Threads of Tradition: Textile Journeys in Uzbekistan and Bali

This summer I had the chance to go to two Asian countries that I had never been to before. I do not usually travel very much outside Japan. The first one was Uzbekistan. It is situated in the middle of the silk road, one of the ancient routes that connected the east to the west until the 15th Century. Caravans of traders travelled west from as far away as China carrying silk, metals, spices etc and other traders went east from Europe also carrying textiles and other goods. Not only were goods traded but learning, culture, technology, and even the plague. The second place I went to was Bali, Indonesia. There are records of textiles arriving in Japan from Indonesia on European ships from before the Edo period. The Japanese were especially delighted with batik. This led to the growth of the Japanese cotton industry and the production of Edo komon. Both countries have a wonderful textile heritage. Unda is from Bali and is a kasuri. I saw it woven on a wide loom. Tuesday is unda wearing day.  Kebaya is the national costume, sarong and shirt, and it is worn on Thursdays. On Friday batik is worn. People are proud of their beautiful weaving and dyeing. Weaving is done with fancy metallic threads too, for special sarongs and borders. Uzbekistan makes beautiful warp thread kasuri. Some is cotton and some is cotton and silk. The Fergano valley area is famous for this. The silk weaving is done on handlooms like some kimono in Japan. The Bukhara area is famous for embroidery. Suzani embroidery is the most famous kind but there is also silk and woollen carpet weaving and a tradition of gold thread embroidery. The finest embroidery is done with threads that are naturally dyed and the colours are stunning. Women throughout Asia have been weaving and patterning fabric for centuries, often using the same dyes, and similar weaving looms. I thought how similar this lifestyle must be, across Asia, and how much in common everyone has. But I thought that Japan has the most amazing variety of dyeing and weaving types. The culture here is so diverse because of the varied climate perhaps. Japan should also be proud of its textile heritage.