Why Do Tibetans Adore Stripes? The Secret Signature of the Apron
On the street, Tibetan women can be seen wearing striped aprons, each possessing their own thamzhi (striped fabric) with a unique name, as reflected in the proverb: "Everyone has their own thamzhi (striped fabric). Every thamzhi has its own name." A look at stripe fashion from ancient times to today includes a 1941 photo of Pastoral Women in Garze Prefecture, Sichuan Province, shot by Justine Rambaud; a 1997 image of the Prince and his Bride of Bhutan; a 1952 photograph of Tibetan women sourced from the Internet; a Tibetan mother and child also from the Internet; and a 1996 capture of girls from Ladakh's Tibetan pastoral areas, credited to the Internet.
Photographed by Nomadic nao are Tibetan girls along the pilgrimage route to Mount Kailash, as well as a Tibetan elderly person in 1993. Both images are sourced from the Internet. Another Internet-sourced image depicts the winding paths around the Potala Palace. Concerning striped weaving, those who have visited Tibet or are interested in Tibetan culture will have seen the striped patterns cherished by the Tibetan people.
Striped patterns appear in festival decorations, clothing, and everyday accessories including shoes, bags, belts, blankets, bedspreads, floor mats, saddle cloths, horse bags, ropes, and collars. The Tibetan stripe apron and Tibetan attire exemplify this. Beyond their ornamental value, Tibetans favor stripe patterns because they are simple and easy to produce; more intricate designs are hand-woven and therefore extremely difficult and time-consuming to make.
Beyond their ease of weaving, these stripe patterns serve a dual purpose: they function as marks or personal labels, much like a "seal," to identify belongings. It should be noted that not every striped item carries such a designation—some are purely ornamental. Nevertheless, among woven goods intended for trade, the use of personal patterns is common. These stripe designs remain in use throughout an individual's lifetime and may even be passed down, accompanied by specific rules for their interpretation.
Among Tibetans in the Ladakh region, striped woven bags are always required as an essential trade item. Their importance is critical: the fabric serves both for transporting goods during seasonal migrations and for bartering dairy products, grains, salt, and wool. Additionally, this textile appears in temple murals as a fundamental element of the nomadic lifestyle.
In Tibet, woven bags (སྒྱེ་མོ།) are generally sorted not by size but by the animal that carries them, and their sole distinction is in how large they are. The three types are the sheepback bag (ལུག་སྒྱེ་མོ།), horseback bag (རྟ་་སྒྱེ་མོ།), and yakback bag (གཡག་སྒྱེ་མོ།), and the sheep bag is where we start. The imagery is sourced from the Traditional Illustrated Dictionary, with photography by Monisha Ahmed. That dictionary contains a painting from a cave in Saspol, Ladakh, dated to the 12th–14th century, depicting Mahasiddha Tantipa weaving cloth on a foot-operated loom.
Unlike other woven bags, the Sheepback bag (ལུག་སྒྱེ་མོ།) stands apart in both size and design. It is specially sewn for loads and is secured directly onto the animal’s back, much like other Tibetan backpacks, but it always comes in a pair. This type of bag is found in certain parts of Tibet—chiefly the southwest, west, and northwest—where nomadic herds consist of small sheep that are occasionally employed as pack animals.
Two bags in each pair share a single base: chest and back straps are sewn to one side to hold the load steady while the animal moves, while small loops on the opposite side are used to fasten those straps. The bags themselves are sewn from two parallel fabric strips produced on a loom with a weaving width of 25–32 cm. They are generally made of cow hair or goat hair and may combine only coarse fibers—known as "rtsid pa" རྩིད་པ།—with a soft inner layer of sheep's wool; this combination is of high quality and in strong market demand.
Using two shades of thread—light and dark—the bags are woven. The colors, whether one or several, stand in sharp contrast to one another; sheep's wool is typically not dyed but retains its natural tones. Shown in a photo by Mattieu Ricard are a yakback bag གཡག་སྒྱེ་མོ། and a horseback bag རྟ་་སྒྱེ་མོ།. For paired horseback and cattleback bags, the design closely resembles that of sheepback bags; their larger size comes from the length and number of fabric strips.
