The Story
The traditional puonpi (quilt) is a typical cottage woven blanket (Ibid). Every Gangte household would own it as a basic household item. As the name literally means, puon- cloth, pi-huge/great, the puonpi is an immensely large size quilt measuring 6ftsquare approximately. In earlier times, a small family can ideally share this on a bed. The inner side of the puonpi is fabricated to produce excessive warmth by weaving cotton balls onto it. white colour is dominantly the main colour in puonpi. When a puonpi is woven, two to three women would move around the loom to help in various activities involved in the weaving process. While the main weaver sits to hold the loom at the lower end, the other helper would move about shoving the yarn across and back, setting the loom in process. In olden days, it was customary that when a person passes away, the village youths would take the deceased's puonpi to the river to wash it.
(Extracted from a book- A Short History of THE INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES OF KANGLEIPAK Vol.-X
Section: TRADITIONAL DRESSES AND COSTUMES OF THE GANGTES
By Dr. Priyadarshni M.Gangte Associate Professor, Damdei Christian College, Motbung, Manipur.)
