Lùng Tám

Lùng Tám lies in a valley of Quản Bạ, in the limestone highlands of Hà Giang, close to the border with China. The H’Mông families here grow hemp on small plots and turn it into cloth for skirts, jackets and the clothes of ceremonies and funerals. Hemp has a place in H’Mông belief as well as in daily life, and many people expect to be buried in hemp clothing. The plant grows quickly on thin mountain soil, and the stalks are harvested in summer.

Weaving is women’s work, and every stage happens near the house: hemp drying on fences, yarn being joined by hand while walking or talking, a loom in a corner, an indigo vat in the yard. In recent years a cooperative has helped families sell their cloth, bags and scarves to visitors and to designers in the cities, and the village has become a stop for travellers on the Hà Giang loop. Much of the clothing worn day to day, however, is now bought, and the full hemp process is kept up by a dwindling number of women.

Good Lùng Tám cloth is firm and slightly irregular, with joins visible in the yarn. Hand-spun hemp softens with use and washing. The indigo should be deep and even, and the batik lines crisp, with fine geometric motifs and spirals drawn in beeswax. Look for the shadow of the wax in indigo, where the white line is slightly blurred.