Silk & Sandalwood

Mysore is famous for silk saris. It’s also well known for sandalwood oil and related products. Today we took a rickshaw out to the silk factory. They don’t really give you a tour. They just let you wander around and as you go, a few helpful sorts tell you what each area is about. It was really quite interesting to see them winding, doubling, twisting, and re-winding to form the finest thread. Unbelievable that there is ten strands in each silk thread. Then we saw the weaving and the winding of the gold threads. They actually have real silver and gold in them and so the cost of some of the saris can be up to 175,000 rupees (more than four thousand dollars Canadian). Too bad they wouldn’t allow pictures inside the factory.

In the same area of town is a sandalwood factory so we decided to go there too. This time we had a little tour, but the factory wasn’t operating as they were waiting for a shipment of sandalwood to come in. We saw the areas where they split and chip the wood, where they grind it to a powder and where they compress and crush it to make the oil which then gets distilled. They didn’t really allow pictures, but the guide said, “It’s not permitted, but be quick.” Ya gotta love India.



We ended up buying some sandalwood incense sticks that are made from the by-product of oil making. We also bought some sandalwood soap. It was really an educational day, and I felt like we were doing a field trip for school.

CM