~ Text and Photos By Torie Olson
*
BHUTAN IS A HOLY SPOT for pilgrims, trekkers,
and devotees of the textile arts. It's been on my list
since King Jigme Singye Wangchuck opened the door
to foreigners. Thirty years later, good fortune shines
upon me and I find myself standing in line behind the
actress Glenn Close, then boarding the Druk Air plane
emblazoned with a dragon.
The other passengers are clad in a treasure trove of hand-woven fabrics. In the name of national unity, all Bhutanese are required to wear the traditional dress.
When we deplane, Glenn Close and I are the only women in pants. Bhutanese women wear the kira , a rectangular garment comprised three, nine-foot loom lengths sewn together and wrapped around the body in a manner so complicated that if I were Bhutanese, I'd have to hire a dresser. Back and front are hooked together at the shoulders with silver brooches and cinched at the waist with a narrow sash. Men wear the gho , a kimono-like robe.
If left alone, it would fall to the floor. Instead, it's hiked up to the knees, gathered at the waist, and tightly belted.
My host and tour operator, Karma Dorji, and his cadre of guides are constantly adjusting the drape of their robes. I have no idea what's under there, but certainly no telltale bulges. When one guy reaches in for a sheaf of paperwork and a cell phone, it's as if he's pulled a bird from a hat. From another man's gho comes a whole bag of apples. He offers me one and grins. “We have the biggest pocket in the world.”
In addition to making briefcases and shopping bags moot, Bhutan's national dress comes in a dazzling array of colors and an infinite number of patterns. According to Ashi Sangay Choden, the youngest queen and founder of the National Textile Museum, Bhutan's weavings reflect the country's unique identity, regional fashions, and social status. I learn more about the subtleties of customary dress when I'm invited to tea with Karma and his Aunt Deki Tshomo.
Dressed in a silk kira in the pastel colors currently in vogue, Deki ushers me into her home in the Beverly Hills section of Bhutan’s capital, Thimpu where she and Karma five me a crash course in Weaving Appreciation.
In the 15th century, Pema Lingpa, a.k.a. the Treasure Revealer, introduced the art (and twelve others) to Bhutan. The original fiber was tree bark. Until the mid-1960’s, nettle and Cannabis sativa (which grows wild everywhere!) were also used. The first ghos and kiras were woven from wild silk. “In the old days, all a man had to do when threatened by a sword was raise up his arm,” Karma says. “The fabric was so strong, it was his shield.” Costliest of fibers, Bhutanese silk is coarser than silk from other Asian countries because of religious sanctions against the killing of animals. Here, silk makers will not gather cocoons until after the worms have hatched. This prevents death, but breaks silk filaments.
Bhutanese weavers are known for their extravagant use of color and complex supplementary weft and warp patterns which look embroidered to the untrained eye. These brocades feature bands of raised and repeating motifs that run vertically for men and horizontally for women. Nobility sport longer hemlines, wider cuffs, brighter colors, and broader stripes, allowing more room for more motifs. Country people often wear a simple-checked pattern.
Deki unfolds one exquisite, double-faced weaving after another. No two are alike and each has a name: Kushitara, Mathra, Burra., Pesar.... “I am very particular about my motifs,” she says, pointing out the most complicated - the shinglo or tree of life. I marvel over other bands of butterflies, monkey tails, cocks combs, cats eyes, fly wings and flowers. Buddhist symbols figure in the work as well: thunderbolts, diamonds, dharma wheels, and lucky knots. Deki weaves them in hand-dyed, embossed silk and cotton imported from India, although she warns, “You have to starch the cotton and fix the colors first, because after spending up to a year on a special kira, you don’t want it to bleed in the first washing.“ Unlike the other Bhutanese crafts which have strictly prescribed designs, the choice of fiber, motif, color, and pattern are at the pleasure of the weaver.
I am quickly overloaded with information. Weaving seems like rocket science here, although until recently, it wasn’t anything you could study. “If you have an interest, you automatically pick it up ,” Deki claims, as if this skill is imprinted on Bhutanese DNA like dark hair and eyes. Her family’s roots are in the East, home to Bhutan’s most celebrated weavers. She, too, became an expert artisan, experimenting on breaks from boarding school and university where she earned a degree in Commerce. “I’m educated, so people don’t believe I weave.” ...Read more » » » »
