Why do Tibetans love stripes? - Hidden "signature"
Tibetan women in a striped apron on the street.
Everyone has their own thamzhi (striped fabric).
Every thamzhi has its own name.
-Tibetan Proverb
The fashion of stripes from ancient times to the present day
A Tibetan opera troupe clad in striped Tibetan costumes, Sikkim, Elisabeth Meyer, 1932.
Tibetan pastoral area girls. Photo by Nomadic nao
Tibetan girls on the pilgrimage route to Mount Kailash. Photo by Nomadic nao
Tibetan elderly person, 1993. Image source: Internet.
Striped weaving
People who are interested in Tibetan culture or have visited Tibet will have seen the popular striped patterns beloved by the Tibetan people. These striped patterns can be used for festival decorations or clothing, as well as accessories used in daily life: shoes, bags, belts, blankets, bedspreads, floor mats, saddle cloths, horse bags, ropes, collars, etc.
Tibetan stripe apron and Tibetan attire
In addition to serving a decorative function, the Tibetan people's love for stripe patterns also stems from their simplicity and ease of production (more complex patterns are hand-woven, making them very difficult and time-consuming to create). However, aside from being easy to weave, these patterns also have another advantage - they can be used as a mark, or as a personal label akin to a "seal" to indicate personal belongings.
Of course, not all items with stripe patterns are specially marked in this way, some are simply decorated in this fashion. However, most woven goods used in trade are likely to be marked with personal patterns. These stripe patterns are not only used throughout the user's life, but can also be inherited, with corresponding reading rules to distinguish them.
Tibetans invariably require this crucial item in trade, the importance of which cannot be underestimated, as this striped woven fabric is used not only for transportation during seasonal migrations, but also for trading goods such as dairy products, grains, salt, and wool. The textile is also depicted as an essential part of the nomadic lifestyle in temple murals.
A painting detailing the weaving of cloth by Mahasiddha Tantipa on a foot-operated loom in a cave in Saspol, Ladakh, dating back to the 12th-14th century.
Photography: Monisha Ahmed
Classification of woven bags
བཀལ་མ།
སྒྱེ་མོ།
Sheepback bag ལུག་སྒྱེ་མོ། , Horseback bag རྟ་་སྒྱེ་མོ། , Yakback bag གཡག་སྒྱེ་མོ། . Their main difference lies only in size.
We will start with the sheep bag. In some areas of Tibet (mainly in the southwest, west and northwest), the livestock of the nomads are small sheep, so sometimes sheep are used as transportation and they have specially sewn backpacks. They are also different in size and design compared to other woven bags.
Bags are typically made of cow hair or goat hair, and they can be combined, using only coarse fibers (known as "rtsid pa" རྩིད་པ། ), with a soft inner layer of sheep's wool, which is of high quality and in high demand in the market. The bags are woven from two colors of thread, light and dark. The colors can be single or multiple, with strong contrast between them, and sheep's wool is generally not dyed, using its natural colors.
The design of paired horseback bags and cattleback bags is not much different from sheepback bags, as their larger size is determined by the length and number of fabric strips. The bottom of the horseback bag is stitched with three strips, following the symmetrical seam rules of the pattern. However, these two types of bags can also be single (i.e. not paired), as the backpack design can secure a single bag on their back. Horseback bags are used for transporting family property during seasonal migrations, and the wool of women's backpacks can be artificially dyed (mostly in red) to distinguish them from male backpacks.
Weaving tools
Women by a weaving machine, photographed by Walter Bosshard in 1927.
1ཡས་ཤིང་། 2 མས་ཤིང་།aསྐེད་སྒྲོག། b པང་ཤིང་། c སྤུན་ཐུར། d འུ་ལུ། e སྣས་རྒྱུག།
f ཐགས་སུག། g ཐགས་གདུང་། i བཀར་ཤིང་། h སྣས་ཐུར། jབཟུང་ཐུར། k དཀྲི་རྒྱུག། l ནོན་རྡོ།
Image source: "The Tibetan Carpet".
ཐགས་ཆས། A textile weaving machine. Image source: "The Tibetan Carpet".
Stripes are signatures.
Now let's take a look at stripe weaving, known as "yud"ཡུད། in Tibetan. Yud is made up of woven threads, with the thickness of the threads varying from one vertical thread in the fabric to five or more, which are usually solid lines but can sometimes be made up of squares or rectangles. A single line made up of squares or rectangles is called "re so", while a double line is called "lug mig" or "sheep's eyes". The light and dark lines forming the "sheep's eyes" must be of equal thickness. A structure made up of three lines of equal thickness and in three primary colors is called "yud leb", which may be the basic structure of a simple yud.
Various colored woolen tweed striped fabrics
The different variations of patterns can serve as a personal "signature", composed of countless basic blocks. In addition, the width of these basic blocks may vary, as well as the distance between them (the width of the stripes and the number of warp threads between them is considered). The order of reading is always from right to left. Although the bag is made up of several fabric strips, only one pattern at a time is recognizable when read.
Inheritable ཡུད། (striped fabric)
Each herder has their ཡུད། , which they inherit when they "separate" from their parents' tent. The inheritor of their father's tent also inherits their father's ཡུད།, and is known as ཕ་ཡུད།. The other brothers are free to develop their own ཡུད།. Furthermore, if the father passes the tent on to the inheritor but continues to live in the tent, he is not allowed to use the inherited ཡུད། and must develop a new ཡུད།. Typically, the ཡུད། are similar but have differences in details.
The khata ཡུད། is a symbol of a man's identity, portrayed through the patterns woven on the goat and yak wool blanket--ཆལ་ལི། (left) and the saddlebag--རྟ་སྒྱེ་མོ། (middle and right). Photo by Monisha Ahmed.
In addition to the paternal lineage ཡུད། , there is also a maternal lineage ཡུད། . The mother's lineage is passed down to all daughters, as they live separately after marriage and their woven bags are never the same as males'. Apart from being used for household items and food transport, there are also special female woven bags used for storing money and jewelry. During weddings, daughters receive gifts from their mothers, however, it is uncertain whether they are using their mother's lineage ཡུད། or a new one.
The bride's saddlebag (ཚང་འདུར།) is traditionally woven by the bride or her mother for the wedding ceremony, used to hold personal items, gifts, and other necessities given by parents. Photo by Monisha Ahmed.
In addition to woven bags, men also marked the rugs and other accessories used in trade. For example, travel blankets (not marked with male names ཡུད། on household blankets), saddle cloths (used for travel and competitions), and horse bags (bags hung on animals' backs) etc. The blankets used during travels can consist of 4-8 woven strips, each woven with the owner's ཡུད། name.
Nomadic people migrate to a new camp with yaks carrying heavier items including tents, followed by horses. Photo by Monisha Ahmed.
The nomadic tribes graze livestock such as sheep and Pashmina goats on the vast grasslands of the Qiangtang plateau. Photo by Tsering Wangchuk Fargo.
The brief introduction about Tibetan stripe weaving and its patterns has been completed. Most readers may find this content interesting, but not very useful. Perhaps it will encourage people to choose patterns for woven bags or shawls in Tibetan areas more subjectively. Seeing similar patterns in stores may evoke a sense of affection for Tibetan culture and bring back pleasant memories.
Books related to Tibetan weaving
《Sacred&secular the piccus collectionof tibetan rugs》
《Living fabric weaving among the nomads of ladakh Himalaya》
Author: Yuri Puchko
Translated by: Li Yuhang