Techniques of Rearing Silkworm Rearing of Eri Silkworm, Samia ricini (Donovan) Rearing house Eri silkworms are reared indoor. The plinth area 10 m x 5 m size rearing house having tin or thatch roofing with 1.5 m varandah all around is ideal for accommodating 100 dfls for commercial silkworm rearing per crop. Rearing house should be well ventilated and fly proof. Disinfection and prophylactic measures Disinfection before and after each rearing is considered the key for a successful cocoon harvest Disinfect the rearing house at least 7 days before and soon after the rearing. Disinfection should be carried out on bright sunny days. Wash the rearing houses and appliances with 5 % bleaching powder solution before rearing. Sprinkling of 2 % bleaching powder-lime mixture in the surroundings of the rearing house is equally effective. Fumigate with 5% formaldehyde solution under high humid condition. Open the room after 24 hours. Windows and ventilators should be kept open for proper aeration and free circulation of air. Season: Rearing can be done throughout the year. However, March-April and September- October are the best seasons for eri rearing. Egg incubation: Incubate the dfls at 24-26°C and 75-85% relative humidity. Brushing Wash hands with 2% formalin solution and then with water. Brush newly hatched worms on tender leaves (preferably castor) during morning hours. Use paraffin paper and water soaked foam pad in rearing tray to maintain temperature and humidity. Late stage rearing Rear maximum 300 nos. of 5th instar worms per 3 ft x 3 ft diameter tray. Low cost bamboo platform rearing equipment is the best for rearing late stage worms considering the limited rearing space and frequent bed cleaning. The structure with 6ft (L) x 5.5 ft (H) x 3 ft (W) dimensions can accommodate 25-30 dfls. Feeding Feed 1st instar worms on tender, 3rd and 4th instar on semi-matured and 5th instar on matured leaves. Feed the worms’ minimum 4 times a day with castor or kesseru leaves. Bed cleaning : Resort to bed cleaning daily. Ripe worm collection Ripe worms become yellowish white and start roaming for selection of site for cocoon formation. While picking up the matured worms and rubbing in between fingers, a sound of hollowness is produced. Mature worms are collected and put to cocooning mountages. Besides traditional Jali, bamboo chandraki, bamboo stripe type mountage and plastic collapsible mountage are used for cocooning Source: Package of practices of Muga, Eri and Mulberry Sericulture for North Eastern region of India, 2005, Central Muga Eri Research & Training Institute (CMER&TI), Lahdoigarh, Jorhat, Assam. Dr. M.C. Sarmah, Shri B.N. Sarkar, Shri S. A. Ahmed, Dr. K. Neog, CMER&TI, Lahdoigarh.

The 16th state of the Union of India, one of the seven sister-states of the North-East, Nagaland, lies on the Naga Hills, which rise from the Brahmaputra valley. Also known as the falcon capital of the world due to its primary roosting site of the Amur Falcon, Nagaland is a finely woven tapestry of natural beauty, and human habitation, so ancient that its origins are untraceable. The 17 tribes of Nagaland are spread across 16 administrative districts, and each tribe has its own specially patterned handloom textile, jewellery, and ceremonial headgear. The Naga are experts at weaving shawls on the loin loom or the shuttle loom especially the Naga women. During the agricultural off-season, many turn to weaving at the loin loom, the three pieces of a shawl stitched together. Naga women are expected to learn to weave. They predominantly use yarn dyed red or black (depending on the viscosity of the dye, it could be a very dark blue also) and rarely has stripes of other colours mixed in. Cotton and wool are the favoured yarns; however, these are all store-bought, since growing cotton has almost ceased in the state, along with spinning the thread for the weaving. Each tribe weaves as per the patterns and motifs vital to it. Each type of shawl is heavy with meaning and purpose. These usually depict the epitome of a human trait, a designation or profession, an honour bestowed, or an entitlement received. However, in the non-Naga world, the most famous shawls are the warrior shawls. All shawls are woven per strict rules regarding motifs, pattern uniformity, colour codes, etc. A deviation from the rules is said to bring ill luck upon the wearer. The Ao tribe has a distinctive shawl, the tsungkotepsu. It has a dark base, with a horizontal white stripe, with black, red, and white bands on its sides. On the other hand, is the rongsu. This shawl, a densely-patterned weave, can only be worn by a man whose grandfather, father, or himself has offered a sacrifice of the Mithun, now the state animal of Nagaland. The chuchusubangsu shawl of the Mulir tribe, on the other