Tais Added to UNESCO's Urgent Safeguarding List (2021)

In December 2021, UNESCO inscribed “Tais, traditional textile” on its List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding. The same decision granted the country’s request for US$265,895 from the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund for a three-year safeguarding plan. The listing recognises both the cultural importance of tais and the risk that the skills behind it are disappearing.

What tais is

Tais is a handwoven cloth made from cotton coloured with natural plant dyes, traditionally on a backstrap loom. According to UNESCO’s description, weaving is a role reserved for women, who pass the skills to the next generation; men may gather dye plants and make the equipment.

Tais is used as clothing and decoration, to welcome newborns, and at weddings, funerals, ceremonies and festivals. Colours and motifs vary between communities and signal identity and social status, and tais is a valued item in dowries and in the exchanges that bind families together. Each region has its own patterns: some show ancestral legends such as the crocodile story, others local plants and animals, and in Oé-Cusse designs show the influence of centuries of Catholic missionary presence.

Why it needed urgent safeguarding

UNESCO’s listing identifies several threats:

younger people prefer modern clothing and are less interested in learning to weave;
handmade local materials, such as hand-spun cotton and natural dyes, are being replaced by industrial yarn and dyes;
weavers earn too little, and their numbers keep falling.

Weavers and NGOs interviewed when the listing was announced added further pressures: cheap printed imitations of tais motifs made abroad, and the loss of master weavers, raw materials and designs during the conflict years and the displacement that came with them.

How the nomination came about

Preparation of the nomination began in January 2019. UNESCO’s Bureau first approved a US$10,000 grant to help Timor-Leste prepare the file. USAID’s Tourism For All Project supported the government in setting up a National Committee for Intangible Cultural Heritage and in consulting weaving groups, NGOs such as Timor Aid and the Alola Foundation, and government agencies, as UNESCO requires. The Intergovernmental Committee approved the inscription at its 16th session in December 2021 (decision 16.COM 8.a.6).

The safeguarding plan

The plan, run by Timor-Leste’s National Commission for UNESCO over three years, set out activities including:

promoting tais at fairs and on television;
adding cultural content, including tais, to school curricula and training teachers;
field research on raw materials and tais sold in communities and markets;
a permanent exhibition with live weaving demonstrations;
a youth weaving competition;
training in cotton cultivation, natural dyeing and business skills for weavers;
a certification system for authentic tais.

UNESCO also asked the government to watch for the side effects of tourism and commercialisation, and to balance the economic value of tais with its social and cultural role.

Buying tais as a visitor

Buying directly from weavers or fair-trade outlets is the best way to support the craft. Pieces made from hand-spun cotton with natural dyes take far longer to make than those woven from industrial yarn, and are priced accordingly. Some textiles are made for ceremonial use and are not for sale.

In Dili, browse the stalls of the Tais Market (bargain politely), or try Alola Esperansa and Things and Stories for fixed prices.
West of Dili, the Maubara Weaving Cooperative sells directly from its weavers.
Our arts, crafts and shopping guide and local products guide cover more places, and people and culture gives wider background.