Angami Tribal Shawl of Nagaland

The Naga Angami Shawl, produced in Kohima, Nagaland, is a culturally significant textile crafted by the Angami tribe. The male shawl, Lohe, is characterized by a basic black base with red and green stripes at the selvedge. The female version, Loramhoushu, features delicately handpicked black motifs with black and red stripes.

The shawls are woven using mercerized cotton yarn (commonly called Thailand yarn), acrylic, wool (4 and 6 ply), and on special occasions, silk. Yarn is primarily sourced from Dimapur and manufactured in Guwahati, Delhi, and Ludhiana.

Every Angami woman traditionally learns the craft of spinning, dyeing, and weaving. Spinning begins with cotton de-seeding and carding, followed by the use of primitive spindles and soaking in rice water to strengthen the yarn. Natural dyes are used extensively: indigo for blue, Athuo plant and flowers for yellow, with red being used sparingly due to cultural beliefs.

Weaving is performed on the indigenous loin loom—a simple Indonesian tension loom used exclusively by women. This loom has a backstrap and uses six wooden sticks for functions like warp management and beating. Weft insertion is done manually using tools like Allam, Anet, and Sockchin. A single 25-inch strip of fabric may take up to 10 hours to weave. The woven fabric is often in three parts, later stitched together with the central panel more ornate than the flanking ones.