Chong Koh Village
Chong Koh, a restful village on the Mekong riverside, has become a lively tourist attraction. This village specializes in silk weaving and one can buy the beautiful Khmer headscarves for reasonable prices.
Chong Koh is one of the most well-known traditional silk weaving villages in Cambodia. Weaving plays an important role in both economy and culture of Chong Koh village. Its inhabitants are farmers, fishermen and silk-weavers and used to be considered remote but nowadays it is visited by a large number of river cruise boats.
The village is home to scenic rural landscape of river, mud path, stilt houses and lush trees. It also welcomes to foreign tourists, where you can meet hospitable people trying to speak English to introduce their village or sale the silk.
To get deeper insight of silk weaving tradition, tourists should spend time visiting silk workshops where the artisans show their impressive skills on the process of weaving to create stunning masterpieces. Visiting the most of residents’ houses, you’ll find a wooden loom which is powered by foot pedals. With these old simple methods, the silk weavers can create appealing fabrics and scarves in attractive colors as well as decorative patterns. Tourists can pick up a silk item with Cambodian traditional patterns and national symbols as a great souvenir to bring home.
Silk-weaver shows how to obtain silk out of silworm cocoons
Aside from silk weaving, Chong Koh has several Buddhist stupas and temples which offer beautiful sculptures and mysterious images of Buddha and sacred animals. You can freely visit these sites to contemplate the beauty of Khmer architecture and learn more about Buddhism in Cambodia.
Place of worship with the statue of Buddha making symbolic mudras
Coming to the Chong Koh, tourists are usually recommended to visit local primary schools where the facilities are getting downgraded. The children here are really positive with big smiles despite learning in the poor conditions with faded paint, broken doors, windows and old desks.
Mekong Cruise is the best way to reach Chong Koh island
Chong Koh Village is easily reached by river cruises via the Mekong River. It’s the best opportunity to make an exploration of riverside scenery and local villages.
