पहनावा और वस्त्र
A Naga shawl is a document. Colour bands, the number and placement of stripes, the presence of a painted or embroidered median panel, rows of cowries, tufts of dyed goat hair — each element records something the wearer or the wearer's household has done: a Feast of Merit given, an enemy met, a field cleared, a marriage made. Wearing a design one has not earned was a serious offence in the old order, and in some villages it still draws comment. Every one of these cloths is woven on a back-strap loin loom, which is tensioned against the weaver's own body and therefore cannot produce a panel wider than about forty centimetres — so a shawl is three or four narrow panels seamed together, and the stripe grammar has to be designed across the seams before a single thread is laid.
क्या पहना जाता है
Man's status shawlMen
The principal garment. Among the Ao, the tsüngkotepsu carries a median white band painted with mithun, tiger, elephant, spear and human heads, each figure standing for a specific achievement, and it could only be worn by a man who had both taken heads and given the Feasts of Merit. The Angami equivalent, loramhoushu, and the Sumi avikuho work the same way through band arrangement rather than painted figures. Among the Lotha the right to a further motif is earned Feast by Feast, so a man's shawl can be read as a count.
किस मौके पर: Feasts, festivals, funerals, public office
Woman's wrap skirtWomen
A short, tightly wrapped skirt woven in stripes specific to the community and often to the clan. Angami, Ao, Lotha, Sumi and Chakhesang skirts are immediately distinguishable to anyone from the hills and indistinguishable to almost everyone else.
किस मौके पर: Everyday and ceremonial
Warrior's kiltMen
A black cotton kilt with rows of cowrie shells stitched along it. The rows are not decoration; they were a claim about the wearer's record, and the number was not left to the wearer to decide.
किस मौके पर: Ceremonial
HeadgearMen
Cane or bamboo helmets set with boar tusk, bear hair, goat hair dyed red, and hornbill tail feathers. The hornbill feather was the most restricted element of the whole costume, and the bird's scarcity now means most festival headgear uses dyed substitutes.
किस मौके पर: Festivals and dance
Everyday dressAll
Ordinary modern clothing, with the shawl kept for church, feast, funeral and public occasion. The shawl's survival is precisely because it was never everyday wear — it was always the garment of record.
किस मौके पर: Daily
बुनाई और कपड़े
Chakhesang shawlजीआई टैगPhek
Warp-striped cotton shawls in a fixed repertoire of designs, woven on the loin loom by Chakhesang women. Registered as a geographical indication in 2017, on an application by the Chakhesang Women Welfare Society — the only Naga textile with the protection so far.
Ao tsüngkotepsuMokokchung
Red and black bands with a median white panel painted in tree sap and soot with the figures that record achievement. The painting, not the weaving, carries the meaning, and it was done by a specialist.
Angami loramhoushu and loheKohima
The Angami repertoire runs from plain white and black everyday cloths to heavily restricted status shawls; the difference between two of them can be a single band, and everyone in the village can read it.
Sumi avikuhoZunheboto
A Sumi shawl whose band structure and colour placement mark rank and entitlement rather than taste.
Lotha and Rengma shawlsWokha and Tseminyu
Series in which each successive Feast of Merit given by a household entitles it to an additional design element, so the cloth accumulates the family's record over a lifetime.
Konyak and Phom clothsMon and Longleng
Bolder, wider-banded work from the northern ridges, worn with brass, bead and boar-tusk ornament rather than with fine weave detail.
गहने
Multi-strand carnelian, glass and shell bead necklaces, traded up from the plains for centuriesBrass head pendants worn by Konyak men, once tied to the head-taking recordBoar tusk collars and armletsCowrie-worked belts and baldricsCane leggings and armlets, worn tight from ankle to kneeBeaten brass and silver ear ornaments