Cambodia: in Samrong, handmade brooms are a family affair
In Samrong, near Angkor, a few families still make a living from brooms. The raw material, two forest plants, is getting scarce around the village. To find it, Roeum Saroe now spends ten days away, as far as the neighbouring province of Kampong Thom.
Every household has a broom. It is used for the house, the yard, the roadside. In Cambodia, brooms are made from all sorts of plants. In Samrong, in Liang Dai commune, Angkor Thom district, people stick to two species, known locally as puoch and mrech tonsay.
Ten days in the forest to find puoch and mrech tonsay
Roeum Saroe is one of the village families who live from this work. He cuts the stems himself, in the forest. But the woods around Samrong yield fewer and fewer.
He now has to go as far as Stoung district, in Kampong Thom province. It takes nearly ten days, at least, to fill a motorised cart. For all that time, he and other villagers pitch tents and sleep in the forest.
From forest to broom, all by hand
Back in the village, everything happens in the yard. Reum Hav trims the stems with a machete on an old wooden block. They are then gathered into brooms and bound tight.
A broom sold for 500 riels
One trip brings back 500 to 600 bundles of stems, Reum Hav explains. When the plants are plentiful, it can reach 1,000. The finished brooms go to middlemen, who pay 500 to 600 riels each. That is roughly 12 to 15 US cents.
For ten days in the forest, it is not much. Reum Hav does not hide it. But brooms help keep the family going, along with rice farming and daily-wage jobs.
The craft is passed down from one generation to the next. Reum Hav has been selling brooms since she was 20.
The traditional broom of the Angkor temples
In the Angkor Archaeological Park, this broom is in common use. It comes out mostly where dead leaves pile up. For that job, it works better than many other brooms.
Text: Neang Samnang — Photos: Sin Broney
Adapted from the APSARA National Authority
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