Woman's pleated skirt of resist-dyed and printed cotton, Shan, ca. 1885-1910

Woman's pleated wrap-around skirt of indigo resist-dyed course dark blue cotton with a pattern of Chinese inspiration. At the lower end is a band of cotton and silk embroidery. With tying strings of the same material as the skirt.

The resist-printed pattern is in blue and white, while the embroidered one is in red, yellow and white, and both are of a geometrical character. Fullness of the pleating is similar to a Scottish kilt.

Acquired from Lady Scott - wife of Sir James George Scott - the great late 19th early 20th century explorer, administrator and writer on Burma.

A wrap around very full cotton pleated skirt of a Lo-Lo woman from the north eastern Shan States in Burma.

The Lo-Lo are a Tibeto-Burmese hill people and Sir George Scott writes in 1900 in the Upper Burma Gazetteer "Their villages are in the hills [north eastern Shan States, Burma, bordering Yunnan Province, China] and they grow wheat, maize, oats, beans, buck-wheat, rice, potatoes, and poopy. The opium is said to be grown for sale only. They do not smoke it, but are very fond of tobacco. They are great sportsmen, and gold is found in their hills. Their villages are situated in strong defensive positions. The houses are built of mud and stone much in the Chinese manner and are closely huddled together. There are no openings to let air in or smoke out."

"The term "Lo-Lo" is of Chinese origin - namely from `Law' a basket - and is applied to these people because they keep the souls of their ancestors in small baskets, just as the Chinese themselves associate their own ancestral spirits with tablets." Major C. M. Enriquez, Races of Burma, 1933

IM.144-1929