Asian Embroidery

Contents: Foreword. Preface. I. Historical perspective: 1. Embroidery: an expression of women's creativity/Jasleen Dhamija. 2. Indian embroidery through the ages: some masterpieces/Jagdish Mittal. 3. Layers of meaning: embellished cloth for body and soul/Victoria Z. Rivers. 4. Satgaon quilts: an initial study/Ruby Palchoudhury and Satarupa Dutta. II. Central Asia: 5. Suzani embroidery of Uzbekistan/Carter Malik. 6. Kyrgyz embroidered wall panels : Tush Kiizies/Dinara Chochunbaeva. 7. "A stitch travels": embroidery in Swat Kohistan, Swat Valley and Hazara/Shehnaz Ismail. III. Indian sub-continent: 8. Phulkari and Bagh: the embroidery shawls of the Punjab/Joss Graham. 9. The embroidery of Sind/John Gillow. 10. The tradition of Kantha and contemporary trends/Ruby Ghuznavi. 11. Rabari embroidery: Chronicle of tradition and identity in changing world/Judy Frater. 12. Banjara embroidery of Andhra: origins, development and growth/Nivedita Krishna Rao. 13. Kasuti: Karnataka Kashida/Sunita Shahaney. 14. "Needle-weaving" of the Todas of the Nilgiris/Evam Piljain Weidermann and Sunita Shahaney. IV. South East Asia: 15. Traditional embroidery of minority groups in Vietnam/Dinh Thu Huong. 16. Beadwork of Sarawak, Malaysia/Edric Ong. 17. Traditional gold embroidery of Malaysia/Raja Fuziah Binti Tun Uda. 18. Embroidery in the Thai way of life/Khun Surapee Rojanavongse. 19. Philippine embroidery with a focus on the B'laan/Linda L. Beeman. V. The influence of market places: 20. Kalabari splendor: Indian gold-embroidered velvets in Nigeria/Joanne B. Eicher. 21. Kashmir and embroidery: an extraordinary association/Jenny Housego. 22. Chikankari of Lucknow/Paola Manfredi. 23. The tradition of Minangkabau embroidery/Sativa Sutan Aswar. 24. Handkerchief to Haute Couture/Divya Durga Prasad, Y.A. Glossary. Bibliography. Index.

"Asian Embroidery is the result of an International Seminar held by Crafts Council of India, which was coordinated by the well-known authority on textiles, Jasleen Dhamija. Writers, researchers, professors, who have spent a life time researching in different regions of Asia came together to share their knowledge. Besides well-known subjects as Phulkari, Bagh, the Central Asian Suzani, there are the little known embroideries of the Philippines, of Kyrgyzstan, of the Chinese settlers in Indonesia, the beadwork of Sarawak. There is the brilliant work of the symbolic significance of light and shining surfaces and a broad sweep of the creative expressions of different regions."  (jacket)