Argentina · Backstrap and criollo-loom Andean textile weaving
Tejido Kolla / Tejedores Andinos
The hand-spinning and weaving of vicuña, llama, alpaca, guanaco, and sheep wool into ponchos, ruanas, and fajas by the Kolla indigenous community of Jujuy province, in Argentina's far northwest — the southernmost extension of the same Andean weaving tradition already documented in this archive across Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Named contemporary weaver Celeste Valero, 29, of the Kolla community, has led her family's textile work for six years within Tejedores Andinos (Andean Weavers), a project she and her family and community founded, encompassing more than 570 craftsmen under the motto 'the soul of textiles is its weavers'; the collective's garments — including a dark-red ruana poncho with coca leaves woven directly into the fabric structure, chosen specifically for the sacred symbolic value both the color and the leaf carry for Andean peoples — were showcased at Argentina Fashion Week.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not Applicable — no UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage inscription exists specifically for this craft at time of writing
A hand-loom weaving tradition of Santiago del Estero province, Argentina's oldest continuously inhabited region, in which women (teleras) card, spin, dye, and weave sheep's wool into ponchos, colchas (bedspreads), blankets, table runners,…
A plant-fiber basketry tradition transplanted from the Chaco interior to urban Rosario, Santa Fe province, by Wichí migrant weavers, most fully documented through named artisan Ruperta Pérez, who learned the craft as a child in Miraflores,…
The chasing, engraving, and casting of silver and gold into rastras (ornate ceremonial belt buckles), facón knives, mate bombillas (drinking straws), spurs, and elaborate silver horse tack, historically central to gaucho identity on…
Two closely related but technically distinct gaucho crafts developed on Argentina's Pampas: talabartería, the cutting, embossing (repujado), and hand-stitching (using the distinctive costura pampa/'Pampa stitch') of tanned leather into…
The gathering and plaited weaving of native plant fibers — including capiatí, pirurí, pita (an agave-family fiber comparable to Mexican maguey/sisal), coconut fiber, and raffia — into baskets by the Mbyá-Guaraní people of Misiones province…
The casting, hammering, laminating, and percussion-working of melted Spanish and Chilean silver coins into ceremonial pectoral pendants (trapelakucha), headbands (trarilonko), crescent earrings (semá), and elaborate horse fittings by the…
Haebaru hanaori (南風原花織) is the figured weaving of Haebaru Town, Okinawa's largest weaving center, woven there since the Meiji era alongside the town's Ryukyu kasuri.
Yaeyama minsā (八重山ミンサー) is a narrow indigo cotton sash, about 10 cm wide, woven on Ishigaki and Taketomi as a warp-rib (warp-faced) cloth with a white hand-bound ikat.
Yomitanzan minsā (読谷山ミンサー) is Yomitan's narrow cotton sash, about 10 cm wide.
Chibana hanaori (知花花織) is the float-weave of the former Misato Village, today's Chibana, Noborikawa and Ikehara districts of Okinawa City.
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 weaving of silk fabric in Valencia — a tradition continuous from the Moorish period when Valencia was the primary silk production center of the western Mediterranean, second only to the Byzantine empire.