Silk doesn't necessarily require the death of the silkworm. There is silk production in India, and no doubt China, where silk is woven from the discarded coccoons of silk moths: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk#Animal_rights

That said, I'm all for it being chocolate body-painted on every morning :D

I've only just started reading Saiyuki, and found this post by googling for Saiyuki meta, if you're wondering why you have a comment on a post that is so old :)