Yoyamay Myanmar

Woven in Exile

For the Chin, Naga, Laitu, and Mro/Khami weavers of Myanmar, weaving is an act of survival, a connection to lost homelands, and a testament to strength. For nearly 30 years, Yoyamay Myanmar has worked with these displaced Indigenous artisans, preserving centuries-old backstrap loom techniques even as war and upheaval scatter their communities. Before the Chin had a written language, their histories were preserved in woven patterns, each motif carrying the memory of movement across Southeast Asian landscapes. 

The Chin have long been a nomadic people, shaping their textile traditions through migration and cultural exchange. As communities moved from the Tibetan Plateau to the highlands of Myanmar, they brought their weaving techniques with them. The designs woven into each textile are maps of memory and meaning. Wave patterns mimic the rivers that once sustained their villages, which are now distant due to forced migration. Seed motifs carry the knowledge of shifting agriculture, a tradition under threat as lands become inaccessible. The elephant knee pattern, woven by Thado-Chin artisans, symbolizes strength, honoring the animals once essential to their way of life. 

Despite Myanmar’s ongoing civil conflict, Yoyamay Myanmar’s artisans continue to weave to connect with their roots and pass down these traditions–as they have done for centuries. More than personal adornment, these textiles signify status, life achievements, and spiritual beliefs—woven expressions of identity in constant motion. Today, many have relocated near Yangon, and others have fled the country altogether. Yet their work endures, carried in the hands of those determined to protect it.