Thagzo, or the art of weaving is part of life in Bhutan, an art and skill handed down from mother to daughter. Traditionally, hand weaving is part and parcel of being a Bhutanese woman.
Hand dyed and hand woven fabric is one of Bhutan's cultural icons. During my short visit to Thimphu, Bhutan's capital city, I had the privilege to learn about this traditional art and craft from one of Bhutan's top weavers.
I visited Kelzhang Handicraft which is one of the first traditional handicrafts shops in Thimphu. It is located at Yarkay Central.
I also visited the home of founder Kelzang Wangmo's 200 year old traditional Bhutanese home. Affectionately called Jambay, this is where she dyes her yarn and weaves her creations.
(Jambay also has weavers in Thimphu, Lhuntse, and other parts of eastern Bhutan weaving for Kelzang Handicraft.)
When you go to a typical Bhutanese home, you will find a weaving loom in one corner of the house (just like the way homes in Singapore and Malaysia used to sport a foot powered Singer sewing machine. This loom was at Chencho Village Farm Stay in Paro, where I had a memorable time.)
Jambay's creations won many awards including from Bhutan's Royal Textile Academy.
The Duchess of Cambridge wore a blue kira made by Jambay during her visit to Bhutan in 2016.
Jambay came a long way from her humble home village Khoma in Lhuntse, eastern Bhutan. Like many Bhutanese girls, Jambay started weaving at age 10, and when she was 16 years old, moved to Thimphu with her family.
Jambay at her shop with her little daughter.
In the 1980s, Jambay and her sisters weaved kiras and ghos for office workers and well-to-do Bhutanese. The hard work led to their own shop Kelzang Handicraft in the heart of Thimphu in 1994.
Today, Jambay's daughter (the little girl in the previous photo) runs the shop and weaving business with Jambay.
It is a long tedious process from cotton to the shop, to the beautiful kira and gho Bhutanese so proudly wear.
The process starts with the humble white cotton yarn.
The white cotton yarn is rinsed to prepare it for dyeing.
The next step is to make colour dye. Kelzang Handicraft uses only natural ingredients such as fruits, nuts and flowers to make the dye. This is walnut, which is boiled to make a brown earth colour dye.
Other natural colour dyes are made with madder, onion husk, marijuana, artemisia, pomegranate peel, rhododendron flower, Indigo, symplocos, etc.
I kaypoh kaypoh suggested butterfly pea flower, which I will bring if I have another chance to visit Bhutan lah 🤭
Dip the white yarn into the dye.
The coloured yarn is boiled to fasten the colour.
The coloured yarn is hand woven into beautiful patterned cloth.
Jambay designs most of the fabrics from table runners to place mat, scarves, to belts, kiras and ghos at Kelzang Handicraft.
It is a tedious, highly skill based, extremely time consuming process.
The most elaborate patterns and motifs take up to a year to weave.
Every piece of hand woven cloth is unique, representing the personality, even the moods and stage of the life of the weaver.
A hand woven fabric is a perfect souvenir for your trip to Bhutan.
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Kelzang Handicraft
Address: Yarkay Central Building, Norzin Lam 1, Thimphu, Bhutan
Tel: +975 232 1353
Hours: 10am - 9:30pm
Written by Tony Boey on 3 Jan 2024
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