Common to all tribes of North East India are the carefully made triangles, while calculating each drop and pick through the warp and weft on the back strap loom. Weaving triangles is much like much like walking mountains. One calculates the wider base to the tapering top, each time dropping a column of warp to insert the weft. The weaver’s mind keeps the tedious count steady and consistent. Each skipped or doubled count will not yield the desired triangle motif representing their hills and mountains. Perhaps the gaps in the mountains represent their valleys and river too.

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It is not any randomness that Indigenous motifs made on back strap looms of North East India are dominant with triangular motifs. Here, lives the foundation of a culture is directly influenced by its surroundings. In the absence of influences from the outside, the inspiration source is from what they see, and where they walk and what they smell. Conversations effortlessly flow with the names of the mountains, hills, their ranges, and the rivers flowing through them. You could dig information on the following names, if it interests your curiosity!

Naga Hills

Barail Range diving Manipur and Nagaland, ranging from Assam’s North Cachar Hills

Mizo hills of Mizoram

Garo, Khasi, Jaintia hills of Meghalaya

Patkai bum

Mikir hills

Mishmi and Dafla hills of Arunachal

Arakan/Rakhine Mountain ranges