The Final Adornment: A Guide to Khmer Footwear and Accessories

The Final Adornment: A Guide to Khmer Footwear and Accessories

Chapter One: A Path on the Earth: The History of Traditional Khmer Footwear In the grand chronicle of traditional Cambodian attire, the story of footwear is a quiet but revealing one. For much of Khmer history, the most common footwear for the vast majority of the population was no footwear at all. In a tropical, agricultural civilization defined by the wet rice paddy and the seasonally flooded landscape, going barefoot was the most practical and natural way of life. Footwear, therefore, was not an everyday necessity, but rather a marker of status, an indicator of a specific occasion, or a practical protection for a particular journey. The history of shoes and sandals in Cambodia is a story that tells us much about the social hierarchy and the daily reality of the ancient kingdom. The Barefoot Tradition Our most detailed and powerful evidence for historical Khmer dress comes from the magnificent stone bas-reliefs of the Angkorian Empire. As we look upon these detailed carvings at temples…