Bhutanese Fabrics
Textile art plays an important role in Bhutanese
life. These weavings are produced using a technique called
supplementary weft that involves inserting small pieces of
colored thread among the warp threads by hand. This allows very intricate
designs, but leaves the back side of the fabric with an unfinished look.
Due to their labor intensive nature these hand loomed fabrics are very
expensive, especially when done in silk or cotton, because of the number
of weft threads per inch.
In the Bumthang valley, the weaving is often done using sheep or yak
wool, which gives the textile a coarser look and feel. These Bumthang
valley weavings are known as yathra.
Photo taken: April 11, 2003
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