पहनावा और वस्त्र

Lungi and gamchhaMen, on the water and in the forest

A checked cotton tube worn hitched to the knee in a boat, and a thin loose-woven towel that serves as headwrap, sweat rag, sieve, sling and cushion for a load. Both dry in air that dries nothing else.

किस मौके पर: Daily work

Saree in the atpoure drape, hitched for workWomen, including in the creeks

The Bengali drape worn hitched high and knotted for standing waist-deep in a creek dragging a net. Women who collect prawn seed work in the sari they own, in salt water, for hours, which is one reason skin and gynaecological complaints are the region's most-reported occupational health problem.

किस मौके पर: Daily work, including prawn-seed collection

The forest party's kitHoney collectors, woodcutters and fishers entering the forest

Not a costume but a fixed inventory: a dao, a rope, a bundle of green leaves for smoke, a tin, and a cloth carried for the shrine. Human face masks worn on the back of the head were distributed under a forest-department scheme from the 1980s, on the observation that the tiger almost always attacks from behind; they were reported to work for a period and are little used now.

किस मौके पर: Any entry into the reserve

Bonbibi's dress on the imageThe deity's clay image

Bonbibi is modelled in the clothing of a Muslim woman — often a salwar and a covered head — while being worshipped with the offerings and by the priests of a Hindu village puja. The image itself states the cult's double affiliation before a word is said.

किस मौके पर: Bonbibi puja in Magh, and at forest shrines year-round

Kanthaजीआई टैगSouth and North 24 Parganas

Old cotton saris and dhotis layered and quilted with running stitch, thread drawn from their own borders. In the islands this is still primarily a domestic use-it-up craft rather than a market one, and the Nakshi Kantha geographical indication registered on the Indian side covers the wider Bengal tradition it belongs to.

Handloom cotton from the market townsNadia and Hooghly, sold at Canning and Basanti

The Sundarbans has almost no weaving of its own; cloth comes down from the Santipur and Dhaniakhali belt through the market towns. It is a consuming region rather than a producing one, and this is one of the few crafts where that is true.