Acheik

What is Acheik?

Acheik is Myanmar's own silk pattern, a cloth of wavy bands crossed by stripes and dressed with arabesque flourishes. The finest kind is called luntaya acheik, the hundred-shuttle acheik, because one length may need fifty to two hundred small shuttles, each wound with its own colour of silk. At least two weavers work side by side, passing the shuttles to build the interlocking waves. Colours sit in bold contrast within a single family of shades, so the surface shimmers, a trompe-l'œil, a trick of the eye. The cloth is made up as a paso for men and a htamein for women. Men's designs stay simple, with zig-zags, cables and lappets that interlock; women's weave in waves, flowers and creepers.

Where does Acheik come from?

Acheik-type designs are old: they show up on pottery of the Pyu city states, between the 400s and 900s CE, and in temple wall paintings of the Bagan kingdom, the 1000s to 1200s. The wave patterns may echo Neolithic motifs and the natural world: waves, clouds, native plants and animals. Tribute brought to the court may have offered more ideas. One account says Manipuri weavers carried the pattern to Burma in the late 1700s, but no matching Manipuri cloth is known, so the claim stays open. Weaving itself grew in Amarapura, by the Pahtodawgyi pagoda; the name may come from Letcheik Row, the weavers' quarter, and the pattern was once called waik, the woven zig-zag. Under the Konbaung dynasty acheik came into fashion, and sumptuary laws kept it for royalty, officials and their retinues.

How is Acheik made?

Luntaya means a hundred shuttles, and the name describes the work. A weaver winds silk onto each of fifty to two hundred shuttles, one colour per shuttle, then works them through the cloth by hand to lay in the waves. At least two weavers handle the shuttles together, so the weaving is slow, costly and complex. Amarapura and Wundwin remain the main towns where acheik is woven by hand. The trade is a cottage industry, and it has come under pressure from cheaper machine-made copies brought in from China and India.

Colours, motifs and borders

Acheik weaves intricate waves through horizontal striped bands, with arabesque ornament over the surface. Shades contrast boldly but stay within one colour range, which produces a trompe-l'œil shimmer, a pattern that seems to move before the eye. The wearer decides the motifs: cloth for men keeps to plain zig-zag lines, cable patterns and lappets that lock together, while cloth for women weaves undulating waves dressed with flowers and creepers. The wave idea may reach back to Neolithic decoration and to the look of clouds, water and native plants and creatures.

How Acheik is worn

Acheik is most often made up as a paso for men or a htamein for women, the wrapped lower garments of Burmese dress. The sources say little about drape or length; the pattern is what sets this cloth apart. What they do record is who could wear it. Under the Konbaung dynasty, sumptuary laws limited acheik clothing to the royal court, its officials and their entourages.

When Acheik is worn

Under the Konbaung dynasty, acheik clothing marked rank. Sumptuary laws, rules about who might wear what, kept the pattern for the royal court: for members of the court, for officials, and for the people in their trains. Everyone else was barred. The sources name no festival, rite or season for acheik today, and no religious use is described.

Styles of Acheik

Acheik comes in at least two registers. The full version is luntaya acheik, the hundred-shuttle weave, slow and expensive; acheik more broadly is the pattern itself. Designs divide by wearer: men's cloth carries zig-zag lines, cable patterns and lappets that lock together, while women's weaves undulating waves with flowers and creepers. A modern split has opened between handloom work and machine copies: cheaper factory-made copies from China and India have shaken the cottage weaving trade in recent years.

What Acheik means

Acheik carries the memory of court Burma. Under the Konbaung dynasty, sumptuary laws made the pattern the dress of royalty, officials and their retinues alone. Its names hold history too: acheik may come from Letcheik Row, the weavers' quarter in Amarapura, and an older word, waik, named the woven zig-zag. The craft still centres on Amarapura and Wundwin, where weavers keep the hundred-shuttle method alive as a cottage industry. That livelihood is under strain: factory-made copies from China and India, cheaper than handwork, have eaten into the trade in recent years.

Questions people ask about Acheik

Good reading and sources

• Silk Acheik-Luntaya | UnknownV&A, Article

• Acheik on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data