A Cambodian woman carrying a bundle of colourful cotton kramas on her head pauses for an informal ...

A Cambodian woman carrying a bundle of colourful cotton kramas on her head pauses for an informal portrait with a friend. The krama, a traditional Cambodian scarf which can be woven from either silk or cotton, is manufactured in villages throughout Cambodia and is seen in an endless variety of uses - as a scarf, turban, apron, skirt, for carrying articles, as a baby's hammock or as a bed sheet. Styles, patterns and colours vary according to province, and many Cambodians wear the krama as a statement of their Khmer identity. There was a danger that the knowledge of traditional Khmer weaving designs and practices would disappear after the devastation of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, where craftspeople were viewed as representing the old order and were either assigned to food production or executed.