Joe Louis learns to weave
Another stop on the Inle Lake guided boat tour (see other posts such as Karen Tribe), was the lotus weavers of Inn Paw Khon Village. We disembarked from our long canoe and climbed up to the stilted building. This ended up being the most enjoyable of the artisan craft visits we made.
We were greeted by a guide and walked through a large room with tables of cloth products available for purchase. The most prevalent items were scarves and longyis – which at first examination look like large towels – but are actually the wraparound clothes worn by Burmese men as well as women. They aren’t quite skirts, and not quite togas, but somewhere in between. The piles of longyis were rich in colors and as the light passed over them it looked like a rainbow display. We walked right passed them though as our weaver host was not interesting in making sales, but was leading us to the factory on the level above.
The weavers make wonderful clothes and tapestry using strands of lotus root. Lotus flowers blossom all around Inle Lake and their roots reach down into the water. There are different types of lotus plants, and the locals know which ones have the best root fiber to use in making textile fabrics. I actually tried to split a stem a part and remove long strands of the fiber – it’s not as easy as you would guess.
After climbing the stairs to the upper floor we walked in a circuit to stations representing the different steps in the weaving process.There was a long table structure where threads were stretched out. There were hand looms with pedals that looked almost piano-like. There was also a spot for dying the fabric.
It was mostly women working here and it was interesting to see the spectrum across generations. Older women, most likely grandmothers, had gnarlier hands but moved them with experienced expertise. Smiling younger women worked alongside their elders. I liked to look at the finished products and see the hours of labor and years of experience that were woven into them.
After learning all of the steps in the process we went back downstairs. They weren’t pushy about buying anything. You just look around and get something if you wanted it.
See what other bloggers are saying about lotus weavers:
“While silk weaving is present throughout several areas of Burma, Inle is also known for its lotus weaving, meticulously spun using the long stems of the lotus plant. Time consuming and work-intensive, the stems are pulled apart to expose their silken filaments and rolled into thicker and thicker threads. An unimaginable amount of time and effort is required to build a full spool, let alone weave it into a garment.”
–Legal Nomads
“The village of In Paw Khon is a stop on most sightseeing tours and home to a vibrant weaving community. Among the five handloom factories in the village, Ko Than Hlaing Silk and Lotus Weaving stands out for its wide range of quality products. Among its specialties are lotus and silk blend scarves, silk ikat fabrics in various colors and patterns, and traditional Shan clothing, including longyis (the Burmese skirt) and fisherman pants worn by the distinctive “leg-rowing” fishermen of Inle Lake.”
–Julie Hall
