Bangladeshi Spinning
The Banglideshi are known for making cotton, specifically Dhaka cotton. Dhaka cotton was processed very uniquely. The cotton staple was so short and the fibers so fine that the fibers were spread out by boats at dawn and late afternoon and that when they were spun. The process was so specialized and so intense that it took the entire region to make the fabric.[1]
The spinners would use charkhas to spin the cotton while on the boat, then sell the teeny threads to the weavers in the next town.[2]
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Bangladesh made more than 50% of textiles of the Indian subcontinent and around 40% of silks imported by the Dutch from Asia.[3]
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Bengladeshi woman spinning. The caption says she’s spinning cotton, but that looks like silk on the reeling wheel…[4]
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A Bangladeshi woman spinning cotton[5] I love the way her spinning wheel looks. I think it looks like a flower.
References
[1] Zaria Gorvett, “The Ancient Fabric That No One Knows How to Make,” BBC News, February 24, 2022, https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210316-the-legendary-fabric-that-no-one-knows-how-to-make.
[2] Gopika Nath, “Garland Magazine,” Garland Magazine Spinning a Yarn Unparalleled Comments, December 6, 2016, https://garlandmag.com/article/spinning-a-yarn-unparalleled/.
[3] Om Prakash, "Empire, Mughal Archived 18 November 2022 at the Wayback Machine", History of World Trade Since 1450, edited by John J. McCusker, vol. 1, Macmillan Reference USA, 2006, pp. 237-240, World History in Context. Retrieved 3 August 2017
[4] Neil Cooper, Woman from a Village Cooperative Hand-Spinning Fine Cotton. Bangladesh, 2004, photograph, Alamy, 2004, https://www.alamy.com/woman-from-a-village-cooperative-hand-spinning-fine-cotton-bangladesh-image3797294.html?imageid=32E73F8B-6F0A-4681-929D-3FFC55E0A5D7&p=15817&pn=1&searchId=ef3b690cb1375f88e6f0f894fda10372&searchtype=0.
[5] Rudolph Ackermann, Bengali Woman Spinning Using a Simple Spinning Wheel, 1821, photograph, 1821.