World Intellectual Property Day Celebration

On the occasion of World Intellectual Property Day, three Manipuri Textile Products Shaphee Lanphee, Wangkhei Phee and Moirang Phee have been given the Geological Indications (GI) tag. All the three application was filed by Department of Commerce & Industries, Manipur on 19th of December 2012 under the class 25.

Shaphee Lanphee: Literally, the name of Shaphee is the fabric of animal and Lanphee is the fabric of war. It is a hand woven fabric and having 10 different highly stylized motifs, such as,

i) Iroichi (local name of buffalo horn),
ii) Nga (local name of fish),
iii) Numit (local name of sun),
iv) Phantup (local name of seat),
v) Shagol (local name of horse),
vi) Shamu (local name of elephant),
vii) Ta(local name of spear),
viii) Tha (local name of moon),
ix) Thawanmichak (local name of star)
x) Wahong (local name of peacock) is the Shaphee Lanphee.

Wangkhei Phee: The\”Wangkhei phee\”is also one of the designs among the proposed designs to be registered under the Act. Wangkhei is a name of place within the lmphal East area. This special type of cloth is known as \”Wangkhei phee\” because of the design was developed first in the area by skill weavers and many weavers are still woven this special type of cloth in a wide scale. It was around 1892 when maharaja Churachand had his state capital at Wangkhei under Imphal East District that weavers from around the palace started producing clothes for the use of royalty. Because of the fact this exclusive clothes were woven by the weavers of Wangkhei the colth is known as Wangkhei phee.

The Moirang Pheeiin is a special design of the Manipuri textile. This design is used in almost all kinds of \”lnnaphee (chaddar), a wrapper (phanek or sharong) used by the Manipuri women as luxurious item in different occasions relating to marriage, Lai HaraobaI festival, public gathering functions, etc. and this design is commonly used in the border of the girl\’s loin cloth.
The other items in the list included Kannauj perfume, Kanpur saddlery, Moradabad metal craft, Saharanpur wood craft, Dharmavaram handloom pattu sarees and paavadas, Warli painting, Kolhapur jaggery, Kangra painting, Nagpur orange and Thewa artwork.

by Akshatha Karthik
Image courtesy of Staurt Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net