Sompot chong kben

Sompot chong kben (សំពត់ចងក្បិន)^[1] combines three Khmer words: សំពត់ (/sɑmpʊət/, sampot),^[4] a long, rectangular cloth worn around the lower body; ចង (/cɑɑŋ/, chang),^[5] to wrap around; and ក្បិន (/kbən/, kben),^[6] referring to the lower body cloth that is wrapped around the waist then pulled back between the legs and tucked in at the back. The name of this cloth, kben or chong kben, literally means "to wrap or to wear the kben" in Khmer. Chong kraben (โจงกระเบน) is used among Thai people and derived from these Khmer words.^[2]

Deities were often portrayed wearing such clothing.^{[citation needed]} It is believed the Khmer people in Funan first began wearing sompot chong kben after King Kaundinya I began importing a very similar type of clothing in the 1st century CE, the Indian dhotis.^{[7][failed verification]}

The sampot dates back to the Funan era when a Cambodian king ordered the people of his kingdom to wear the sampot at the request of Chinese envoys.^[8]

During the Angkor period, different styles of chong kben are apparent. After a chong kben is wrapped around and then knotted, there are multiple ways the end panels can present: rolled together and then pulling the bunch through the legs and securing the tip in the back waistband or a belt; for deities and kings we see a style that entails pulling one end from the front to the back as the other end drapes the front with the tip secured in the waist-area, creating a pocketfold; knotting the chong kben at the waist with one end hanging front and center whereas the other end goes front-to-back through the legs then slid under the fabric in back permitting the end to hang in the center, and a minimal chong kben resembling a loincloth. This is characteristic of “austerely-garbed Brahman priests,” laborers, soldiers, slaves from the mountains, and prisoners of war in bas-reliefs. Exuberant versions of minimal chong kben, called “flared” chong kben, are shown on protagonists of the Mahabharata-epic bas-reliefs, as well as high-ranking soldiers and warrior kings.^[9]

The back of the sompot chong kben is in reference to the tail of Hanuman.^[10][11] By the 17th century, the royal court of Siam had also adopted the sampot chong kben.^[12] In 1856, Siamese King Mongkut gifted US President Franklin Pierce four Khmer silk garments. Three were woven silk sampot chong kben in hol pattern, a textile achieved from the distinct, sophisticated Khmer uneven twill groundweave.^[13]

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  6th century Khmer depiction of Balarama wearing sompot chong kben from Phnom Da temple, Angkor Borei, Takeo, Cambodia. Now exhibits in National Museum of Cambodia.
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  Envoy of Funan to the Liang dynasty wearing a sampot chong kben by painter Gu Deqian of the Southern Tang dynasty (937–976 CE).
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  Murder of the Cambodian King and his son in 1642, from a Dutch engraving.
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  Photograph of Prince Chulalongkorn (Rama V) and his two younger brothers wearing chong kraben in 1851
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  Photograph of a 19th-century Siamese boatman, photographed by John Thomson
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  Photograph of Queen Saovabha Phongsri, principal consort to King Chulalongkorn
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  Khmer royal ladies wearing sompot chong kben and sbai in the mid-1800s.
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  Khmer woman wearing sompot chong kben
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  Mannequins wearing sompot chong kben at the Royal Palace of Cambodia
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  A Khmer traditional dancer in sompot chong kben

• Dhoti
• Sampot
• Sampot chang samluy
• Khmer traditional clothing
• Traditional Thai clothing