THAILAND TRAVEL NEWS: Thai citizens throughout the country and internationally have been urged to wear clothes made of silk to honor the 77th birthday of HM Queen Sirikit on August 12.

Queen Sirikit has long been an ardent ambassador for Thai silk, wearing the fabric and clothes made from the different styles of Thai silk, locally and abroad.

It was Queen Sirikit who, in 1960, decided that Thai women needed a distinctive national dress that would embody the traditions and craftsmanship of the kingdom internationally, with handwoven Thai silk, as well as plain, brocade or patterned, and tie-dyed silk, chosen as the material.

In 1970, the Queen is accredited with kick-starting the Thai silk industry in the northeast of the country, where the high quality mudmee silk had been produced for hundreds of years as a cottage industry.

Six years later, mudmee silk, along with other cottage industries encouraged by the Queen, became the core for the Foundation for the Promotion of Supplementary Occupations and Related Techniques, known in short as the SUPPORT Foundation.

One year later, the Queen’s efforts to preserve and grow the Thai silk industry saw her inaugurated the silk-weaving apprenticeship project aimed at giving fully integrated silk-weaving training to a new generation.

The project covers the cultivation of mulberry trees, the rearing of silkworms, reeling, dyeing, and then weaving threads into fabric, using various techniques.

Handcrafted Thai silk, particularly that from Northeast Thailand, has an international reputation for quality, and has grown to become a multimillion dollar earner for Thailand.

To protect its reputation the Agriculture Ministry uses a peacock emblem in four different colors to grade authenticate genuine Thai silk items and protect it from imitations.

In honor of the significant role Queen Sirikit has had in reviving and growing the Thai SIlk Industry, Thais the world over have been asked to wear silk from August 1 though to August 12.

By John Le Fevre

Thailand Travel News July 24, 2009