Khami, Khumi, Mru and Sunghtu, southern Chin groups - Bangladesh and Myanmar

a Zantu (Sunghtu) man's tunic in the collection so Jay Bommer and Deborah Lindsay Garner

images © Deborah Lindsay Garner and Jay Bommer

click on image to return to thumbnails of tunic

A detail of a Zantu (Sunghtu) man's tunic approximately 93 x 81 cm. This tunic is in the collection of Deborah Lindsay Garner and Jay Bommer and is shown in Fig 31 on page 40 in black and white in their article in The Textile Museum Journal 1999-2000 - Notes from the Field: On the Trail of Khumi, Khami, and Mro Textiles.

On page 39 of the same article Bommer and Garner say that: "The Zantu are thought to live in a similar area to the Khumi, Khami and Mro. "The long tunic is worn by the Zantu (or Santu) who live on the lower parts of Lemro River. Their area stretches from Myebon, which is southeast of Sittwe. Local people call the Zantu the "Sea Chin" due to their proximity to the Bay of Bengal. The second type of tunic is worn by men. (figs 31, 32). The men's garments are more somber in colour than the woman's. The black background is striped in beautifully woven, geometrically designed bands of varying widths, in soft warm tones of madder and tan."

Bommer and Garner refer to the group as 'Zantu (or Santu)'; other literature refers to the group as 'Sungtu' or 'Sunghtu' and this seems to be the name increasingly used to describe them.

see photos of a Sunghtu man's tunic in the Collection of Olivier Tallec

see another Sunghtu tunic on Susan Stems' tribaltrapping.com site which is now in the collection of Pamela Cross. See detail with a better indication of colour.

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