For those who used to visit Cambodia, you can recognize this country is one of a few countries in ASEAN that still remain their traditions and habits till nowadays. Among them, it's the habit of traditional costumes. Even though the Cambodian doesn’t wear traditional clothes in urban areas, like Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, you can see a lot of people wear that in rural areas around this country.

The first thing you should know when you travel to ASEAN countries generally or the Kingdom of Cambodia particularly, is their traditional costumes. So, if Cambodia is your next destination, don't forget to take notes information below.
 

 

What does Cambodian traditional costume include?

Krama is the Cambodian traditional cotton/silk scarf that was born thousand years ago. Nowadays, the shape and design of this kind of scarf hardly change. 

It is believed that Krama has been worn since the Angkor Period, around 13th century. Cambodian, from the royal to the residents, wears it every day, so it becomes an iconic symbol of the local to distinguish from Cambodia’s neighborhoods. 
 

There also exist the difference between the patterns in each region of Cambodia. Silk krama is mostly produced in the province of Kompong Cham with colorful detail such as crimson, emerald, maroon or Scottish plaid. The quality shows from simple to luxury materials and patterns. Normally, the cotton tartan krama is used by the low-income people and its colors are dark such as brown, ochre or ginger by using natural dyes. Therefore, the silk one is lighter in color. Since the chemical dyes has been used more common, now we can easily find your favorite.  
 

If you visit Cambodia, you can see many Cambodian wearing krama, especially farmers who work on field every day. They need something to hide them from the heat under sun or to keep their hair in right shape. Krama is usually worn around people’s head or neck. Sometime, it is used as a pillow, a hammock for a new born baby or something to help people climbing tree. 

Krama is sold everywhere in Cambodia. This traditional scarf is considered as a nice interesting souvenir. Many tourists also love to wear this during their trip in Cambodia. 

Sarong is a type of traditional clothes which is a substitute for Sampot. Sarong is suitable for both men and women who are from lower class in society. Today, Sarong becomes more popular because of its simple design. Sarong is just a fabric piece sewed in 2 sides which people tie on their belt. 
 

Sampot is the Cambodian traditional dress that was born in Funanera and become national heritage of the Kingdom of temples.

Sampot is a large fabric of silk wrapped around the lower part of the body. It is often dyed in basic colors such as red, yellow, green or black. Since Cambodia has long history of weaving silk, many items of clothing are made from silk with the traditional patterns, specially, the golden silk is Cambodian national thread.
 

The Cambodian usually wears Sampot in festivals or in special occasions. People can wear it by following the original way or wrapping in some other different styles to highlight its own beauty. 

Sampot costume can be decorated with gemstone or embroidery stitches in order to make it look fancier and more luxurious.  Sampot is divided into many types:

*   Sampot Phamuong
Sampot Phamuong means not only a type of traditional dress of Cambodia but also traditional Khmer textiles. This is a luxury textile dress with the various of color up to 52 colors and some of fine Sampot Phamuong may need many different needles to make combined with hundreds flower, leave and curving details.

Sampot Phamuong is divided into different categories: chorcung, kaneiv, rabak, bantok, and anlounh. One of them is made from yellow silk with the best quality.

*   Sampot Chang Kben
Chang Kben’s shape is look like a pant with 2.7 meters long and 1 meter wide. Chang Kben is usually made from high quality fabric so that it helps people feel comfortable when wearing it. 
 

In Cambodia, middle-class women often dress Sampot Chang Kben. Nowadays, this costume becomes more popular. People love to wear that on festivals or special occasions. 

You can wrap it around the waist, stretch it away from the body, twist the ends then pull the twisted fabric between the legs and fix it by a twinkle belt.

*   Sampot Hol
This Cambodian iconic traditional costume has 2 basic types: a common type and knitted type. Affected by Indian patola fabrics, this kind of Sampot has gone through some stages of development that change the look and the materials of the Hol fabric.
 

There are over 200 patterns of Sampot Hol (combining 3 or 5 colors, including red, yellow, blue, brown and green) and 4 variations: sampot hol, sampot holpor, sampot holben, and sampot holong. They have the motifs of geometric, floral, and also animals. 

Urban Outfit

People often wear Western and modern outfit in big cities in Cambodia. They just dress traditional costumes on festivals or special occasions when they need to wear formal clothes. On those days, tourists will see the Cambodian wearing traditional costumes. You still can buy this traditional cloth at the Old Market or the Central Market.
 

Rural Outfit

The Cambodian traditional costumes are used more popular in countryside areas than urban areas. People in rural area enjoy a slow life and they love to wear traditional outfits because of their convenience. 

Sampot is also worn in Laos and Thailand, the Cambodia’s neighbors, where they call it with another name – Pha Nung. So, how do we know which one is Sampot? The answer is Krama. People often wear these scarves under their hats or wear as a accessory.

It’s necessary to choose comfortable and convenient outfit when travelling in Cambodia. You should wear a hat and a pair of comfortable walking shoes because it is normally hot and sunny there while you walk a lot.

Remember that you should dress typical costumes which are accepted in different social circumstances. There are some rules of clothes in Cambodian pagodas. Every visitor has to wear long sleeve shirt and knee long skirt. When you enter a temple or regional place, you must remove your hat and shoes.