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References: Clothing and Textiles

  1. Traditional art of Jamdani weaving - UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage - The official 2013 listing for Jamdani, Bangladesh's hand-woven cotton. It explains the discontinuous weft technique, how weavers around Dhaka pass the skill from parent to child, and why Bengali women treat the Jamdani saree as a symbol of identity.

  2. First Evidence of Cotton at Neolithic Mehrgarh, Pakistan - Christophe Moulherat, Margareta Tengberg, Jérôme-F. Haquet and Benoît Mille, Journal of Archaeological Science 29 (2002) - The original study of the mineralized cotton threads in a copper bead from a Neolithic burial at Mehrgarh, dated to the sixth millennium BCE.

  3. Sericulture (Statistical Year Book, Chapter 11) - Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India - A two-page government summary of India's silk industry that defines mulberry, tasar, eri and muga silk and explains which states produce each.

  4. Khadi and Village Industries Commission - Government of India - The official site of the body that has supported khadi since 1957. It describes khadi as hand-spun, hand-woven cloth tied to the swadeshi spirit of the freedom struggle, and explains the Khadi mark.

  5. Sikh Identity - The Sikh Coalition - A Sikh civil rights organization explains the meaning of the dastar (turban) and uncut hair, and notes that both men and women may wear a turban. Useful before asking a friend about their turban.

  6. Royal Textile Academy of Bhutan - Royal Textile Academy of Bhutan - The home page of the academy founded in 2005 in Thimphu to preserve Bhutanese weaving, with its weaving school, textile museum and conservation center.

  7. Wool Creatives Nepal: Making All the Right Connections - Enhanced Integrated Framework (a multilateral trade program) - A 2018 story about Nepal's chyangra goats and how the Chyangra Pashmina brand was built to mark genuine Nepali pashmina.

  8. Driglam namzha - Wikipedia - Background on Bhutan's code of etiquette and dress, its 17th-century roots, the 1989 rule making it mandatory, and the debate it caused among Lhotshampa in the south. Follow its citations for Bhutanese sources.

  9. Ajrak - Wikipedia - An overview of Sindh's block-printed cloth: carved wooden blocks, resist dyeing and natural dyes led by indigo, the names of its patterns, and its role in Sindhi identity.

  10. Dhaka muslin - Wikipedia - The history of Bengal's "woven air," from Mughal courts to its collapse under colonial rule and recent revival efforts in Bangladesh.