A Mizo lady is more fond of her puan than any of her other dresses. and indeed the colourful display of intricate designs on their puans attract attention of other women too. But the prohibitive cost of a good puan prevents wider adoption of the same anywhere outside Mizoram. The author feels that there is a great scope for commercial exploitation of these beautiful articles provided steps are taken in a concerted manner to bring down their cost of production, the major part of which is due to labour charges Involved in its making. In earlier days every Mizo girl was required to weave puans not only for herself but even for others in the family. As a result, this commodity seldom appeared as an item of sale in the market. It is unfortunate that, with the change of time, this salutary measure of self-sufficiency has withered out. Puan-making as an indispensable pursuit for the girls in every family has gone out of vogue. And yet the charm associated with the puan has not been lost even in the least. Hence the need for acquiring the puans through others has increased. The time consuming process of making a puan finds its reflection in its high cost. It will indeed be a sad thing if, due to the fact of its cost, it gets replaced by cheaper commercial substitutes It is therefore necessary to ensure that puan-making regains its original culture-value as a pursuit of spare time activity in every Mizo family.
This book "Puan, the pride of Mizoram has been conceived by the author to bring on record detailed descriptions and the cultural back-ground of the varieties of puans that are still available in fair abundance In Mizoram even though the wind of modernisation has wrought substantial changes in the pattern and design of many of these. It is heartening to find that the Mizo women have successfully sustained the puans as a very conspicuous item of their dress. Puan in Mizo language means cloth. The use of cloth in Mizo culture, as in any other culture, started early in their life-history as a bare necessity. While it is not possible to trace the history of the gradual development and the unique style of the puans it may well be asserted that their colourful variety got stabilised in course of their cultural development as emblems and symbols of particular occasions and situations in their life style. The hierarchical distinctiveness of their earlier social system, finding concrete expression in the status of their chiefs, upas ramhuals as also in their rites and rituals connected with important events of their lives like birth, marriage, death on the one hand and performance of religious ceremonies such as throwing community feasts and making different types of sacrifices on the other, led to gradual differentiation in the designs of the common puans and their distinctive names. In many cases what started as common wear for men gradually passed on to the women In their earlier days when the male Mizos were mostly occupied in their endeavour to secure food through hunting & Jhuming, as also, carrying out raids on adjoining villages, their women members kept themselves busy in rearing children, looking after domesticated animals, keeping the household and attending the multifarious other smaller duties not excluding the one of weaving out clothes for all members of the family on special type of looms known as loin looms. However, before dealing with the detailed consideration of these puans, it has been deemed necessary to provide the back-ground setting and for this purpose the first chapter has been devoted to introducing Mizoram with a brief outline of its location, history. political situation etc. It is hoped that the same will provide materials for better appreciation of the chapters that follow.
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