WORLD NEWS | Bhutan’s Lauri Gewog on the tradition of producing live nettle yarn

thimpu [Bhutan], March 28 (ANI): The Lauri Gewog people of Bhutan still maintain a tradition of producing yarn from nettle plants. In addition, they also make a decent income from it, according to Bhutan Live.

Although many parts of the country have abandoned the practice, residents of Lauri Gewog claim their ability to produce nettle yarn has been hampered by the availability of imported clothing.

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Nettle plants have traditionally been used to make rope, jackets, bags and blankets, among other things. After cotton became readily available, the practice of making yarn from nettle plants fell out of fashion in many parts of the country.

The practice was revived in 2016 with the help and support of the Aboriginal Crafts Agency.

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The villager who makes nettle yarn is Lhazom from Lauri chiwog. She claims that most villagers sell nettle yarn directly and only produce textiles to order.

Lhazom collects nettle plants that are readily available in the forest. Cut the plants to extract the fibers from their stems. Before going through a series of processes to make the yarn, it is dried, Bhutan Live reported.

“Our parents used to use nettle yarn for everything from clothes to blankets. The tradition all but disappeared before the government intervened. The practice came back and we were trained by the government to produce the yarn and then started producing it again Already. Although I can’t spin nettle yarn every day, I can earn 5,000 to 6,000 Nu from anything I produce in my spare time. If we can spin more yarn, we will earn more,” Bhutan Live quoted Lhazom’s words.

Today, Lauri Gewog has 20 families producing nettle yarn, most of which are exported to Thimphu.

Mindu Chenzom said, “Before, we didn’t sell nettle yarn. We just started selling it recently. I can’t collect nettle plants from the forest like other people. So, I don’t make much money compared to other people.”, a resident. “

“Currently, the price of a kilogram of nettle yarn is 1,800 nu. We didn’t sell nettle yarn before,” Bhutan Live reported, another resident, Gyeltshen, said in a separate statement. (Arnie)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)