~ Text and Images By Torie Olson
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Contd...
“About fifteen years ago, we gave some of our patterns to an Indian factory,” Deki says. “Mass-produced kiras and ghos were cheap and very popular. There was a slump in our own weaving, but the government and the queens stepped in, so the art won’t die out.“
The Ministry of Labor established the National Institute for Zorig Chusum (Bhutan’s 13 traditional crafts) with intensive training in weaving and an emphasis on high quality. The Khaling Project, brainchild of the king’s sister, is reviving traditional designs, encouraging innovation, schooling thousands of rural weavers and preparing them to open weaving units in their own districts. Held annually, National Design Competitions and Fashion Shows are also helping to keep the art alive. Bhutan is doing so much more than most countries to stop culture loss, and it’s my hope that because of these mindful efforts - because of national unity laws and fines for breaking them, because of royal sponsorship of art museums and programs, because of educated and impassioned weavers like Deki - Bhutan’s future will hold more wild silk than blue denim.
Before I get back on the dragon-tailed plane, I have one more chance to see the masked dances. This time, monks will throw up handfuls of confetti, and under a huge parasol, Guru Rimpoche himself will appear to bless the throng. Again, I think about wearing a kira to the tsechu, but by this time, I have become a connoisseur and only the best will do. “Don’t go to the shops,” Deki tells me. “Go to the vegetable market, and if you meet a man with a big, stuffed bag, you should find out what’s inside.”
I go the Sunday market, but I don’t find her itinerant trader. Not tempted, I finger questionable amber and poor quality weavings. I get the feeling someone is following me, and when I turn, he reaches inside his gho, and (abracadabra!) produces a treasure I cannot refuse. I have just enough for the slightly faded, cotton kira, woven in 1947 by his great grandmother,Thoma, one of the celebrated weavers from the East.
How fortunate can I be?
On three jewel-toned panels, she has woven the luckiest number (108) of lucky knots!
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