Answer:
The textiles of mainland Southeast Asia share much of their production technology, design repertoires, and consumption patterns with other regions of Asia to the north (China) and west (South Asia, India), as well as insular Southeast Asia. The student of mainland Southeast Asian textiles must be as concerned with Indian, Bhutanese, and Northeast Indian textiles, and those of Southwestern and southern China, including Hainan Island and aboriginal Taiwan, as with the more traditional areas of the mainland, included in the current political entities of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma (Myanmar), and peninsular Malaysia. Exploration of continuities and discontinuities between "traditional" Southeast Asia and the peoples, cultures, and textiles of these "peripheral" regions pays great dividends. The migrations of many Southeast Asian cultures began in southern China, and mainland Southeast Asia's major religion, Theravada Buddhism, and its textiles came from South Asia; also, South Asia and China provided royal textiles which became models emulated even in rural Southeast Asia.
The region's "traditional" textiles include tube skirts, shawls, blankets, and other items that have as their probable model weaving on back-tensioned looms with circular warps. These can be elaborated in a variety of ways, using resist tie-dyed warp or weft elements, intricate supplementary weft or warp floats, tapestry weaves, appliqués, embroideries, and other methods. Additionally, Southeast Asian textiles include Buddhist monk's robes, developed by the Buddha to contrast with the uncut textile tradition of South Asia, as well as tailored coats, pants, and robes derived from Chinese forms.
Early Southeast Asian Textiles
While it is often asserted that the preservation and recovery of Southeast Asian textiles is hindered by the region's tropical and semi-tropical climate, recent creative archaeological research has filled in some gaps. Fragments of textiles adhering to bone caused by bronze deposition have been discovered in Ban Chiang (Northeast Thai) sites. Innovative archaeological recovery techniques from burials have shown that asbestos was used to make cloth. Finally, Green's (2000) work on Khmer basreliefs used to decorate Angkorean temples shows that these consisted of designs found on Indian block-printed and ikat-motifed cloth also found in Fustat, Egypt. This innovative work shows that earlier eras of textile production and consumption may not be lost.
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