Tribal hand woven fabrics of Manipur
- Part 6 -

By: Mutua Bahadur *

Anal

The Anal weave about six varieties of cloths of which two are women's fanek. Akhum Ahno is a skirt made on white background with blue thread. At the border, there are red ordinary designs of extra warp weaving. The other skirt is Lungvin (Fig. 18). Patterns representing 'spring' and 'cucumber seed" are woven in the weft with blue thread.

Anal Bu and WahrakAkal Bu, both having blue, red and yellow bands, are decorated with white and blue extra warp. Though identical in name, there are marked varieties of Anal Bu (Fig. 19) for man and woman. But Wahrak Akal Bu (Fig. 17) is used commonly by both sexes. Jatha, a wrapper for man, is a white cloth which is characterized by small black extra warp designs in red colour on the side borders of the cloth. Jatha is nowadays ignored and not used.

At the time of dance performance, womenfolk wear Akhum Ahno around the waist and, above it, Longvin is wound around the bosom. However, the lower border of Longvin is kept a little higher than Akhum Ahno so that the lower border of the latter garment could also be seen.

Such a style of wear is also noted among Moyon, Monsang and Lamgang. Waharak Akal Bu is folded lengthwise at the mid portion and worn by men as kilt during dance and festivities.

Chiru

Till now the Chiru has invariably worn about eleven kinds of cloths. Of these, women have the pleasure of adoring three varieties of fanek viz. Pupang Ponve, (Fig. 22), Aarsi Ponve (Fig. 23) and Jidit Ponve. Pupang Ponve is a black cloth with white extra weft designs of rows of cucumber seeds. Aarsi Ponve is made in black with yellow and red colours. At the border, star motifs are woven adopting extra warp weaving technique.

At present, the Jidit Ponve is no longer woven nor used. Longdi Aam is thrown about the neck as scarf by the Chiru women. Women also use a waistband called Khongkhit. This is a cloth decorated with extra weft of black and red colours on white background. The tribe also uses Nupang Ponte and Aimo Suivo (Fig. 21).

Nupang Ponte is of white colour and at the border, cucumber seed pattern is interlaced with red and green extra weft. The cloth is also known by the Chiru as Ponkona or Ponja. Aimo Suivo is so named as to denote that its design was borrowed from the Aimol.

Naril (a kind of snake) design is woven on its black background with extra weft. The cloths used by both man and woman is Apa Ponte (Fig. 20). Bangpui Pon and Ponrobo. Lindu (a kind of snake) are the designs perforce for Apa Ponte. The design is made by interlocking red extra weft on the black cloth.

Ponrobo (Fig. 152) is a simple cloth of white and red bands. This cloth is an inseparable item for the bride price paid at different stages before and after the marriage. Today, a cloth for male called Ponhang, which was made of black wrap, is no longer made by any Chiru weaver. The Chiru also knows this cloth as Ponjadum.

Mutua Bahadur

* Mutua Bahadur contributes to e-pao.net regularly. This article was webcasted on October 16, 2012.