- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Thangnang ponsil, woman's cloth of black hand spun cotton with woven border of linear, triangular and diamond designs at either end.
- Long description
- Thangnang ponsil, black coloured hand spun cotton cloth woven on a back strap loom [loin loom]. The ponsil [shawl] is made in two pieces and is hand sewn together down the centre using black thread. There is a band of woven designs at either end in pink, red yellow and white featuring supplementary weft designs of stripes, rectangles zig-zags, and diamonds. Each short end is finished with a thin stripe of orange-red and a second stripe of yellow thread. At each end of the cloth in the centre where the panels are joined there is overstitching in pink wool and three pom poms.
- Cultural groups
- Thado
- Date / Period
- Date made: Before 1942
- Date collected
- 1937 - 1942
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1946
- Materials and processes
- Material Cotton Seed Fibre Textile Plant, Material Pigment, Process Woven, Process Dyed, Process Supplementary Weft Woven, Process Spun, Process Stitched, Material Cotton Seed Fibre Yarn Plant, Material Wool Yarn Animal
- Dimensions
- Width: max 860 mm, Width 229 mm bottom border, Length: max 2250 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1946.7.25
- Research and responses
This textile was viewed by S. Seigoulien Haokip, a Kuki PhD researcher from the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at SOAS University of London on Friday 25 July 2025, organised as part of the Clothworkers’ Textile Project.
This textile has been confirmed as Kuki Thado and so "Zomi (uncertain)” has been removed from cultural group.
The local name is Thangnang ponsil.
“With regard to dyes and materials, in the past, the Kuki weavers used to make their own yarns and dyes from organic sources. Today, the yarns available in different colours are directly purchased from the market.” [EW 27/08/2025]
Objects in the original Reid collection have gone to various places. 1946.7.96 - 1946.7.124 were sent to the Musee de l'Homme in 1946. 1946.7.85 - 1946.7.95 seem to have been intended to be sent to Paris, but did not go. 1946.7.5 - 1946.7.84, the remainder of the accessioned collection, were kept at the PRM from the beginning. A further group of items never accessioned were sent to the National Museet in Copenhagen in 1947 (the latter group are listed in a single record with REID in accession number field). [SD 27/6/2000]
It is not clear whether 'Thado Mouzadar' is Seikholet's title or a village name; it could be both. [SHD 7/6/2000] According to Ethnologue, 'Kuki' is a synonym for both the Thado Chin and the Zome (Zo). Both groups are found in the Manipur area, although fewer numbers of Zome are here. Therefore this object is probably Thado Chin (especially in view of the comparison to the Hutton piece). However, 'Kuki-Chin' is also an overall Tibeto-Burman sub-grouping, members of which according to Ethnologue include the Falam Chin, the Anal, the Aimol, the Biete, the Hrangkhol, the Lamkang, the Vaiphei and the Purum. In this sense, though, 'Kuki' is a linguistic division, and it is probable that Reid meant to refer to the Thado or the Zome. In any case, all these groups are Chin groups not Naga groups. [SHD 7/6/2000]
Although I have not seen this textile, it is likely that the decorative patterns are made using supplementary weft technique rather than embroidery. The two techniques are often confused in NE India and Burma textiles. Supplementary weft is in fact much more common but is often wrongly described as embroidery. [SHD 7/6/2000]
Examined in November 2005 by Barbara and David Fraser, authors of 'Mantles of Merit, Chin Textiles from Myanmar, India and Bangladesh', River Books: 2005. They noted 44 warps per cm, 14 wefts per cm and supplementary weft patterning in wool and cotton. [ZM 17/11/2005]
Search terms: Clothing Textile, Clothing, Status, Textile, Body Cloth