Charkha

– Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Malaysia

India

The wheel they use in India is called a chakra or charkhra depending on how it’s translated, though the word translates to English as “wheel” so it’s actually not super helpful in looking at things translated from Hindi. There are two main types, a standing and a peti, box, or “book” form.[1] The standing form is the older of the two being written about as early as the 13th century, and it is difficult to tell how much older as not many people wrote about the joys of spinning in their books until later, but it’s been a hot minute.

 

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A picture of a full sized standing charkhra. The one on display is a miniature version of this. Most are about 18-24 inches tall, and about 36 inches long.[2]

 

Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, spinners would use charkhas to spin the cotton while on boats trying to get the humidity correct for the tiny Dhaka cotton fibers, then sell the teeny threads to the weavers in the next town.[3]

 

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​​​​​A Bangladeshi woman spinning cotton[4] I love the way her spinning wheel looks. I think it looks like a flower.

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Bhutan

In Bhutan, spinning wheels are called haphang.[5]

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 Bhutanese woman spinning in a market[6]

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Chinese

China had hand cranked spinning wheels in the Han Dynasty (206BCE–220CE)[7], which sounds early to me, but whatever.

 

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An Quinlong painting of a woman spinning, not at a large industry style wheel, but a smaller floor wheel. This is more like an Indian style, and would have presumably been found at most houses. [8]

 

Malaysia

Malaysia doesn’t have a lot of information on their spinning techniques, but it looks like they used a chakra style wheel.

 

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Malaysian “girl” spinning. I don’t know, spinning doesn’t seem to have an age limit.[9]