Kandy

Handloom & Batik

Pit-loom cotton, wax-resist dye, beeralu lace

Sri Lankan handloom weaving and batik go back generations in the hill country around Kandy, where pit-loom sarees, cotton throws and wax-resist batik are still made by hand on treadle looms and dyed the old way, with tjanting pens and natural indigo rather than screen-printed patterns. On Ceylona, every handloom and batik piece is bought straight from the weaver or batik artist who made it — look at the reverse side of a batik cloth, where the dye should run all the way through, and you'll usually get a real answer about the loom it came off, not a script.