| caption: |
Chapter Nine. The Girls' Club of Punkhung |
| caption: |
women spinning bark fibre |
| text: |
It was difficult to write in his dark room, and we went to the open hall at the back, where the light was better and where most of the life of the chief's family went on. The old wife of the Ang was busily spinning a peculiar material from the bark of a low shrub (Urticacea Debregeasia velutina) . This bark is first shredded and (86) then spun, and after many boilings the thread is eventually so soft that it can be used for weaving cloth. This bark textile belongs no doubt to an older cultural stratum than the material woven from home-grown cotton which is found in the villages of the Wakching group. |
