Shops and premises

Ima Keithel (Khwairamband Bazar)Imphal

Ngari, fresh fish, yongchak, chak-hao, phanek, innaphi and household goods

Several thousand stalls, every one held by a woman, in three halls. The textile hall is the place to buy a phanek from the person who wove it; the produce hall is where the kitchen in this file is stocked.

Paona Bazar and Thangal BazarImphal

The commercial streets around Ima Keithel — cloth, hardware, books and stationery

Manipur Handloom and Handicrafts emporiumImphal

Moirang Phee, Wangkhei Phee, Shaphee Lanphee, kauna mats and Longpi ware

Useful for the GI-registered cloths, where provenance matters and where a mill-made border is easy to pass off as a woven one.

Andro pottery workshopsAndro, Imphal East

Hand-built, wheel-less cooking and ritual pots

Bought from the potters' own houses; the cultural complex in the village explains the technique.

Kauna craft cooperativesBishnupur and Thanga, around Loktak

Reed mats, cushions and baskets cut from the lake

Longpi ware outletsImphal, sourced from Nungbi in Ukhrul

Black serpentinite-and-clay cookware and serving pieces

Sold in the valley but made in the Tangkhul hills — worth knowing, because the craft is routinely mislabelled as a valley product.