A tradition worth dyeing for

Family bond

For the Dong people, liangbu has a range of meanings. It is an embodiment of life experience, as well as of wisdom derived from nature, and it helps them cope with cool, moist weather. It continues a time-honored tradition of handicrafting. And it is also a bond connecting family members across generations.

"As a child, I often heard my mother saying that girls needed to learn to make Dong cloth, and that anyone who didn't know how was considered incapable," says Yang Shenghua, a resident of Dali Dong village in Rongjiang county, Guizhou's Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture.

The 55-year-old began to learn the craft when she was about 12, under the guidance of her mother Yang Xiuying. She remembers that the process, which begins with spinning thread, was rather difficult for a young girl to learn.

"I learned to weave a meter, and another meter, until I was able to produce a piece as long as my mother could make. I also went to the mountains to pick banlangen (indigo woad root, Isatis indigotica), an essential ingredient in preparing the dye for the cloth," she says.