Nyuang Shwe is the largest village on Inle lake in the Shan state of Myanmar. For many years we have been coming to to this remarkable place, enduring many a long dusty bus ride in the ‘old’ days. Today much has changed but the culture and spirit of the people remain mostly untouched. Our very good friends, our Myanmar family Ma Sue, Kha Moe,and Ma Too have introduced us to some of the original Lotus weavers of Inle. Out in the middle of the lake is a village built on stilts where the sound of the weavers shuttle echoes out across the waters from multi storied wooden buildings. It is an area where even the vegetable gardens are floating, anchored to the lake bottom by Bamboo poles. Much of the weaving done is of silk but there are a few who create fabric of the local Lotus plants. The Lotus is harvested by canoe, stripped of it’s stem which is split apart for the fibers they contain. Rolled together by hand the fibers are then woven into a rare and costly fabric, for one large scarf is said to contain over 1,000 Lotus stems and countless hours of work. We are pleased to have found such a source to able to provide these wonderful scarfs. Image wearing a thousand beautiful Lotus around your neck from such an exotic land.
