Wiki · Section

Crafts & Material Culture

Textiles, metal, clay, bamboo, and masks.

The silks of Assam, woven at the weaving town and on the home loom alike, among them a golden fibre found almost nowhere else on earth.

The golden muga silk, found almost nowhere else on earth, and the great weaving village of Sualkuchi.

Assam's warm, matte eri, the non-violent 'ahimsa' silk spun without killing the moth, rooted in Bodo tradition.

The white, glossy pat, the mulberry silk that completes Assam's three-silk triad with muga and eri, the cloth of weddings and ceremony.

Some crafts became emblems of the land itself, alongside the older work of the potter's clay.

The red-bordered white cloth that is towel, gift, garment, prayer-cloth and the de-facto flag of Assamese identity.

The conical hat of bamboo and tokou-palm leaf, the plain field hat of the cultivator and the gilded phulam japi of welcome and ceremony.