UNESCO Publication on 50 Textile Crafts

UNESCO New Delhi announced the launch of its publication entitled ‘Handmade for the 21st Century: Safeguarding Traditional Indian Textiles’.

“Textile crafts represent a very significant share of the Indian cultural heritage and have dazzled the world for centuries. It is essential that these iconic heritage crafts are taken stock of and promoted as contemporary treasures,” said the Director, UNESCO New Delhi. The Director also said “It is my hope that India will consider expanding its register of elements inscribed in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by nominating one of the textile crafts featured in this publication. No textile practices from India have been included in the list so far and an inscription in the list would be due recognition of the talent and diversity of the country’s extraordinary weaving traditions,”

This new UNESCO publication brings together years of research on some 50 textile crafts and contributes to bridging the gap. It charts their histories and legends, describes their making, and identifies the causes for their dwindling popularity, thereby, providing strategies for their preservation.

According to UNESCO, one of the major challenges to the safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in the South Asia is lack of proper inventory and documentation.

Some of the textiles that have found the place in the list are:

NORTH INDIA: HANDMADE TEXTILE CRAFTS

• Khes weaving. Panipat. Haryana

• Tapestry weaving. Panipat. Haryana

• Chamba Rumal. Chamba valley. Himachal Pradesh

• Thigma or wool tie-dye. Ladakh

• Danka embroidery. Udaipur. Pajasthan

• Split-ply braid weaving.Rajasthan

• Awadh Jamdani. Varanasi. Uttar Pradesh

• Baluchari weaving. Varanasi. Uttar Pradesh

• Badla embroidery. Lucknow. Uttar Pradesh

• Gyasar weaving. Varanasi. Uttar Pradesh

• Hand block-printing. Farrukhabad. Uttar Pradesh

SOUTH INDIA : HANDMADE TEXTILE CRAFTS

• HImroo weaving. Hyderabad. Andhra Pradesh and Telangana

• Siddipet Gollabama weaving. Andhra Pradesh

• Guledgudd Khana. Guledgudda. Karnataka

• Ilkal weaving. Bagalkot. Kamataka

• Lambadi/ Banjara embroidery, Sandur,Bellary district. Karnataka

• Molakalmuru silk weaving. Chitradurga. Karnataka

• Ayurvedic textiles. Balaramapuram. Kerala

• Sikalnayakanpet Kalamkari. Thanjavur. Tamil Nadu

• Sungadi or Chungadi. Madurai. Tamil Nadu

• Toda emboidery. Nilgiris. Tamil Nadu

• Gongadi sheep wool blankets. Telangana and Andhra Pradesh

EAST INDIA: HANDMADE TEXTILE CRAFTS

• Bavanbutti weaving. Nalanda. Bihar

• Kheta embroidery. Kishanganj. Bihar

• Bandha tie-dye weaving. Sambalpur. Odisha

• Berhampur Pata or Phoda Kumbha. Odisha

• Dhalapathar Parda. Khorda. Odisha

• Dongaria Kondh textiles. Kandhmal. Odisha

• Kenduli Pata calligraphic weaving. Odisha

• Fragrant textiles. Balaposh. West Bengal

• Garad-Korial weaving. Murshidabad. West Bengal

• Satgaon quilts. West Bengal

WEST INDIA:  HANDMADE TEXTILE CRAFTS

• Kunbi weaving, Goa

• Ashavali Sari weaving, Ahmedabad, Gujarat

• Kusti weaving,Navsan and Bharuch, Gujarat

• Mashru weaving, Gujarat

• Mata- ni-Pachedi. Ahmedabad. Gujarat

• Patola weaving, Palan, Gujarat

• Rogan textile painting, Nirona, Gujarat

• Sujani weaving, Bharuch, Gujarat

• Tangaliya weaving, Gujarat

• Nandana hand-block printing, Jawad, Madhya Pradesh

• Himroo weaving, Aurangabad, Maharashtra

NORTH-EAST INDIA: HANDMADE TEXTILE CPAFTS

• Lasing Phee. Cachar. Manipur

• Saphee Lanphee. Manipur

• Lepcha weaving. Skkim

• Risha textile weaving. Tripura