Overview

From the Bronze Age Ban Chiang culture to the Mon and Khmer states, dress here was draped and wrapped cloth under Indian influence.

Key garments and style

People wore a cloth wrapped at the waist (a sampot-like wrapped garment) as the basis, the upper body bare or with a cloth over the shoulder. Buddhist and Hindu images are carved with figures in ornaments and thin wrapped cloth.

Transition

In the 13th century, when the Thai founded a kingdom at Sukhothai, this wrapped-cloth tradition passed into Thai dress.