Sarong and lungiMen and women
A wrapped lower cloth worn with a shirt or blouse — the standard dress across the islands, and shared with island Southeast Asia rather than with mainland India.
Worn for: Everyday
Nicobar Islands · Island Realms
Dress and textiles
There is no loom in the Nicobars and never has been; the islands weave mats, not cloth. Historical dress was a minimal waist covering, and most of what exists as visual record of it consists of colonial photographs taken in circumstances that make them poor evidence and worse illustration. Everyday dress today is the lungi, sarong, shirt and dress of the wider region, with woven and appliquéd items appearing for festival dance. The Shompen are not described here: they are a community with limited contact and legal protection, and their dress is not a subject for a heritage listing.
What is worn
Festival dance dressVillage dance groups
Coconut-leaf and fibre ornament, headbands and body decoration worn for group dances, alongside modern cloth. Photographs of these performances are commonly published; photographs of daily life in the reserves are a different matter and are restricted.
Worn for: Ossuary feast, Christmas, canoe race and official festivals
Weaves and textiles
Nicobari mat (Chatrai-hileuoi)GI tagNicobar district
Pandanus and palm leaf split, cured and plaited into sleeping and floor mats. Registered as a geographical indication in December 2024. Mat plaiting rather than weaving is the islands' fibre craft, and the same skill produces the thatch and wall panels of the houses.
Jewellery
Shell and coconut-shell ornamentBoar tusk, historically, as an ornament and a marker of feast-givingImported glass bead and metal ornament, traded in for centuries
Traditional dress of Nicobar Islands — garments, handloom weaves, GI-tagged textiles and jewellery. (3)