The
sampot dates back to the
Funan era when a Cambodian king ordered the people of his kingdom to wear the
sampot at the request of Chinese envoys. Scholars conclude it can be contended that the Khmer
chong kben corresponds to the
dhoti worn in the
Indian subcontinent, and the (samloy style) sampots with bunched pleats corresponds to the
sari, and the knotted form to the
lunghi. Inscriptions, bas-reliefs, and
Zhou Daguan's late 13th century report have shown that backstrap looms were used to weave. Zhau Ru Kua reported that Cambodia exported raw silk in the early 13th century. The ancient
bas-reliefs however provide a complete look at what fabrics were like, down to patterns and pleats. Silk woven
sampots are used in
weddings and
funerals. Deities in the pre-Angkor era are depicted in short and longer free-hanging sampots
samloy, knotted at the waist. These are depicted in bas-reliefs and sculpture only on women starting at about the 900s. Then styles retained by Cambodians to this day appear: pleating edge panels of the
sampot into a bundle that hangs forward then is fastened with a belt. Another style is simply the
sampot wrapped around and tucked into the waist. With the 12th-early 13th century comes the
sampot’s central field pattern being pushed back into a fold and secured with a belt, displaying the intricately patterns very well. The refined
sampot fashion of the
apsaras seen on
Angkor Wat are also seen. Fabric sweep out of the waist of the
sampot that according to art historian Gillian Green can be explained by a second garment beneath a skirt cloth, perhaps a
chong kben undergarment, and cascades along down the
sampot. Both pieces bear floral patterns and “weft-oriented bands” on the ends. An elaborate male depiction is a
chong kben adorned with added lengths of fabric with a pendant sash (or
pamn muk) hanging front and center. In the pre-Angkor era, unadorned or plain “warp-striped” pieces of fabric were used. By the
Baphuon period (11th century), pleats were popular. “Random or ordered” floral patterns were fashionable by the 12th and 13th century.
, in her elegant, richly-patterned sampot'' at Angkor Wat (12th century). For an 1856 Gift of Mutual Respect, Siamese
King Mongkut and his Second King Phra Pin Klao presented US President
Franklin Pierce three woven pairs of Khmer silk
sampot chong kben of
hol variety, in addition to “a similarly-patterned
silk shoulder cloth.” The method and design showed high sophistication, suggesting a long history of practice for such skill to develop over time and refine. Author and archaeologist Lisa McQuail wrote that King Mongkut describes the Thai silk items included in the Harris Treaty Gifts as “second quality,” likely because they were not as fine as the Khmer
hol silks included. In the run-up to the
1993 Cambodian general election, Khmer leader
Son Sann in a heated debate called for a sampot test to be used to establish whether or not women could vote or not in the election; walking a few yards in a tight sampot would be a sign of true Khmer identity, in contrast with the Vietnamese women who would usually wear pants under the
áo dài.
Silk weaving was an important part of Cambodia's cultural past. People from
Takéo Province have woven silk since the Funan era. Complex methods and intricate patterns have been developed to make the cloth, one of which is the
hol method which involves the uneven twill technique. The reason they adopted such an unusual method remains unclear. &
sampot samloy, 1860s by
Émile Gsell. In 1858–1860,
Henri Mouhot, a French naturalist and explorer, embarked on a journey to
mainland Southeast Asia (Indochinese Peninsula) where he had the opportunity to meet the king of the Khmer court. In his diary,
Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China (Siam), Cambodia, and Laos, during the years 1858, 1859, and 1860, Mouhot described the attire of the Cambodian king during his encounter: {{blockquote|Like his subjects, he generally wears nothing but the langouti, the native dress. His was composed of yellow silk, confined at the waist by a magnificent belt of gold studded with precious stones. In
George Groslier's
Recherches sur les Cambodgiens (1921), a French director of Cambodia Arts during the
French protectorate of Cambodia, observed the
sampot: {{Blockquote|text=The word
sampot must be a very old word, as old as the garment because it means: "cloth" and not a special part of the Khmer costume. Originally, it was a fabric tunic like this horizontal strip of cloth in Chinese texts, and therefore a garment tunic. From cotton, it became silk, and was decorated with polychrome designs as we studied at the beginning of this chapter. At first glance, it is nothing other than the widened belt and is draped much like it. Until the 12th century it seems narrower than the current
sampot and is only worn by men and certain sacred dancers (?). Women wear a
sarong and we know that the fashion for the
sampot common to both sexes is modern and probably a Siamese innovation. '', 1906. In 1936, Harriet Winifred Ponder, a British traveller who journeyed through Southeast Asia and the South Pacific, documented her experiences in Cambodia. In her writings,
Cambodian Glory, she described the traditional Cambodian attire: {{blockquote|The true national dress of Cambodia was the 'langouti', a sort of skirt, like the Javanese sarong, worn by both men and women. The 'sampot', a similar garment, but with one end pulled through between the legs to give the effect of a baggy pair of knickers, is a fashion imported from Siam. In
Angkor Empire (1955) by
George Benjamin Walker, recorded the origin of the modern
sampot, which was compiled from these historian authorities:
R. C. Majumdar, Reginald Le May,
Kalidas Nag,
Horace Geoffrey Quaritch Wales,
George Charles Brodrick, Lawrence Palmer Briggs,
Cedric Dover, and French scholars of the
French School of the Far East: {{Blockquote|text=Her dress is the
sampot. Authorities say it is from
Siam. Why, no one can guess. Authorities tell us all sorts of curious things on the strength of their knowledge of the ancient texts and the historians' histories. It requires no knowledge of mediaeval Siamese history to see plentiful evidence of the
sampot in the bas-reliefs, which preceded Siamese influences by centuries. The
sampot is like the Indian
lungi or the Malayan
sarong; a length of cloth, often gaily coloured, tied around the waist and hanging down like a skirt. Sometimes it is caught up between the legs and fixed behind like a
dhoti, in the fashion of the women of
Maharashtra. ==Textiles==