All activities / Craft Skills (Bladesmithing, Pottery, Glass) / Siem Reap
Craft Skills (Bladesmithing, Pottery, Glass) in Siem Reap
The gateway town to the Angkor temples in northwest Cambodia, a low-rise base of guesthouses, markets and the Siem Reap River that empties out before dawn as visitors head for Angkor Wat, and a growing scene of Khmer craft workshops, cooking schools and boat trips to the floating villages of the nearby Tonle Sap.
Why here
The crafts that decorated Angkor never died out, and Siem Reap is where you can watch them practised and learn the techniques. Khmer stone and wood carving, lacquering, gilding, silk weaving and silversmithing are all worked here in open studios where the point is to see the process, not just buy the result. A social enterprise that trains rural young people runs a central workshop and a working silk farm where you can follow silk from mulberry leaf and silkworm to dyed thread and loom, while a master artist's atelier shows lacquer and gilded sculpture being finished by apprentices. It is a rare chance to understand a living Khmer craft tradition at close range and, at the hands-on studios, to try the tools yourself.
Best months
The workshops and galleries are open year-round, most from morning to late afternoon, and are comfortable in any season since the work is indoors or under cover. The dry months from November to March suit combining a studio visit with the temples. Silk-farm tours run to a set daily schedule with a free shuttle, so check departure times, and the ateliers are quietest early in the day.
Getting there & around
The central craft workshop sits a short walk from the Old Market in the middle of Siem Reap, and the Angkor Silk Farm is about a twenty-minute drive out in Puok district with a free shuttle from town. The master artist's gallery is a few kilometres from the centre and reached by tuk-tuk. Entry is free or a small fee, no booking needed for the workshop tours, and the crafts can be bought directly to support the artisans.
Skill levels: beginner, intermediate
Schools & guides (2)
Artisans Angkor
SchoolArtisans Angkor is a Cambodian social enterprise founded in Siem Reap in 1992 to give rural young people free vocational training in traditional Khmer crafts and paid work near home. Its central workshop near the Old Market is open to visitors, who watch artisans at stone and wood carving, lacquering, gilding and silversmithing, while the Angkor Silk Farm in Puok district shows silk from silkworm to loom. The company employs hundreds of craftspeople across Siem Reap province.
Theam's Gallery
SchoolTheam's Gallery is the home, atelier and gallery of the Cambodian master artist Lim Muy Theam, on Road 30 in the Kokchak district of Siem Reap. Visitors move through rooms of his lacquer work, gilded sculpture and collected Khmer objects, and can watch young apprentice artisans painting, sculpting and lacquering in the working studio behind the gallery. It is open daily from 8am to 5pm for a small fee, and has been featured in Travel and Leisure and AsiaLife.