Manipuri Textile from Bangladesh and Myanmar
- Production of textile -
- Part 11 -

By: Mutua Bahadur *

Warping

Warping for leno weaving is different from warping for loin loom cloths. Firstly, the weaver-woman wears a sanam (back-strap) having a yetpu-kanaibi (breast bar) at a height of 30 cm From the ground and is kept parallel to the warp-bar. After that the karan-chei (weaving rod) is joined with a bamboo or wooden khongnet (treadle) by a rope.

Generally, leno weaving has a width of 60 cm across the weft. There are no differences as regards the use of tools for leno and loin-loom weaving. Samjet (reed) is not used for loin loom weaving but it is used for leno weaving.

It needs two weavers to prepare a warp of 100 metres-long lashing-phi to be woven on a loin loom. Firstly, the weaver puts the sanam (back-strap) around her waist and it is joined with yetpu-kanaihi (breast bar). The woman with the breast bar passes the thread to another woman and she comes back to the weaver after connecting it around the yetpu (front bar). After that the shuna-chei (heald bar) and utong (bamboo) bar are to be placed at appropriate spots. In this way, the warping process continues.

To weave chadar on khwang-iyong the weaver uses a wooden equipment known as phirubak (ped warping) having an area of 1.25m in length, 11 cm in breadth, 4 cm in thickness and 40 cm in height and it is slightly curved. It has five or six wooden poles fixed on it. The phirubak is placed in front of the weaver.

On the left side of the phirubak, an implement called keirak (creel) is placed. Keirank is an implement having two legs that are 45 cm in length. They are joined with a horizontal wooden base which is 35 cm. in length. One iron rod having bobbins is placed between the two posts. The first pole on the left

side of the warping-woman is the yetpu-kanaibi, the next pole is the shuna-chei and the third pole is utong-chei. Sometimes a phirubak has six poles because one is placed in front of the two poles. The fourth pole is the nachei and the last pole is the yetpu. Firstly, two warping threads will be pulled away from the two bobbins attached to the keirak, and the two ends are knotted and the warp is made ready by hooking it around the yetpu-kanaibi.

When two warp threads reach the shuna-chei the shuna (heald) thread will be hooked up with the shuna-chei. The two warp threads are kept facing the body and then the shuna (heald threads) will come up from behind and it is taken above as it passes through the two warp threads. The two warp threads will be hooked twistedly across the utong-chei. And then the two warp threads will pass around the yetpu starting from the right side and go to yetpu (front bar). In this way, the process is repeated to prepare the warp.

Pan-iyong warping

Usually, in the past na-chei (weaving-rod) is fixed on the ground to prepare the warp for pan-iyong (throw-shuttle loom). Now-a-days, an implement called 'drum' is used for the warping stage. The konnaba (warp beam) will be kept just above the pan-iyong horizontally. And then the warp threads are pulled down in order to put them through shuna and samjet. Two persons sitting across each other will pull the warp threads through shuna and samjet by using a kochi (clasp).

Tools of weaving

For weaving on khwang-iyong, nachei, yetpu-kanaibi, yetpu, yetsinnaba utong-, (warp bamboo bar), utong (bamboo bar), tem (weft beater), pangatem (shuttle), nayet-chei (weaving pole) and singkap (temple) etc, are required. Nachei, nayet-chei and singkap etc are made of bamboo. Yetpu, yetpu-kanaibi and tern are made of wood.

Utong is made out of a bamboo called 'nat' (teinostachyum wightii) whereas pangatem is made of wood. Another implement, sanam, is fashioned out of leather. The scarcity of nat bamboo in Bangladesh has forced the use of plastic utong instead of the original bamboo utong. But, in earlier times, tem was made from of heavy wood.

Sometimes, from betel nut tree was used. Now-a-days, smaller tems are used. The reason behind using smaller tem is the non-use of cotton yarns. So it does not require hard beating with the pressing tern, and on the other hand a cloth of smaller length and breadth does not require a big and heavy tem.

A wooden tem has an area of 1.12m in length, 7cm in breadth, 17cm in thickness and weighs 900 gm. A tern made out of a betel nut tree has an area of 1.17m in length, 5.5cm in breadth, and has a thickness of i cm and weighs 900gm. Leather is used for sanam. But, some Manipuri weavers now use cotton cloth to substitute it.

Wood is used for pangatem. The langchak (reel) which is kept inside the pangatem is of bamboo. Some weavers use small plastic tubes instead of the small bamboo tubes. The pangatem used on pan-iyong is bigger than the one for khwang-iyong. While the biggest pangatem has an area of 82cm in

length, 6cm in breadth, 4cm in thickness and weighs 200gm, the smallest one has an area of 29.5cm, 4cm in breadth, 3cm in thickness and weighs 100 gm. To make it beautiful, some designs are carved on the surface of the pangatem. In some places, mirrors are inlaid on the pangatem to make it attractive.

A khwang-iyong weaver uses any available means instead of a permanent one to press her stretched legs. Some of the means are - bricks, wooden phan (a tool used by a squatter) having short legs, any piece of wood, iron pipe and a length of bamboo etc.

Occupation

The main occupation of Bangladeshi Manipuri is agriculture. Usually, Manipuri women help their families economically by using weaving as their main occupation. The skilled products of weaving have many buyers both inside and outside of Bangladesh.

Some Manipuri men have taken up goldsmithy as their occupation. They are skilled workers of gold, cane & bamboo. They produced jewellery for the other tribal communities. Besides working as goldsmiths, others are engaged in business, government and private sectors.

See a gallery photo of this Textile here.

To be continued ....

Mutua Bahadur

* Mutua Bahadur contributes to e-pao.net regularly. This article was webcasted on December 05, 2010.