Crafts · direct from the artisan
A phanek off a loin loom in Moirang, a wheel-less pot fired in an open pit at Andro, cane woven damp so it tightens as it dries.
Every listing carries the artisan’s own contact details. Read the story, then ring the person who made it.
HandloomBishnupur
ꯃꯣꯏꯔꯥꯡ ꯐꯤ
Binodini Devi · Moirang, Bishnupur
A handwoven wrap-around phanek carrying the Moirang Phee motif, the stepped temple-spire border that is among the most recognisable patterns in Manipuri handloom.
Price of Moirang Phee Phanek: ₹1,200 varies with border width and thread count
PotteryImphal East
Andro Potters' Collective · Andro, Imphal East
Cooking and serving pots shaped entirely without a wheel, then fired in an open pit until the clay turns its characteristic black.
Price of Andro Black Pottery: ₹850 per set of three vessels
SculptureImphal West
Kanglei Crafters · Imphal West, Imphal West
Carved pieces drawing on Manipuri iconography (the kangla-sha, the polo rider, the sangai), made as table pieces.
Price of Kanglei Sculpture: ₹2,200
HandloomImphal East
Silk Route Manipur · Imphal East, Imphal East
A light silk shawl with woven motif bands at either end, worn at Ningol Chakouba and given as a gift between families.
Price of Manipuri Silk Shawl: ₹3,500
BambooChurachandpur
Green Bamboo Crafts · Churachandpur, Churachandpur
Tightly woven bamboo baskets and winnowing trays, the everyday containers of a Manipuri kitchen, made to last decades rather than seasons.
Price of Bamboo Basketry: ₹650
JewelleryBishnupur
Heritage Jewellery · Moirang, Bishnupur
A handcrafted ornament in the Manipuri idiom, made in small batches by a family workshop.
Price of Sinai Chei: ₹1,800
There is nothing to add to a basket here. Every listing is a maker's shopfront, written up properly.
You get their own phone number and, where they have one, their site. The conversation is yours and theirs.
No commission, no listing fee, no payment held in the middle. The full price reaches the person who made the thing.
What you are actually buying
None of these are heritage in the museum sense. They are working trades, and you can spend a morning inside any of them.
Cloth in Manipur is counted thread by thread on a loin loom, usually on a verandah, usually by a woman who learned it from her mother. The Moirang Phee border, a stepped temple spire, is carried in the head, not on a pattern card.
Sit at the loom yourselfThe potters of Andro build every vessel by hand, without a wheel at all, then fire it in an open pit until the clay turns black. It is one of the last wheel-less pottery traditions left in India.
Shape a pot in AndroSplit, shaved, soaked and woven while damp so the weave tightens as it dries. The same grammar makes a fish trap, a grain store and the conical basket carried up a hill path.
Weave with caneManipur rears its own silk, the golden muga and the softer eri among it. A shawl is judged by how it falls rather than by any measure, and the end-bands are the weaver's signature.
Find a textile experienceNarrow it down
6 crafts