Dai Brocade Weaving Technique

Dai brocade weaving is the fruit of the Dai ancestors' labour, one of the earliest and most important of their traditional crafts, closely bound to daily life, Buddhist faith and spirit worship. In 2006 it was declared by the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture and entered the first national ICH list (item Ⅷ-106).

Woven by hand on a traditional back-strap loom, the brocade takes elephants, peacocks, tropical plants and religious motifs as its patterns, with red, white and black as its signature colours; the style is plain yet distinctive, at once restrained and bright, rich in invention and imagination.

Dai brocade carries the people's totemic beliefs, Buddhist culture and everyday aesthetics, a vital artefact for the study of Dai society and material life, and a craft handed down among Dai women across the generations.

The weaving craft can be seen and tried at places such as the Xishuangbanna Dai Park.