The world's most costly silk is available for purchase

DNHN - Lotus silk, an exceedingly expensive substance found only inside the lotus tree, is a little-known gem. Very rare and high-priced silk that originates from the lotus stem is produced in countries such as Vietnam, Myanmar, and Cambodia. This procedure requires considerable care and attention to detail.

In the early 1900s, an Intha lady called Sa Oo created a sort of silk known as Lotus Silk in her town of Kyaingkhan, Myanmar. She utilized the pink lotus.

One of the first lotus silk weavers in the region, Mrs Phan Thi Thuan of Hanoi, was instrumental in the spread of the Vietnamese tradition. 

It takes two months to manufacture a scarf alone, so the price of things made from this silk is sometimes ten times higher.

This process begins with a person harvesting the lotus stems by hand, and the silk must be removed within 24 hours since it will be destroyed if the plant dries out. Every year, people begin harvesting in April and continue until October.

4,800 lotus branches are needed to form a 1.7-meter-long scarf. A scarf may be made in a month if you work hard enough. A dedicated worker can only manufacture 200–250 stalks a day. A towel might cost up to the US $200 because of this.

Lotus silk is very distinct from silk due to its thinness and softness, as opposed to silk's hardness (because silk has been passed through a glue gland inside the silkworm). In the past, Buddhist monks and other religious leaders were given robes made of lotus silk as a gift.

Since lotus silk has grown more popular, it has been used to weave a variety of high-quality apparel. The artist must work by hand from start to finish to produce this unique lotus silk.

This is the story of a Vietnamese woman who learned to weave silk fabric on her own.

Mrs Thuan is the third generation of her family to own a silk-weaving company. Silkworm cultivation and silk production were her favourite pastimes as a youngster.

 The phases of weaving were taught to her by her parents when she was only six years old. Ms Thuan is one of the few remaining silk weavers in Phung Xa, despite her difficult ups and downs in life.

Hai Anh