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By
: May Titthara, Picture by : M.Thara.
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Disabled and cannot walk,
40 year-old Eang Toy is happy that she has
learned to weave mat and is now able to
earn money by herself.
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Wearing a happy face
with her hands both busy at weaving leaves of the
palm together and one leg holding down at the other
end, Ou Nuy, 61 explained that clients would complain
that your mat is of bad quality if it is not straightened
properly.
The humble mat may look ordinary but actually watching
it being weaved, offers yet another aspect to the
humility of it all. While weaving, the weavers talk
to each other from one house to another. They discuss
their rice harvest, how much they got during the
previous season. Some talk about their daughters
who work as garment factory workers in Phnom Penh.
They talk contentedly while their hands and legs
are busy weaving mats.
When the rice-planting season is over, many rural
Khmer people take another job - like weaving mats
- while they wait for their rice harvest to grow,
to earn some extra money for their family. They
don't want to waste their free time just sitting
at home doing nothing. The work helps a lot of people
who live in countryside live easier lives, without
having to leave their homeland to find a job in
the city after the rice-planting season.
Cambodian people use palm-leaf mats for many things.
Not only do they sleep on |
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them, they also often
use mats as impromptu eating spaces, on picnics,
in the home and at weddings, when renting tables
and chairs is too expensive for some.
Palm trees have a lot of different advantages for
people who live in the countryside. People use them
for all kinds of things, including making palm juice,
palm sugar and palm wine. The leaves are used to
weave mats, as we have seen, and as a roofing material,
and the trunk of the palm tree can also be used
to make a boat.
To weave a mat, you must first cut some palm leaves,
then dry them and slice them into small strips.
To make a mat four meters long and two meters wide,
you need at least 15 midribs. It takes a practiced
weaver about three days to make a mat of this size.
The weavers sell the mats in their houses.
Ou Nuy, lives in Samor Leu village in Takeo province.
She spends much of her time with her hands busy
weaving palm-leaf mats. "I'm weaving a mat
before harvest season because when the harvest season
arrives, our villagers need to buy mats to dry their
rice in the sunshine," she said. She does not
work on the farm, so she can weave whenever she
likes.
Ou Nuy added, "When I sell a mat, I can earn
enough to buy some household items and food. I can
sell one mat for 5000 riel."
Mats sell best during the harvest season, but they
also sell well when people celebrate religious ceremonies.
"5000 riel is enough for living in the countryside
like this, but for city
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Above: A Weaver holding
down a few leaves with her leg to demonstrate
the beginning stage of how a mat is weaved.
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Dried palm leaves--material
for making the mat.
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dwellers
it may not be enough at all," said Ou
Nuy.
Eang Toy, 40, lives in the same province.
She is also a mat-weaver, and is disabled.
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A weaver putting the finishing
touches to the mats before they are rolled
up for sale.
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"Mat-weaving is
my job," she explained with a smile. "It
keeps my life going, because I am disabled, so I
can't walk anywhere like other people. I can't do
anything else around here," she said.
"You know, my life was very difficult before
I chose this job, because I had no income,"
Eang Toy continued. "I live with my older sister,
but money in other people's pockets isn't the same
as money in your own pocket. So after I saw my neighbors
busily weaving and selling mats, I tried to learn
to do it also. The very first time I found that
I could do it too, I was overjoyed. I was very happy
when I sold my first mat, because it meant I could
earn money for myself, " Eang Toy said.
Looking over her shoulder, she added, "Before,
when I wasn't busy like this, I just used to sit
and watch people walking past my house, and ask
them where they were going. But now I'm busy with
my job and I don't waste time idling around any
more."
She added "Mat-weaving is a good job for me
because I need only to sit in one |
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place, so
it suits me. And I can earn some money, without
having to ask my older sister."
"Sometimes it is quite difficult for me though,
because I can't pick the leaves by myself. I have
still to ask my nephew to get them for me."
"Weaving mats can help disabled people like
me to live easier lives, without having to go begging.
I'm very happy with my job - it makes me hopeful
about my life, because it means I can take care
of myself without having to depend on anyone else,"
said Eng Toy. |
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