The creator of the “tree clothes”
According to historical records, there is a history of more than 1000 years since the hanis first put on the clothes made from tree bark. The ancient hanis even used the tree bark as their quilt against the cold at night and a substitute for a storage container during work or physical labor. However, the juggernaut of social development drove the “tree clothes” to the blink of extinction. In recent years, a hani craftsman called Zhang Shupi, tried his utmost to save the rare workmanship by relentlessly searching the processing procedure of the raw material and making the first modern “tree clothes” in 1995. With incredible softness, durability and air permeability, the clothes are incredibly popular among the hanis.
Traditional costume of highly aesthetical value
The Hanis prefer clothing made of home-spun dark blue cloth. Men wear front-buttoned jackets and trousers, and black or white cloth turbans. Women have collarless, front-buttoned blouses with the cuffs and trouser legs laced. Hanis in Xishuangbanna wear jackets buttoned on the right side and decorated with silver ornaments. They wear black turbans. Women there, like women in the Lancang area, wear skirts, round caps, and strings of silver ornaments. Both men and women wear leggings. In Mojiang, Yuanjiang and Jiangcheng, some women wear long, pleated or narrow skirts, while others have knee-length trousers with embroidered girdles. Women in general like to wear earrings, silver rings and necklaces.
In addition, trappings of the Hani women carry out specific functions that indicate the age group to which they belong and their marital state. An ornate headdress known as “Ou Qiuqiu” implies that she is over 17 years old and free to find her Prince Charming while hair on the temples suggests that she is over 18 and ready to betroth herself to her Mr. Right, but if a black cloth can be found on the “Ou Qiuqiu,” it is certain that she is married.
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