hand, is worn by their men as a right. Thin blue bands run on either side of a white band embroidered with a red lozenge-shaped motif, and all bands are across a red base. The blue bands indicate the number of heads that the wearer has taken heads in war and also offered a feast of merit. Shawls of two tribes, Chakhesang and Angami, are similar to each other since the Chakhesang are Eastern Angami. The khonoma, a shawl with a spear motif, can only be worn by the warrior men of the Chakhesang tribe. The loukaisa shawls, woven and worn exclusively by women, are colourful and very popular. Then there is the shatni shawl of the Konyak tribal woman, which she wears on her wedding day and then is draped in it when she passes on. While red is the colour of the shawls for men, a young Naga woman’s shawl must not be red, as it is believed to bring her a violent death. Therefore, red will be seen only on women who are advanced in age. credit: https://www.outlookindia.com/travel/weaving-a-story-the-handloom-shawls-of-nagaland-news-242783 The motifs on the woven fabric are usually embroidered but can also be painted-on. The sami lami phee, is an excellent example of embroidery on Naga shawls. These are Angami Naga shawls and are gifted to warriors by the leader, and usually have forest animals embroidered on a dark base. The Lotha, Ao, and Rengma tribes paint on the shawls created by their women. The paintwork is done exclusively by the older men of the tribes, and they create the motifs freehand. Natural-born artists, the Naga people have been bestowed with the best of both nature and skills, and yet, the handloom, and arts and crafts sector, are hurting for want of investment and direction. For the weavers, good quality yarn is difficult to acquire either due to unavailability or high rates, leading to the financial instability of the craftsmen, as expensive raw materials lead to high-priced goods which may not retail well. For now, the unique handloom products of Nagaland occupy pride of place in the homes, offices, and galleries of a select few.

Woodcarving Craft of Nagaland: An Overview Published on: 31 January 2018 Ritu Varuni https://www.sahapedia.org/woodcarving-craft-of-nagaland-overview Trained as an architect, and with many years of experience behind her, Ritu Varuni runs her own design studio E'thaan in New Delhi and Himachal Pradesh which specializes in wood and bamboo crafts and hand skills. In Nagaland, woodcarving as an art form relates largely to architecture and ritual practice and has been the forte of most of the 17 major Naga tribes in both eastern and western parts of the state. Wood craft is traditionally practised only by male members of the community and continues as such even today. However, the Naga, Konyak, Phom and Angami communities are especially noted for their amazing woodcarving skills. All the other tribes have similar skills, but are distinguished by signature styles with marked differences in the usage and portrayal of designs and symbols. In the past every male member of the community had some sort of basic woodworking skills; nowadays, the skill is confined to specialist master artisans who have made it a livelihood or profession. Motifs of bison or mithun and human heads are common to all tribes, but degrees of use vary. Nagaland as a whole, is vibrant with a rich architectural wood craft tradition which has its roots in an animistic past: a lost culture of magnificent huge wood-carved building façades and village gates with the mithun or Indian bison horns and head dominating all else with their immense visual appeal. The mithun head and house horns were the most powerful wood-carved elements, especially among the Angami and Chakhesang and to a lesser extent, the Ao and Sumi (Sema) tribes. However, among the Eastern Nagas like the Konyak and Chang, woodcarving lent itself more to human figurines and heads as fertility symbols and hornbill motifs which had a special significance in the social hierarchy of the time. The hornbill was the elite symbol of the Ang or village chief, who enjoyed a divine status in the Konyak tribe who inhabit Mon district lying at the northern tip of the state. A lot of animal motifs like those of tiger, elephant, monkey and snake were depicted besides the inevitable mithun and the hornbill. Each animal was symbolic of a particular quality or character that was highly regarded in those times, like courage, strength, fighting prowess. Besides these, there were many other woodcarved motifs that found place on the totem-like front posts, or walls of chiefs' houses or men’s dormitories called the morungs. There were breasts that spoke of love conquests amongst the Sema chiefs, meat chunks that represented feasts of merit given by the house owner, and sun, star and moon