Uyghur Mulberry-Bark Paper Making Technique

The Uyghur mulberry-bark paper craft uses the inner bark of mulberry shoots, worked through peeling, soaking, boiling, beating, fermenting, straining, moulding, sun-drying and burnishing. Records show that as early as the Western Liao dynasty of the Song era, mulberry-paper making in the Hotan region was already well known; in the mid-fourteenth century the craft spread from Hotan to Turpan, making Turpan another major Xinjiang centre. The technique entered the first national ICH list in 2006 under traditional skills.

The paper comes in high, middle and low grades, soft yet strong, tear-resistant, colour-fast, insect-proof and highly absorbent; in antiquity it was widely used for contracts, painting mounts and copying scriptures, and many of the ancient documents unearthed at Turpan were written on just such mulberry paper.

Mulberry paper is an important witness to the westward spread of paper along the Silk Road and its local adaptation, carrying the writing culture and craft tradition of the Uyghur people and holding significant documentary value for the study of ancient Xinjiang texts and social life.

The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Museum in Urumqi holds ancient excavated documents written on mulberry paper, offering a close look at this ancient craft.