Imphal Valley · Northeast Hill Massif
The valley dresses in woven stripe and border rather than in print or embroidery, and almost all of it is made on looms in the household. Weaving is women's work and near-universal — a loom under the house on stilts is ordinary equipment, not a craft revival — and the standard woman's dress is a wrapped lower cloth with a shawl over it. Three of these cloths hold geographical indications, which is unusual density for a valley this size, and each of the three is tied to a specific place or a specific technique rather than to a general style.
What is worn
The wrapped lower cloth, worn from chest or waist. Plain horizontal-striped phanek for daily wear; phanek mayek naibi, with an embroidered border worked in fine geometric bands, for occasions. The striping is the identifying feature and the border is where the work goes.
Worn for: Everyday and ceremonial
The light upper shawl worn over the phanek, in fine cotton or silk, plain or with a woven end-border.
Worn for: Everyday and ceremonial
A stiffened cylindrical skirt, embroidered and mirrored, that holds its barrel shape without the wearer's help. It is credited to the eighteenth-century court that codified Raas Leela, and it is the single most recognisable object in Manipuri dance — the costume determines the movement vocabulary, because a dancer inside it cannot use her legs expressively and so the expression migrates upward to torso, hands and eyes.
Worn for: Raas Leela and weddings
A white dhoti wrapped in the local manner with a white kurta, worn with the kokyet turban for ritual and for Sankirtana performance.
Worn for: Ceremonial and ritual
A striped cloth with a distinctive block-and-line border, used in the marriage ritual and presented between households. Its function is transactional — it marks the making of a relationship.
Worn for: Weddings
A waist sash wound tight, worn for practice and for wrestling, where it is also a grip.
Worn for: Thang-Ta, Mukna wrestling, ritual
Weaves and textiles
Cloth carrying the Moirang Pheejin border — a stepped triangular motif taken from the teeth of Pakhangba, the serpentine deity of Meitei tradition. Registered as a geographical indication, and named for the town of Moirang beside Loktak.
A sheer white cotton cloth with fine transparent woven patterning, made in the Wangkhei locality of Imphal and historically supplied to the palace. Worn by women for ceremonial occasions and registered as a geographical indication.
A shawl worked with needle embroidery on loin-loom cloth, historically presented to men of standing and to hill chiefs. It is a gift object as much as a garment, and it is registered as a geographical indication.
The bordered phanek, the everyday dress of the valley, worked in fine geometric embroidery along the lower edge. No GI, made in tens of thousands of households, and the most-worn textile in the region.
A thick quilted cloth made by beating and layering cotton, historically used as a winter cover — the valley's answer to a cold January in a place with no wool tradition.
Jewellery
Traditional dress of Imphal Valley — garments, handloom weaves, GI-tagged textiles and jewellery. (11)