Tripura Bamboo, Cane & Handloom Craft
River-cane furniture and blinds, and loin-loom rignai and risa cloth from the hills of the far east.
Tripura, the small hill state of the far northeast, has two strong household crafts. Cane and bamboo, both abundant, are split and woven into furniture, room dividers and blinds, floor and wall mats, baskets, trays, lampshades, hats and containers, and Tripura has promoted itself as a bamboo-craft state with a development agency and design input. Handloom weaving on the loin (backstrap) loom produces the Tripuri woman's dress — the rignai (a wrap-skirt with bands of woven pattern) and the risa (a narrow breast-and-shoulder cloth) — as well as shawls, stoles and dress fabric, each community with its own colours and motifs.
Craft at a Glance
Origin
Agartala, Tripura
Also Known As
Tripura cane and bamboo craft, Tripuri handloom, Reang and Tripuri weaving
Craft Type
Cane and bamboo craft and backstrap-loom weaving
Practising Community
Tripuri, Reang, Jamatia, Chakma and other communities; women for weaving, men and women for cane and bamboo; organised through cooperatives and a bamboo development agency
Materials
Several bamboo species and river cane; a dao knife and cane strips for lashing; cord for blinds; and, for weaving, cotton and acrylic yarn and acid dyes.
Known For
Cane and bamboo furniture, blinds, mats, baskets, lampshades and utility ware, and Tripuri rignai wrap-skirts and risa breast-cloths
Where It's Made
Agartala and the districts of Tripura — cane and bamboo across the state; weaving in the Tripuri and Reang areas
Time to Create
Days to weeks for furniture and blinds; days to weeks for a patterned rignai
GI Status
Not registered as a group; Tripura is promoted as a bamboo-craft state and the risa has been proposed for GI
Process Steps
Cutting and splitting the cane and bamboo
Bamboo and river cane are cut and split with a dao into flat strips and fine slivers for weaving.
Making frames and mats
Cane hoops and frames are bent and lashed for furniture; strips are plaited into mats, baskets and panels.
Assembling furniture and blinds
Woven or lashed panels are fixed to the frame for furniture; split-bamboo slats are threaded on cord for blinds.
Preparing the yarn (weaving)
Cotton or acrylic yarn is dyed and warped for a rignai, risa or shawl on a loin loom.
Weaving the body
The plain ground of the cloth is woven, the weft thrown by hand, on the backstrap-tensioned loom.
Working the pattern bands
Stripes, diamonds, stars and animal motifs are worked in supplementary weft and inlay, counted by hand.
Finishing
Basketry is trimmed and often smoke-cured; cloth is cut from the loom, its ends secured, and rignai widths are joined.
Technique Glossary
Rignai
The Tripuri woman's wrap-skirt, woven with bands of pattern, its motifs and colours marking her community.
Risa
The narrow Tripuri woven cloth worn across the chest and shoulders and used many other ways.
Loin (backstrap) loom
A portable loom tensioned by a strap around the weaver's body, standard across the northeast.
Supplementary weft / inlay
Extra patterning threads worked into the ground weave by hand to build the pattern bands.
Dao
The all-purpose hill knife used to fell, split and shave cane and bamboo.
Hexagonal weave
An open plait of strips crossing at three angles, strong and light, used for baskets and panels.
Split-bamboo blind
A window or door blind made by threading thin bamboo slats on cord.
A Craft Through Time
Pre-modern
Cane, bamboo and the loin loom
Tripura's tribal communities use cane and bamboo for houses and tools and weave their own dress on the loin loom.
Princely era
Royal patronage of weaving
Tripura's rulers patronise handloom weaving alongside the household cane and bamboo crafts.
Post-1949
Cooperatives and corporations
A handloom and handicrafts corporation and cooperatives organise and market both crafts after Tripura joins India.
Late 20th–21st century
The bamboo-craft state
Tripura sets up a bamboo development agency, brings in design, and promotes bamboo furniture and homeware.
21st century
Fashion and format products
Weaving expands into saree-format cloth, stoles and fashion alongside the traditional rignai and risa.
Present
Two household crafts
Cane and bamboo work and loin-loom weaving continue across Tripura for local use and a growing market.
Did You Know?
The risa, the narrow woven cloth a Tripuri girl first wears at around twelve or fourteen in a coming-of-age ceremony, doubles through her life as a breast-cloth, a head-wrap, a turban, a cummerbund and a scarf.
Every craft has a story. Every story begins with tradition.