representations as natural spiritual elements, and daos (multipurpose machete) and spears praising the warrior status and prowess of the morung members. The men’s dormitories (morungs) had the most elaborate and impressive of wood carvings and distinct architectural styles and were positioned in special sites in the settlement. Door and gate wood carvings deserve their own category in the wide domain of Naga wood craft. They are not only magnificent in style and treatment but have an awe-inspiring girth and scale which is unmatched in the rest of India. Beautifully styled and often coloured in black, terracotta and white pigments derived from natural sources, they proclaimed the status and power of the house owner or the village itself. Besides architecture, wood craft finds a place in the daily life of the Nagas, where it is a huge part of the traditional kitchen and tableware as well as furniture. In the vast array of tableware, the most commonly found objects fashioned wholly out of wood are beer mugs, bottles for the traditional rice beer, cooking and serving spoons, ladles, plates and platters, troughs, barrels, and numerous other items of daily use. Salt and containers with bamboo-shoot lids for dried food were smoked and kept above the fireplace and often embellished with cane binding or straps. Low stools, tables and beds were fashioned out of massive pieces of solid wood, and were literally scooped out of the wood chunk without jointing of any kind. This crafting style characterises all of Naga wood craft, which is basically sculpted out of solid trunks or pieces of wood. Earlier, before the forests lost their thick cover of tropical green, wood was easily available and accessible to all. At times, the wood used for furniture and in architecture was the huge hollock or hollong tree trunk and at times teak. Leikai is another commonly used tree for carving houses. However, now teak is the naturally preferred wood for craft. In smaller craft items, gamari soft wood is used more frequently due to the ease of carving on it, and also due to its ready availability on plantations. The dao or machete, hammer and chisel were the only tools used in woodcarving in the past and continue to be the major tools today. The first step of the traditional woodcarving technique is to trace the drawing onto the wood with a pencil. Thereafter the chisel is hammered at a practised angle to scoop out chips in relief, as per the design. It is basically a sculpting action that creates the relief work on a flat thick plank. For sculpted columns, an entire tree trunk was used in its natural form and simply patterned with carving on its surface area all around. However new hand and machine tools and techniques have crept in and made a place for a more sophisticated version of wood craft, and hence are able to attract more youth towards this version of the traditional craft. Naga woodcarving is massive in form and scale yet graphic in its representations. It’s stark unique beauty is square and crude-edged with a geometric sensibility, with surface texturing being the most common decorative treatment. As a whole there is an undefined style that has its own identity. Over a thousand different mithun-head designs are rendered across the state and its various tribes, each more beautiful than the next and equally endearing. Stories of the past are scripted in the wood carvings of yesteryears, of war exploits, feasts and myth. They speak of a generation that understood the land and forest and had a simple pride in their civilization. In most parts of Nagaland, with the exception of a few interior areas of the eastern Nagas, a lot of the old architectural wood carvings have disappeared as many villages were burnt down during the British era. In later years during the height of insurgency in the '50s, the Indian army contributed to the destruction, when they conducted flushing-out operations and resorted to the same violent modus operandi as the British. With changes in the social context and technology, the craft has developed an economic avatar which pays lip service to traditional motifs but is obviously completely disconnected from its past form and meaning. There is a revival of sorts in some recent architecture which seeks to mimic the symbolism without its context. It even changes material at times, as the woodcarving style is translated into concrete and stone expressions. As the new context looks for new expressions and new ways in wood craft, design elements are being introduced in the craft to preserve its spirit and revive and renovate this age-old skill. What now remains as mute testimony of the past is only a tiny glimpse into a once magnificent tradition, that struggles for survival in a new world and milieu. Bits and pieces of a lost world.