In Trongsa, the tradition of weaving fabric from nettle yarn is on the verge of disappearance once again after it was last revived about two decades ago. This time, it is the unavailability of nettle plant that is discouraging the locals from keeping the tradition alive. Currently, Yungdrungcholing in Langthil Gewog is the only chiwog where a women’s group weave fabric using nettle yarn.
Tsuendru Choden from Bayling village is among the few women who weave nettle fabric in Yungdrungcholing chiwog. Spinning yarns, the 58-year-old says now it is difficult to gather nettle plant. “In the past, there were more cowsheds and collecting nettle plant was easy. But now, we don’t get much as there are no cowsheds.”
The weavers say they have to walk till the base of the Black Mountain to collect the plant.
“It takes almost a day’s journey. That is if one can walk. The plant only grows in highlands and cold places. We don’t find it in warmer places like Langthil,” said Tandin Wangmo, another woman who weaves nettle fabric in Bayling village.
“We collect nettle from places like Nangnang and Jangbi chiwog. We have to spend almost a day to get a heap of nettle. We need almost six kilograms of yarns to weave a Gho,” said Sonam Lhamo from Bayling.
To revive the tradition of weaving nettle fabric, the Tarayana Foundation formed a women group consisting 32 members from Yungdrungcholing in 2005.
But today, the group is survived by only 14 members. Some of group members died while some left the village.
Tsundru Choden says nettle yarn is hard to spin and one need to know how to work with it. “It is easier to weave with imported threads. But with nettle yarn, we need special skills and training to weave as the thread is rough. We have bitter experiences from the past where we even burnt the yarn while trying to smoothen.”
Meanwhile, the Youth Development Fund is also supporting the women’s group. Recently, a team from the organisation taught the weavers to dye the nettle yarns using natural dyes.
“As long as the community continue nettle weaving, they do the colour combination, they preserve their indigenous patterns, we are going to provide them the market and willing to take their products,” said Tshering Choden, the Project Coordinator of Green Weaving Centre at YDF.
“Hereafter, we will visit twice or thrice a year and see the problems they face and the supports they require,” said Penjor Dorji, Pattern Trainer with the Green Weaving Centre.
The gewog also plans to grow the nettle in the chiwog.
Today, the women group weave different nettle fabrics such as bedcovers, table runner, cushion covers among others, embroidered with indigenous ancient designs.
They say, so long as they have enough raw materials there is no dearth of market for their nettle woven fabrics.
Passang, Trongsa
