Karen women usually wear skirts made of tied and dyed ('ikat') cotton. These are woven on a backstrap loom, in two sections which are then sewn together. The skirt is wrapped and tied with a belt, rather than folded and tucked like the conventional sarong. This type of sarong is worn particularly by the plains-dwelling Pwo Karen who use commercial threads with narrower strips of tie-dye designs and wider strips of solid colours.The Karen is the largest tribal group in Thailand comprising two main divisions (the Sgaw and Pwo) and smaller sub-groups. Thought to have originated from Tibet, they migrated into Thailand from Burma during the 18th century.