Walter Bosshard's 1927 photograph depicts women at a weaving machine, showing the tools used for weaving. The wool of women's backpacks may be artificially colored, usually red, so that they can be distinguished from men's backpacks. Horseback bags serve to transport household belongings during seasonal migrations. Both types of bags can also be produced as individual pieces, since the backpack design permits a single bag to be strapped onto the back; the bottom of a horseback bag is sewn with three strips in line with the pattern's symmetrical seam rules.
A textile weaving machine is presented in "The Tibetan Carpet" (ཐགས་ཆས།), along with a strap-type weaving machine shown as both a hand-painted drawing and a real product. Latitude and longitude lines are represented in physical and hand-drawn illustrations. The loom's blueprint lists its components: 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།. All images credit "The Tibetan Carpet" as their source. Stripes serve as signatures.
In Tibetan, stripe weaving is referred to as "yud"ཡུད།. This weave consists of threads whose thickness can range from a single vertical thread to five or more, typically appearing as continuous lines, though occasionally composed of squares or rectangles. When such a line is formed from squares or rectangles in a single row, it is called "re so"; when doubled, it is termed "lug mig," or "sheep's eyes." In the "sheep's eyes" pattern, the dark and light lines that create it must be of identical thickness.
A Tibetan woman is shown holding a woolen blanket (image source: Internet). Striped fabrics made of variously colored woolen tweed are built from countless basic blocks; the term "yud leb" denotes a structure consisting of three lines of equal thickness in three primary colors, which may be the basic unit of a simple yud. Different pattern variations can serve as a personal "signature." In addition, the width of these basic blocks and the distance between them can vary, with the stripe width and the number of warp threads between stripes being taken into account.
The ཡུད། (striped fabric) is inheritable. Each herder obtains their ཡུད། when they "separate" from their parents' tent. The inheritor of the father's tent additionally inherits the father's ཡུད། and is designated ཕ་ཡུད།. The other brothers may freely develop their own ཡུད།. As for reading, it is always from right to left, and despite the bag being made of several fabric strips, only one pattern is recognizable at a time.
A father who passes the tent on to his heir but keeps living in it is barred from using the ཡུད། that came with the inheritance; instead, he must create a new ཡུད། . Though ཡུད། are generally similar, they differ in their specific details. The khata ཡུད།, which signifies a man's identity, is expressed through the designs on the goat-and-yak-wool blanket (ཆལ་ལི།, left) and the saddlebag (རྟ་སྒྱེ་མོ།, middle and right). Photograph: Monisha Ahmed. Besides the paternal-lineage ཡུད།, there is also a maternal-lineage ཡུད།.
It remains uncertain whether daughters are continuing their mother's lineage ཡུད། or adopting a new one when they receive gifts from their mothers at weddings. The maternal lineage is passed on to all daughters, since after marriage they live apart and their woven bags are never identical to those of males. In addition to carrying food and household items, certain woven bags are reserved for women and hold money and jewelry.
During the wedding ceremony, the bride's saddlebag (ཚང་འདུར།) is traditionally handwoven by either the bride herself or her mother. It serves to carry personal belongings, presents, and other essential items provided by her parents. Photo taken by Monisha Ahmed. Apart from woven bags, men also identified the rugs and other equipment used in commerce by marking them. These included travel blankets (which, unlike household blankets, were not labeled with male names ཡུད།), saddle cloths (employed for journeys and competitions), and horse bags (sacks suspended across animals' backs), among others.
Photo by Monisha Ahmed. Travel blankets consist of 4-8 woven strips, each having the owner's ཡུད། name woven into it. When nomadic groups move to a new camp, yaks bear heavier loads such as tents, with horses bringing up the rear. Photo by Tsering Wangchuk Fargo. Over the expansive grasslands of the Qiangtang plateau, nomadic tribes graze sheep and Pashmina goats. The brief introduction to Tibetan stripe weaving and its patterns is now complete. While many readers may find this interesting, it is not especially useful.
Seeing similar patterns in stores might bring back pleasant memories and a sense of fondness for Tibetan culture. Perhaps this will lead people in Tibetan areas to choose patterns for woven bags or shawls more subjectively. 《The tibetan carpet》 《Of wool and loom the tradition of tibetan rugs》