A comparative study on the costume of the tripuri and reang tribes of tripura, India

The tribal communities are known for its conformity in dressing. In absence of authentic documentation on the textile and costume of each tribe of Tripura, not much has been written on this subject. An ethnographic research is done on to study the traditional and contemporary textiles and costume of the tribal women of Tripura. The tribal women weave their traditional textiles on a loin loom and drape their costume in similar ways. There are about nineteen different tribes living in Tripura. The Tripuri and Reang is the most primitive tribe of Tripura and has the largest tribal population in the state (Govt. of Tripura, 2007). The uniqueness of the tribal community is expressed in the hand-woven textiles, woven on backstrap or loin looms. The costumes of different tribes may look similar to an outsider, but each tribe has their own unique motifs, stripes and colour combination, important for social interaction within the tribal community in which one tries to maintain standards set by the group. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, observations and photo-ethnography. The research paper focuses on a comparative study of the costume of the Tripuri and Reang Tribe of Tripura, in terms of yarns, looms, weaving, colour combination, motif and the choices of traditional and contemporary clothes of both the tribes are also discussed.