The ecocultural relationship between Hemp and Fireweed

This unique, hand-painted fabric ceremonial scroll originates from the Naxi people who migrated long ago from eastern Tibet and now inhabit the high Henguduan Mountains in southwestern China. The Naxi practice a belief system known as Dongba, a blend of Tibetan Buddhism, Taoism, and animism characterized by a reverence for nature. And in this context hemp (Cannabis) and Chinese fireweed (Gerbera delavayi) occupy a central place in their material culture. Both textile plants play active roles in the ritual message conveyed by the scroll’s narrative imagery, which essentially depicts the passage of a departed soul on its journey to the realm of the gods.

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Where the Naxi live, high in the mountain system, no robust agricultural culture exists because few crops thrive at such elevations. Fireweed is a native plant, and hemp crops withstand low temperatures and follow a short growing season, so consequently both those plants are used for weaving similar textiles and are also often used together. They do not only share a relationship to one another, but also ecologically, biotopically and culturally with all the peoples who live there.

Upon visual inspection of the fabric, initially it appeared to be woven entirely from long hemp fibers that had been loosely twisted and heavily softened. However, because the surface felt slightly waxy, a deeper examination was conducted, revealing that every fifth weft thread is of fireweed, a unique textile that required countless hours to create. First the fireweed leaves must be gathered from the wild, and then narrow strips of the thin lower skin of the leaf with its long downy hairs are twisted into a soft thread by hand. Naturally, the hemp must be cultivated, harvested, stripped of its bark and spliced into a yarn.

Read more in this article, by Robert Clarke, written following a visit to the region.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J237v08n02_08

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