Front Cover:
Ceremonial breast cloth (lilen) from Mro Arang, Northwest Rakhine State.Cotton, silk, glass beads; warp-faced tabby ground with multiple supplementaryweft weaves. Estimated 1890–1920. Dimensions W: 29 1/4” H: 12”. Burma Art Collection,at NIU BC. 2007.04.08. Gift of Nancy Roberts.
Cover design: Jeff Strohm, Northern Illinois University.
This is a detailed part of a typical breast cover used by a number of related Chinethnic groups such as Khumi, Khami, and Mro located between the northwesternRakhine State, the Chin States in the Western part of Myanmar, and the ChittagongHill Tracts of Southern Bangladesh. This example is part of a short rectangle (usuallyc. 60 cm °— c. 30 cm), wrapped diagonally above one shoulder and under the oppositearm, to barely cover the breast. The beautiful and rich pattern with beaded edges istypical of the Arang, one of the sub-groups of the area, who used three warp stripesproduced on their back-tension loom. One side is covered with a rich fl owery patternusing extensive supplementary weft visible only on one side with false embroidery(ni oung pining), while the patterning yarns are not visible on the other side, demonstratingan aspect of the sophisticated technique of the weavers. The beads andthe fine treatment of the edges indicate the ceremonial function of this piece. Thegeometric pattern called mukha [“spider” or “spirit” design] is alternated in a rhythmicmode with a change of color.
In 2005, David and Barbara Fraser extensively documented the rich tradition oftextiles from this area in Mantles of Merit: Chin Textiles from Myanmar, India and Bangladesh.In their section entitled “breast cloths,” they took special note that the particularupper body garments for women woven by Khumi, Khami, and Mro wereradically different from those of most other Chin groups.As mentioned by Professor Lehman from the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign)who did his major fieldwork in the area in the 1960s, the heterogeneity ofsuch textile is likely the result of migration, intermarriage, and inter-communicationamong these groups, which have led to a usually great variation of ethnic patterns.Much of the variation is used to mark the particular ethnicity of the wearers’ ethniccategory. And the distinctions are meaningful to the entire region because the variantsare made from a common “vocabulary” of design elements and techniques ofmanufacture.
“A visitor in 1921 noted [the] intermingled groups of Khami and Mro inhabiting one rivervalley. He wrote that between them ‘there is a certain degree of diff erence with regard tomodes, manners, and religious beliefs’.”
The Burma Art Collection was gifted and bequested several fi ne examples of breastcovers from these different groups, thanks to the generosity of donors such as ProfessorEmeritus Richard M. Cooler and the late Mrs. Roberts. Amongst her numerousphilanthropic activities at NIU over the years, she had personally underwrittenthe purchase of these textiles collected by John Baker, who visited the Chin area inearly 2000 and documented as well as recorded the local names then in use towardidentifying the widest range of related, finely patterned textiles produced by eachof the above-mentioned ethnicities.
—Catherine Raymond, Curator, Burma Art Collection at Northern IllinoisUniversity