Inle Lake: Silk Lotus Weaving Work Shops

With our guide we travelled in a long boat boat to see The weaving workshops. It is located in In Paw Khon village which is a floating settlement made up of tall stilted houses connected by narrow waterways. Each village has its craft or agriculture production. Our stop at a few silk workshops required our long boat driver to make a few tight rounded and sweeping bends as we entered into the village proper, I was surprised to see just how many weaving workshops there were in In Paw Khon. The workshops are double-storied studio inside a tumbledown stilted house perched over the glassy waters of the lake.

Drawn from the cut stems of the lotus plant, lotus fibres are fine, flexible, and incredibly soft. It’s said that the technique of spinning thread from the plant was first developed to fashion unique offerings to The Buddah in the form of lotus robes, but nowadays, the fibres are chiefly used to weave scarves and shawls. It is very expensive and is used mostly for ceremonial use or for tourist souvenirs.Read more