Meeting Announcement:

 

Mantles of Merit – Chin Textiles from Mandalay to Chittagong

 

with

 

David Fraser

 

at

 

The Burke Museum

University of Washington Campus

 

Wednesday, May 17, 2006, 7:00 PM

 

In the rugged hills of western Myanmar (Burma), northeastern India and southeastern Bangladesh live some 2 million people called, variously, Chin, Zo, Lai or Kuki.  Their isolation has left their textiles little known, despite the remarkable virtuosity of Chin weavers and the importance of textiles in the core Chin effort to seek merit in this life and the afterlife.

 

David Fraser will address three major themes regarding the Chin people and their textiles.  First, he will show how textiles are markers of status for the Chin, permitting one to identify the group to which a person belongs and the status that the person has gained by hosting communal feasts or hunting successfully.   Second, he will demonstrate how Chin weaving has been influenced by migration and cultural interaction over time.  Third, he will discuss his observations that, over the last 150 years, patterning of Chin textiles has become more elaborate, but their remarkable technical complexity has in some ways become simplified.

 

David Fraser is an M.D. and former President of Swarthmore College.  His involvement in the world of textiles has been far-reaching.  He has been President of the Board of Trustees at the Textile Museum (where he is still a Research Associate).  He and his wife Barbara Fraser are authors of Mantles of Merit: Chin Textiles from Myanmar, India and Bangladesh, which will serve as the catalog for an exhibition of Chin textiles to be held at The Textile Museum in the Fall of 2006.  For their research in Chin textiles, the Frasers received the 2005 Ancient & Modern Prize from Hali, Cornucopia and Oriental Art.  David Fraser is also the author of A Guide to Weft Twining and Related Structures with Interacting Wefts, the standard work on what may be the oldest textile structure. 


Meeting Schedule:

 

7:00            Mix and mingle.  Announcements.

7:30            David Fraser: Mantles of Merit – Chin Textiles from Mandalay to Chittagong

8:30            Show and tell – Bring anything you’re interested in learning more about and sharing with the group!

 

Please note:  This meeting is free to members, $5 at the door for guests.

 

Meeting Location and Directions:

 

The Burke Museum is located at the Northwest corner of the University of Washington campus, near the corner of 17th Avenue NE and NE 45th Street.  The Burke Room is on the left side of the lobby as you enter off of 17th.  Parking is available in the lot just South of the Burke Museum, or on the street in the University District.