THE DIVERSITY of its people and the infinite variety of its environment have produced a unique cultural richness in Nepal. The art and architecture of the Kathmandu valley are world-famous but the cultures of the rural people with their many traditional crafts are, by contrast, hardly known.

Bauhaus principles of "function with beauty" were practised in Nepal generations before they were formulated in Germany. Because beautiful objects are everyday items - baskets, mats, rugs, cloth - their appropriateness to purpose and intrinsic attraction are easily overlooked. For example, the range of uses of bamboo is uniquely wide yet seldom celebrated. In many parts of the country farmers plant several types of bamboo, using areas unsuitable for food crops, such as gulleys and steep slopes. Some species are suitable for construction, some are multi-purpose, others are used for weaving. Thus in the village we can see an infinite number of ways bamboo is used - poles flying prayer flags, rafters, the woven walls of houses, mats, trays, water-carriers, storage baskets, looms, combs and even musical instruments. The young shoots of some species are eaten as a vegetable. The leaves are very nutritious and palatable for animals. The winnowing tray, the storage basket, the mouth- harp - all things of beauty and ideal for their purpose.

Nepal has a great wealth of raw materials. They include jute, hemp, cotton and wool, hair and hides from livestock. One of the most fascinating is yarn from Himalayan nettles. It has been said that up to the nineteenth century, half of the farmers of Bhutan dressed in nettle cloth.

The Himalayan giant nettle or allo is a member of the nettle family, the same family as ramie, and also as the stinging nettle. The yarn from allo can be made into cloth ranging from the finest texture to coarse sailcloth (yarn from which Hans Christian Andersen's Princess wove coats in order that her eleven brothers could be transformed from swans back into human form). Allo produces fibres which are amongst the longest found in plants; when treated they are highly lustrous and smooth. One stem can give five grams of fibre.

IN EASTERN NEPAL, the local people have used the allo fibre for generations. It occurs naturally as an undergrowth in mixed deciduous forest of oaks, maples and cherries at altitudes between 1,200 and 3,000 metres. When the wet season ends but before the plants flower, groups of villagers go out for several days at a time to harvest the allo. The plant grows up to three metres tall and the stems are covered in long stinging hairs so it must be cut with care and the hairs removed with cloth-covered hands. Both men and women do the harvesting, cutting only the mature stems - about six inches from the ground is best for regeneration. The basal clump is left and thus the soil is not disturbed. New shoots from the stumps will spring up at the onset of the rains to give the next year's plants.

The fibre is found in the inner bark so the outer bark is removed from the rest of the plant: an incision is made with the teeth - more accurate than a knife - and the bark stripped off. From this bark a porter's basket is made. If the harvested bark is not to be used immediately, it will be dried and stored in bundles.

The inner bark is placed in a pot with water and wood ash and boiled for about three hours before being left to simmer overnight. By the morning the fibres will be exposed and the other plant matter can be removed by beating and washing. The wet fibres are then rubbed with a micaceous soil, the absorbent and lubricating properties of which will make separating and spinning the fibres easier. The strands of fibres are then dried in the sun, after which they can be teased apart ready for spinning.

Spinning is done by using a hand spindle, often elaborately carved. The thickness and twist of the yarn can be so distinctive that the individual spinner can be identified.

Most yarn is used to meet household needs for ropes, mats, bags, sacks, jackets or waistcoats. Allo is still preferred to nylon for castnets because it does not reflect the sun (and thus frighten the fish) as it falls. Some yarn and a few items such as castnets, sacks and bags may be exchanged for food grains or sold locally or at the annual festival in a nearby town.

FARMING ON THE steep hillsides of eastern Nepal has always been challenging and not enough to meet all the needs of a family. Therefore, the people have looked for other sources of income. Some are able to use wild medicinal plants; others collect Lycopodium powder, cinnamon bark or the fibres of Lokta from which paper is made. More widespread is the practice of working on the land of larger farmers, portering (there are neither roads nor pack animals, so all goods have to be carried by people) or seasonal migration to get work in the towns, such as Biratnagar. All these activities are to varying degrees disruptive of family life. Some people in the local district of Sankhuwasabha saw an alternative.

IN THE EARLY 1980s a number of women took the initiative to expand the range of items they produced from allo in order to earn an additional income which would enable them to continue to live in their historic homeland. Traditional uses of allo had long
been important in these villages, about 95% of households using the yarn. Allo was one of the natural resources of which they had more than they were presently using. The women weavers realized that traditional skills could not only be beneficially preserved hut also be extended to both their and the environment's advantage. The traditional warp-faced allo cloth woven on a backstrap loom and valued for its strength and durability continues to be woven mainly for home use. However, other items like the allo bag are beginning to be appreciated by the buyers from Kathmandu.

Purba Kumari Rai's first experiment using her traditional treadle loom for a twill-patterned cloth led on to the first order from Kathmandu. The tweed-like cloth with nettle warp and local sheep wool weft was popular for winter jackets and waistcoats. Allo cloth has also found a place in home furnishing, for example for upholstery.

The unique quality of the allo fibres can probably best be seen in the fine lace-like shawls which recently have been knitted in Sankhuwasabha in a wide variety of pattern combinations. Each has a distinctive texture. The shawls are so fine they can be pulled through a wedding ring. A 60 x 160 cm shawl weighs as little as 60 grams. A shawl thus needs very little raw material and is easy to transport to market, an important factor where this may involve a two- to three-day walk to the nearest roadhead.

These women weavers have plucked a future out of the nettle.* How many people would have seen the giant nettle as a potential source of beautiful textiles, a sustainable income for families living in so remote an area and a benefit to the environment?

End

*Adapting Hotspur's aphorism "I tell you, my lord fool, out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety" (Henry IV, Part 1, Act II, Scene 3).

John Dunsmore is an agronomist. He worked in Malaysia and Nepal on behalf of the British Government's Overseas Development Administration (ODA).

For further information readers are recommended to read Nepalese Textiles by Susi Dunsmore, published by British Museum Press, 1993.

Goods made with allo fibres are available at the Livingstone Studio, 36 New End Square, London NW3 1LS4. Tel:
0171 435 9586.

April 1997