This work allows readers to journey with fifteen scholars to Southeast Asia and neighbouring countries to discover the hidden meanings behind traditional textiles. Throughout Asia, textiles have played an important role in concepts of power and kingship and are also closely associated with shamanistic, Buddhist and Islamic beliefs. The papers presented in this work represent knowledge and research of leading scholars from around the world who participated in The James H W Thompson Foundation symposium in August, 2005. Diana K Myers compares Bhutanese and Southeast Asian textiles, Gillian Green covers Cambodian hangings, John Guy, Roy Hamilton and Robyn Maxwell discuss different aspects of Indonesian textiles, while Susan Conway investigates Shamanistic practices among the Shan. Barbara and David Fraser, Vibha Joshi and Piriya Krairiksh research the textiles of three other minority groups in Myanmar, while Patricia Cheesman and Linda McIntosh take us on a journey to Laos. For Thailand, Leedom Lefferts and Suriya Smutkupt look at links between Buddhism and textiles, while Thirabhand Chandrachareon discusses royal Thai brocades.
Finally, Michael Howard shows how the Tai peoples of Vietnam use textiles to denote status and religion.