I have been very bad at keeping my blog updated – I really do not have a valid excuse…So I hope this blog will make up for it! An insight into indigenous textiles in the district of Bandarban in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT).
Seven Mile village is as the name states seven miles outside of Bandarban Sadar, the main town of the Bandarban Hill District in the CHT. It is difficult to access the village you can get to it via motorbike for most of the way but if you are traveling there during the monsoon season, then you will have to abandon the bike at some point as the path becomes to dangerous.
Seven Mile village is small village with about 40 families and soon to be three churches (one was being built when I was visiting) the main income of the villagers is Jhum farming (Jhum farming is the indigenous practice of farming which involves slash and burn cultivation) many of the farmers farm for subsistence whilst some are lucky to be able to produce enough to sell in market.
However the women of this village are coming together and are producing textile products from their
traditional weaving process – the back strap loom. The women that are I met with are from the Bawm indigenous group. They are weaving blankets, bags and scarfs and are selling them to the local market which is out on the main road. A couple of entrepreneurs have set up a few stalls that are long the road side, mostly in bus shelters, the road very conveniently runs past a local tourist spot.
I met with a family who were farmers, the husband was able to sell his produce to the local market. His wife in the day helped in the field and then in the evening she wove blankets, scarfs and bags for the ‘bus-stop’ stall and local shops. I asked her if she enjoyed weaving and she said she did and that she liked comparing designs and techniques with fellow women of the village. I asked her what problems did she face and the main problem was electricity, the village does not have electricity. She often weaves by a kerosene lamp, she would love to do more intricate work but can not because of the light.
The first picture above shows two weavers counting the design to see how many shafts would be required to make the design. The second picture along shows fellow female weavers who have come to have a chat and to find out what I was doing in the village. The third picture is of the Back-strap loom that has been folded away and the blankets that have been produce on the loom and are ready to go to the stall.
One blanket is between 400-600tk (£4-6) depending on the design, the blanket takes 2-3 full days to weave, the weaver usually earns between 70-100tk per day to weave a blanket. For many of the weavers this is a sideline income for them, their farming comes first and if they are producing for market then their income per day is between 100-200tk. Many weavers have abandon their weaving skills and have become farmers, as access to yarn is difficult and weaving is a time-consuming process but this means that their cultural traditions are being lost. However the women above still want to carry on their traditions, they take it in turns to take their blankets and other products to market and who goes to market that day will buy the yarn for their next blankets. They still face problems in doing this as they do not have enough money at the beginning of their production to buy enough yarn for 2 or 3 blankets, as they will only get money at the end of the production. So this means they are always just breaking even on their outputs.
The women stated if they were able to access small credit loan they would be able to set up a small cooperative that would be able to manage a yarn bank. They would be able to strengthen relations between the yarn seller and be in more of position to negotiate a fair and sustainable price. With the stalls and shops they would be able to produce more blankets therefore generating more profit to go back into the cooperative. The weavers said if they were able to produce blankets more regularly with reliable outputs they could then be able to receive part payments at the beginning of their production so that this would cover some of the costs of their production. The weavers went on to say if they made enough profit from their weaving they would want to invest in solar panels for their homes so that they could weave at night, improve the water access of their village because in the winter water access becomes a problem and they would want to improve the road access to the village.
This is Bawm weaving on the Back-strap loom, it is a very interesting technique as they weave the fabric on the reverse. They use bright colours as these are what are available in the market, crafts advisers are trying to advice the women in using more subtle colours but they like the bright colours. The white floral piece is a very old traditional piece of Bawm weaving – this particular practice is loosing its traditional as many Bawm women prefer to wear the ready-wear fabrics that are available from the market and only make these pieces on special occasions.
