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expedition in the Tangkhul area |
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Ukhrul to Tuinem; Tuinem weaving |
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Then we reached Ukhrul again. I still had 'flu, but money and stores were short, and we could not halt a day. We turned to the west, and, arrived at Tuinem, stopped there a day to photograph Tangkhul weaving |
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Tuinem was a weaving centre. With the other Naga tribes, weaving is a universal industry. Each woman supplies her own household, and only specially talented workers make cloths for sale. But with the Tangkhuls the trade is confined to half a dozen villages, and these supply the whole tribal area. Nowhere have I seen such a concentration of textiles as there was at Tuinem - racks of blue and crimson cloths were airing outside every house; skeins of dyed thread, red, white, black, orange, green and gold, were stretched to dry or lay beside the women as they worked. In every porch was a loom, with a cloth on it at one stage or another; and all up the street of dark, smoky houses and sudden gleams of colour there were plum-trees in flower, the pink sprays arching over against a clear blue sky. |
