 |
Bhutan's
Economy: Textile Industry |
|
|
Bhutan
Information |
|
|
 |
 
|
Kushuthara
weaving: A vibrant tradition in Lhuentse |
 |
Come
winter and the village of Khoma in Kurtoe Lhuentse resonates with
the dull sound of the beater hitting the warp as the women folk weave the
famous kushuthara in small groups outside their homes and in open
fields.
Kushuthara
is a special kind of weave using silk and is regarded as one of the
most colourful and intricately woven Bhutanese textiles in the country.
Its origins in the dzongkhag go back several centuries. |
|
After
the agriculture season is over and the cold months set in, women in groups of six to ten set up
their backstrap looms in rows in the harvested paddy fields and weave,
sheltered by bamboo canopies from three sides with their backs exposed
to the sun. "It gets cold inside the house during winter," said Yangchen
Lhamo, 21, who have been weaving for the last 14 years. "We prefer not
to use heaters or bukharis (wood fed stoves) to save wood and cut down
on electricity bills."
In
Khoma village, the heart of the weaving tradition of Khoma geog,
about five groups of weavers get to work at different locations in the
village. Some households have about three to four women weaving the kushuthara.
|
There are a handful of young school dropouts who gave up schooling for
weaving.
Eight-year
old Tshering Paydon, a class two student in Khoma Junior High School and the youngest weaver in the group gets up as early as six in the morning
for breakfast and then joins her mother and the rest of the neighbours
who would have already started weaving out in the field. She sees it as
an opportunity to learn the skills from her mother who has been weaving
for more than two decades besides it keeps her occupied during her winter
break. |
|
It
is customary for all Khomap women to know and learn the finely honed
art of weaving the kushuthara that has been passed down from generation
to generation. Young girls learn the skill at the age of seven or eight.
"All the women in Khoma can weave the kushuthara.
There is no exception for our younger ones,"
said Tshering Paydon"s mother, Yangzom, 28. "Even I learnt weaving when
I was just seven years old, and so did all the other women here." She added
that weaving was an important source of income for most women in Khoma.
As
beginners, the young girls learn to weave on cotton fabrics using silk
threads for the intricate designs seated beside their mothers who direct
them. "We allow them to weave very simple designs," said Yangzom. Completion
of every weave sets a new course for the young girls to weave different
patterns and designs. "I was never interested in studying, I preferred
weaving instead," said Yangchen Lhamo who dropped school after class nine.
"Weaving the kushuthara is challenging because every time I finish
one bup (or three woven warps that make a kira piece) I learn to create
other new designs, unique from those I had woven earlier."
Each
kushuthara has the signature of its weaver who designs patterns depending
on the occasion that the kushuthara is to be worn for. For more important
occasions more intrinsic and dense are the patterns.
Aum
Karma, 45, who had taught all her four daughters to weave said that she
preferred her daughters weave than attend school. "They barely make it
up to the twelfth standard and get a job earning just about Nu. 3,000 to
Nu. 4,000 a month," said Aum Karma. "It is better to keep them home, enhance
their weaving skills with which they will be able to earn about Nu. 30,000
to Nu. 40,000," said Aum Karma. "Every now and then I get orders from
buyers in Thimphu and I can easily sell it to them."
But learning
to weave a kushuthara is not easy. There are a number of procedures involved before weavers can finally get started. They have to first learn
to boil the silk in a citric (khomang) mixture to retain the original
colour of the silk, before drying it in the sun. The dry silk is
then spun into a ball to form a continuous yarn which is stretched
on two stands before it is finally spread out vertically on the thakshing
(loom). "Getting into the actual task of weaving is eye straining,
sewing up designs on the fabric for more than 12 hours a day," said Yangzom.
Most
weavers are able to weave only about two
inches every day depending on the intricacies
involved in the designs, which also determines the cost of the weave. "It
takes us more than a month to complete one piece," said Yangzom. "But we
try to finish one set within three months." The women start weaving in
December and strive to finish by the end of February before farm work comes
calling.
Most
of the kushuthara weaves get sold in February, March and August, the
festivals months in Thimphu and Paro and also the tourist seasons.
"Most of our customers are foreigners and people from the western part
of the country," said Aum Karma Zangmo, 44, from Trashigang who has been
in Khoma for the last seven years and can weave buray and lungserma besides
kushuthara. "During those months people from Thimphu came to Khoma just
to buy their kiras. That is when we sell the most," said Aum Karma who
said that demand for kushsuthara was not like in the past. "Sometimes we
land up keeping the kira for ourselves to wear during occasions." The good
designs with striking colours sell for about Nu. 30,000 to Nu. 40,000,
while the light colour with simple designs sell for about Nu. 19,000 to
Nu. 20,000.
The
money earned is used for buying raw silk from Phuentsholing, Samdrup
Jongkhar or Mongar which cost about
Nu. 3000 a kilogramme and about two
kilogrammes of silk go into making a kira.
The money is also used for buying their children"s school uniforms and
meat and butter for a grand family feast.
The
men, while the women are weaving take up carpentry. They are often seen
sitting among the women or walking into the forest to fetch wood or collecting
fodder for their cattle. Every now and then, they walk to Lhuentse, which
is about an hour and a half walk from Khoma, to buy salt, sugar and oil,
while shopkeepers bring back cases of beer and packet noodles. When the
cold months warm up, both the men and women folk engage themselves in their
farms where they grow rice, maize and millet. The men remain in the fields
from early morning till sundown, but the women return home earlier and
continue weaving the kushuthara with the free time they find in the evening.
The
origins |
|
According
to the Textile Arts of Bhutan, by Susan S. Beans and Diana K. Myers,
the kushuthara, has its origins in the kushung tunics worn in some parts
of eastern and western Bhutan. While the origin of the word kusung
is unknown, the local people in Kurtoe link the word to kushu, the name
of the patterning technique unique to the dzongkhag. Thara, in tshangla,
means a kira.
According
to the book, the kushuthara was flourishing as early as the 17th
century. Local noblewomen commissioned
more elaborately kiras until kushutharas became a distinct regional fashion.
|
|
There
are three types of kushuthara:
 the
ngagsham, which has a black background,
the
orshom, which has a predominately blue
background, the white kushuthara.
The
white kushuthara is more in demand all over the country. The black one
is usually preferred by tourists and the arshom by customers in western
Bhutan.
 |
This
article was contributed by KUENSEL, Bhutan's National Newspaper, 2002 |
|
