காஞ்சிபுரம் பட்டு (Kanchipuram Pattu)
Kanchipuram silk is the most celebrated silk weaving tradition of South India, produced in Kanchipuram (also Kancheepuram) city in Tamil Nadu by the Devangas and Mudaliar weaver communities. The technique is distinguished by its use of mulberry silk with a high-tension warp, heavy zari (gold and silver thread) border and pallu woven separately from the body and then interlocked — not joined by a seam — through a unique interlocking weft technique that makes the border structurally integral to the cloth. The sari body and border are woven on the same loom but with independent wefts, meeting at the junction through a korvai (interlocking) method that is the defining technical signature of authentic Kanchipuram. The heavy zari content (up to 40% of cloth weight) combined with a tightly packed weft produces the characteristic stiffness and sheen. Kanchipuram saris are a mandatory element of Tamil Hindu bridal dress and have deep ritual significance. The tradition supports approximately 5,000 active weavers, but authentic korvai technique with genuine zari is practiced by a shrinking minority.
Risk level: Endangered · Not inscribed; GI registered (2005)
Painted on the interior walls of houses by the Rathwa, Bhil and Bhilala communities of eastern Gujarat and western Madhya Pradesh, in thanksgiving and for wishes granted.
A ritual art of Meena women in the Sawai Madhopur and Hadoti regions of Rajasthan.
Hand-modeled hollow-relief votive plaques of village deities, especially Devnarayan, made by Kumhar potters of Molela, Rajsamand district, Rajasthan.
A portable wooden shrine with folding painted doors, made by the Jangid carpenters (suthars) of Bassi, Chittorgarh district, Rajasthan, and carried by Kavadiya Bhat storytellers of Marwar.
The drawing of large images of deities on temple or house floors in Kerala with five natural powders, by hand and finger, as part of a ritual accompanied by songs (thottam).
Hydro-distillation of flowers, herbs, woods or baked earth in a copper still (deg) whose vapour travels through a bamboo pipe (chonga) into a copper receiver (bhapka) already charged with a base oil, traditionally sandalwood.
The Czech modrotisk (blue-print) tradition — the indigo resist fabric printing technique in which a paste-resist pattern is applied to cotton or linen fabric before indigo dyeing, producing the characteristic white pattern on deep blue…
Sherpa yak wool textile weaving of the Khumbu district (home of Mount Everest) produces the thick, dense blankets (radi) and floor mats used in high-altitude Sherpa households.
The Blekinge linen weaving tradition of southern Sweden — the production of the distinctive Swedish damask linen (drawloom weaving) that made Blekinge province Sweden's most important linen production region from the 17th to 19th centuries.
The Cretan weaving tradition — the production of the distinctive Cretan flat-woven floor coverings and wall hangings whose characteristic deep red, dark blue, and black geometric vocabulary on natural wool creates the most recognisable…
Limbu backstrap weaving is the textile tradition of the Limbu people of far eastern Nepal (Taplejung, Panchthar, Ilam districts) — producing the yangdang (wrap skirt) with supplementary weft geometric patterns in red, black, and white on a…
Cadjan (කැදිලි — kadili in Sinhala) is the ancient Sri Lankan tradition of weaving coconut palm leaves (Cocos nucifera) or palmyra palm leaves (Borassus flabellifer) into panels for thatching, screens, food containers, ceremonial objects,…