as the Creative Economy Strength of
Timor-Leste

What is Tais?

The Tais is a traditional cloth born from centuries-old knowledge and techniques passed down over generations, done by women with the assistance of a back-strap loom called gedog.The most popular techniques of Tais making are generally classified into: direct dyeing technique; resist dyeing technique known as futus; and floating warp technique (vertical yarn) known as sotis.

Made from
Natural Resources

Handspun cotton is widely used across weaving centers in Timor-Leste, especially for classical motifs. The cotton crops that have dried and been cleaned of its seeds, are pounded until they puff back up and once this happens, are spun into yarn. The spun yarn is then separated into two sections. The first section is used as warp yarn which, once dyed, is placed vertically on the loom. The other part will be the weft yarn woven horizontally past the first yarn.

Before learning of chemical coloring, weavers in Timor-Leste relied on plant variants in their surroundings to make dyes. These plants included indigo leaves (indigofera) for blue, mud for black, nenuka root (morinda citrifolia), candlenuts for various shades of red, kinur (turmerics) for yellow, bua matak (betel nut barks) for brown, chilli leaves, ketapang leaves (terminalia catappa), and mango leaves for green.