAS-I (Air Force Weapons Lab Transmission-Line Aircraft Simulator), better known as Trestle, was a unique electromagnetic pulse (EMP) generation and testing apparatus built between 1972 and 1980 during the Cold War at Sandia National Labora ...

covered with

rice straw Straw is an agricultural byproduct consisting of the dry stalks of cereal plants after the grain and chaff have been removed. It makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat. It has a number ...

and a Cambodian mat on top. The French protectorate of Cambodia promoted the export of Cambodian mats. The Cambodian mat was promoted as "a fine and neat article" which attracted the attention of Japanese merchants at the

Hanoi Exhibition The Hanoi Exhibition (Exposition de Hanoi) was a world's fair held in Hanoi in then French Indochina between November 16, 1902, and February 15 or 16, 1903. Context Hanoi had become the capital of French Indochina earlier in 1902 replacing Saigon. ...

in 1903; it was often sold in Saigon stuffed with '' kapok''. Rather than Picot camp beds which were heavy and difficult to carry around in Indochina, the French colonialists recommended the use of Cambodian mats when travelling in

French Indochina French Indochina (previously spelled as French Indo-China),; vi, Đông Dương thuộc Pháp, , lit. 'East Ocean under French Control; km, ឥណ្ឌូចិនបារាំង, ; th, อินโดจีนฝรั่งเศส, ...

. Unfortunately, woven plant mats have been largely supplanted by colored plastics mats imported from

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

and

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

since 1981. Since the beginning of the 21st century, weavers have learned how to dye and design patterns such as lanterns, pineapple eyes, grids, and strings. In 2017, the French Cultural Center in Cambodia organized a itinerant exhibition called Mats and Table towels (''Nattes et Nappes'') which saw table cloths and sitting mats as two distinctive elements of France and Cambodia respectively. The Cambodia Sedge Mats Business Association (CSMA) was set up to work as a trade organisation and promote Cambodian mats on the national and international markets. As of 2022, the Cambodian mats remain widely popular within the country and natural mats are preferred to nylon mats.

Production

The region of Cambodia best-known for mat weaving is the Mekong floodplain, especially around Lvea Aem district. Mats are usually a cottage industry woven by craftswomen sitting on mats in their private homes. The most popular mats in Cambodia are made of mangrove fan palm. While they are more rare, Cambodian mats can also be made of wicker and

rattan Rattan, also spelled ratan, is the name for roughly 600 species of Old World climbing palms belonging to subfamily Calamoideae. The greatest diversity of rattan palm species and genera are in the closed- canopy old-growth tropical fores ...

(''tbanh kanchoeur'') made from dryandra trees. Reeds are usually grown on the edge of rice fields for making mats when the water recedes from the lake behind their village during the dry season when weaving is done from January to May. Cambodian mats can be made from a variety of

sedges The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' wit ...

and leaves such as grey sedge, rice sedge, red nut sedge, cool mat, '' Calamus viminalis'' or Khmer rattan, mangrove fan palm,

palm leaves The Arecaceae is a family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm trees. ...

banana leaves The banana leaf is the leaf of the banana plant, which may produce up to 40 leaves in a growing cycle. The leaves have a wide range of applications because they are large, flexible, waterproof and decorative. They are used for cooking, wrappin ...

, talipot palm leaves, sago palm leaves and

water hyacinth ''Pontederia crassipes'' (formerly ''Eichhornia crassipes''), commonly known as common water hyacinth is an aquatic plant native to South America, naturalized throughout the world, and often invasive outside its native range.reed mat woven from the bark of the red nut sedge known in Khmer as ''kravanh chruk.'' Craftsmen cut the reeds into small pieces of one meter length before dying the fibers of the cuttings by dipping them in red, white, green and yellow according to their preferred color. Cambodian red mats were exported and sold in Vietnam at least since the 19th century. Red mats are usually weaved with white reeds that are not diked at one top side to identify its orientation as it would be inconvenient that the head lay were the feet have trodden. It is a secondary source of income for Cambodian farmers who can add up to 2000 US dollars to the yearly revenue by weaving these red mats.

Water hyacinth mats: ''kantael komplaok''

In recent years, Khmer people have also made mats for tableware and sleeping from dried

water hyacinth ''Pontederia crassipes'' (formerly ''Eichhornia crassipes''), commonly known as common water hyacinth is an aquatic plant native to South America, naturalized throughout the world, and often invasive outside its native range.Tonle Sap. While its soft texture has made it popular, its durability is limited.

Use

Cambodian mats are an important piece of furniture in all Cambodian homes where such furniture is usually limited. Traditionally, palm mats were used both for as a sleeping mattress and a tablecloth on which families sit while they share their meals. Mats are commonly laid out for guests and are important building materials for homes, and they are often used as wedding gifts. During religious ceremonies, Cambodian people do not usually sit on chairs or bare floors but rather on mat-covered floors. While these Cambodian mats were for family use, they have become popular among urban Khmer people and foreign tourists for decoration.

Literature

The French author

Claude Farrère Claude Farrère, pseudonym of Frédéric-Charles Bargone (27 April 1876, in Lyon – 21 June 1957, in Paris), was a French Navy officer and writer. Many of his novels are based in exotic locations such as Istanbul, Saigon, or Nagasaki. One of ...

refers often to the Cambodian mat in ''Les Petites Allées,'' ''Le Quadrille des Mers de Chine,'' and ''La Sonate à la Mer'', as an exotic reference to the colonial fantasm, which can also be found in the novel ''Lélie, fumeuse d'opium'' published under pseudonym and illustrated with pin-up illustrations of nude and semi-nude women by Raphael Kirchner.

References

External links

* {{Cambodia topics Interior design Khmer folklore Straw products Units of area