Khit Sunn Yin Hand Weaving Center

Entering the Village of Innpawkhon

The village of Innpawkhon is just a short distance away from the market but as with everything else, going from one place to another on Inle Lake meant taking the boat to that place. Instead of cars or bicycles, every house has a boat to get from one place to another. I had no idea what was planned for this lake tour and I was just following the tour, either way, I was immensely enjoying myself.

Extracting Lotus Thread

We entered what looked like a village, called Innpawkhon, it looked like a normal South East Asian village except that in place of roads, there was water everywhere. It was like the entire place was flooded, except that it wasn’t. The village was literally built on top of the lake itself. All of the houses here are built on stilts and wood is the common construction material.

Local Villager Making Lotus Thread

Okay, taking the boat out just to visit the neighbor isn’t really the most practical thing to do. In the case of this village, the houses were built quite close to each other, so instead of taking the boat out, they just built bridges. The connections between houses in the village seems quite comprehensive, even more than the houses I saw on the way to the market. It seems to be quite peaceful living on top of the water. And not surprisingly, there have been quite a few industries that have been set up to cater to the tourist trade.

Thread of All Colors at the Weaving Center

We were visiting the Innpawkhon village, which is known for their skill in weaving. At Khit Sunn Yin Hand Weaving Center, our boatman/guide dropped us off and we went in to explore the center. The houe was surprisingly hugeand cool, although it was made entirely out of wood, there was also a second floor built. You almost forget that the house was built on water. Most of the house stored a large amount to hand woven clothes along with what can be considered the national attire, the longyi. The longyi is a tubular piece of lower garment that is wrapped around the torso and serves as pair of pants for the men, or skirt for the ladies. It is actually unisex and it only differs in the design. Some Burmese prefer to wear longyi since wearing shorts or pants can be quite hot. Not surprising considering the weather Myanmar has.

Huge Stash of Cloth in the Weaving Center

One of the specialties products of Khit Sunn Yin Hand Weaving Center is the making of clothes made from lotus thread. Say what? Lotus thread is made from the breaking the stems of the lotus plant and gathering the fiber from it into a thread. One would need around a foot’s worth of lotus stem to make a meter of lotus thread. Not surprisingly, anything made from it is very expensive.

Friendly Owner of the Weaving Center

We continued exploring the weaving center and just like any other weaving center in the region it also has weaving machines, some using traditional threads and others using lotus thread. What I liked about this place is that although they were hoping that you would buy something from them, you could never feel any pressure from them, so I thought it was a very pleasant visit to the weaving center, not to mention very interesting.

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