Assam: Land of the Golden Silk - Part 7
(Our 2008 visit to Assam in search of three types of silk.)






An adult eri moth resting on netting and some of the cocoons. On the day we visited the eri silk farmers we also drove to a village where every home seemed to be set up to spin and weave. It was here in rural Assam that we learned the most about silk production, and here also that we took some of our best photos. Assam, the people, the landscape, and the skillful transformation of silk to textiles; it was all very beautiful and we felt very privileged to be able to experience it.





We really got the sense that everyone knew silk and had an opinion about it. Even our armed escort took an active interest in the cloth. We bartered for some of the lengths that were, in our opinion very well made - tightly woven and well spun and we made certain to get a selection of the spun silk that we could use for natural dye testing. We were very excited to see how it would take the dyes. If it worked well there was a possibility that natural dyes could be reintroduced to the local textiles.

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