Tribal hand woven fabrics of Manipur
- Part 5 -
By: Mutua Bahadur *
HAND WOVEN FABRICS
The hill people weave various cloths with designs in the weft and warp. Most of the extra weft designs are simple geometrical forms of bird's eye, creature, animal, plant and ordinary patterns. Tribal fabrics are of short width and loom products ranging from one to five pieces are therefore stitched together to be used as a clothe.
Common tribal dress includes a loin cloth, a kilt shawl and a skirt. The loin cloth for man, which is very short in length and breadth, is not used at present. Skirt is commonly known by the Meitei word fanek. It is worn according to the convenience of the woman from either bust or waist hitching half way to knee. It is draped round the body and its top corner tucked in by the band at the side of the body.
Aimol
The Aimol has about eleven kinds of cloths. Out of these, three are female dresses. They are Saipikhup, Senchal and Arsian. Saipikhup is a fanek and its literal meaning is elephant's knee. At the borders in the lengthways, the Saipikhup design (Fig. 15) in red and yellow colour is interlaced adopting extra weft weaving on the black background.
Another decorative pattern of design woven with extra warp is Thabi Maru meaning cucumber seed. Senchal (Fig. 16) is a wrapper having black and red stripes. The two borders are decorated with extra warp. Arsian (Fig. 13) is a woman's shawl. It is a white cloth having blue border. Extra weft designs are interwoven at the margin of its lengthways.
There are two wrappers of man. Ponte (Fig. 12) is a white cloth ending its width in red colour. At the end borders, extra weft designs are made. Diaram (Fig. 14) is a white cloth having red and black extra weft design.
Amthal (two varieties) is a male's shawl in black colour decorated at the end border in various colours. Ponchial Rulpuiyeak (Fig. 157), Ralngam buchum (Fig. 10) and Muikhamjal are wholly decorated in the weft with characteristic designs. Muikhamjal is a cloth woven by a daughter-in-law and presented to the father-in-law.
High regard is accorded to Ponchial Rulpuiyeak as it contains god's mark. At some villages, it cannot be touched by womenfolk.
See a gallery photo of Tribal hand woven fabrics of Manipur here.
To be continued ....
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* Mutua Bahadur contributes to e-pao.net regularly. This article was webcasted on August 25, 2012.
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