Karen Traditional and Natural Dye

Traditionally, Karen people love to live in the high mountains where they can live their lives peacefully and in sync with nature. As their daily life is influenced by their environment, all their traditional clothes and patterns have been mainly inspired by various elements of nature such as ivy and other plants, flowers, roots, animals, chicken legs and so on.

After selecting favorable patterns, they have developed various colors of dyes for their clothes by using natural things around them. This is followed by the dying process which begins by dipping the cotton into the water, crushing it, and then boiling the threads, followed by the weaving process when the threads are dry. For brown, they can use the root of a tree called Morinda Citrfolia Linn or the “noni” tree. They also use the bark of Pterocarpus Jacq. For mossgreen, they use the fruit of Oroxylum Indicum which is also called kurz, or the leaves of the pineapple plant. To make gray, they use the fruit of the malacca tree, also known as Phyllanthus Emblica Linn.

By using different fruits and barks of different plants, the natural dyes also have attractive colors and can last for many years. At the same time, the natural dyes do not cause any irritation to the skin or harm to the body since it is toxic-free. It also has less impact on the environment. Moreover, after the dyeing process is over, people can still use the boiled plants, barks and dyeing water as fertilizer which also has no harmful effects on the environment.

The Karen tribal people believe that the dyeing process is believed to be infused with peace. They put a high value on passing these skills on from generation to generation. Today, 70% of all Karen women are knowledgeable in the natural dyeing process as well as the traditional weaving itself. This helps them in their efforts to maintain their culture.