Taiwan · Embroidery / Beadwork / Jewelry
排灣族琉璃珠刺繡 (Paiwan zu liuli zhu cixiu)
Limaraw is the Paiwan people's tradition of glass bead embroidery — one of the most culturally stratified craft systems in any indigenous tradition globally. Paiwan society is divided into aristocratic (mamazangilan) and commoner classes, and the bead patterns embroidered onto ceremonial garments are strictly assigned by class: the hundred-pace snake (vulung) pattern is reserved exclusively for the nobility; the human figure pattern (tjaravacavac) for sub-chiefs; geometric patterns for commoners. The beads themselves are ancestral objects — each family's beads carry names and histories — and the most prized beads (muljumuqilje — 'tears of the sun') are ancient glass beads of unknown origin that cannot be replaced. The embroidery technique attaches beads to woven cloth using a two-needle couching method: one needle threads the bead, the second couches the thread to the cloth surface at each bead — the couch stitch at each individual bead prevents the entire strand from shifting.
Risk level: Critically Endangered · Taiwan national ICH list; UNESCO nomination process
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