Thai silk (, , ) is produced from the cocoons of Thai silkworms. Thailand's silkworm farmers cultivate both types of the domesticated silkworms that produce commercial silk: Samia ricini, commonly known as the eri silkworm, which produces matte eri silk, and the Bombyx mori, producer of the better known, glossy mulberry silk. The latter is by far the larger silk producer of the two.
In Thailand, the Center for Excellence in Silk at Kasetsart University's Kamphaeng Saen campus plays a leading research role in sericulture research as well as providing silkworm eggs and know-how to Thai farmers.
History
After silk originated in ancient China and India, where the practice of weaving silk began around 2,640 BCE, Chinese merchants spread the use of silk throughout Asia through trade. Archaeologists found the first fibers of silk in Thailand to be over 3,000 years old, in the ruins of Ban Chiang. The site is considered to be one of Southeast Asia's oldest civilizations.
According to Chinese diplomat Zhou Daguan, who was sent to Cambodia by Temür Khan, Siamese people were skilled in silk production: “In recent years people from Siam have come to live in Cambodia, and unlike the locals they engage in silk production. The mulberry trees they grow and the silkworms they raise all come from Siam. (They have no ramie, either, only hemp.) They themselves weave the silk into clothes made of a black, patterned satiny silk. Siamese women do know how to stitch and darn, so when local people have torn or damaged clothing they ask them to do the mending.” Based on Anna Harriette Leonowens's record, Siam were also the exporters of cotton, silk, and raw silk.
However, silk produced on the Khorat Plateau was generally only used for private consumption, with the Thai court preferring to purchase Chinese silk imports. There was an attempt in the early 20th century to develop the native industry with the help of a Japanese sericulture expert, Kametaro Toyama. However, this attempt failed, due to a lack of local interest in producing for a larger market.
After World War II, former OSS officer Jim Thompson thought that silk would be popular back home in the USA. Through his connections in New York, he began marketing the product as a traditional Siamese fabric. In fact, the material he created had little relationship to what had previously been produced in the country. But through clever branding and by developing a range of "Thai" patterns, he managed to establish Thai silk as a recognizable brand.
Writing in the Bangkok Post in 1949, Alexander MacDonald noted that, "...out of a number of scattered remains of history, from cultures borrowed from Siam's neighbors, and from colonies of fat and lazy Siamese silk worms, Jim Thompson is trying to build a modest business." Throughout the 1950s, Thais remained little interested in Thai silk, and considered it suitable only for special occasiona. Rather, it was American tourists who sustained the local development of a silk industry in Thailand. In 1951, The King and I opened on Broadway, featuring a depiction of the Thai court in the mid-19th century, where the costumes were all made using Thai silk. Created by Irene Sharaff, the production served to promote the material to the American audience, and fueled interest in the country.
Throughout the 1950s, silk shops opened up across Bangkok. However, these shops sold almost entirely to the tourist trade. Wealthy Americans would come into Jim Thompson's shop and buy large amounts of the fabric, and then take the fabric home to be sewn into clothing. Locally, Thais showed little interest in the product, as it remained expensive and unsuited to the hot climate.
Production
The Queen Sirikit Department of Sericulture estimates that in 2013, 71,630 small landholders raised mulberry silkworms on 39,570 rai, producing 287,771 kg of silk cocoons. Another 2,552 farmers grew mulberry silkworms on an industrial scale, producing 145,072 kg of silk on 15,520 rai of land. Eri silk production, on the other hand, amounts to only a fraction of these quantities, grown by a small network of 600 families scattered throughout 28 provinces in north, northeast, and central Thailand.