Sri Lankan Handlooms

                             Sri Lankan Handlooms

Sri Lanka has a historical connection to handlooms and the loom had been portrayed generously in local myths and legends. With records of Sri Lanka trading vividly designed cotton textiles with India and China as far as 1000 years ago, the country has been known as a hotspot of textile manufacturing.

Today, Sri Lankan handloom industry is basically a cottage industry, with few large manufacturers leading the way. An industry governed largely by women, the Sri Lankan heritage and traditional weaving patterns are kept alive in collaboration with the National Handloom Center of Sri Lanka. Most of Sri Lankan handlooms are made of cotton and silk threads and many are presented as sarees, shawls, sarongs as well as household linen, upholstery, tapestry, and curtain fabrics. Exported around the world and available under local and global brands traditional handlooms of Sri Lanka continue to add colour to many living spaces around the country.

Historically, Sri Lanka has traded textile with nations like India, China and Middle Eastern countries, and the handloom textile industry is one of the country's oldest traditional crafts.

The elegance of locally handcrafted sarees, the vibrancy of painstakingly woven soft toys, the innovative colour combinations of upholstery fabrics: these are part and parcel of Sri Lanka's centuries old handloom textile industry.

The industry has helped showcase the undying creativity of generations of Sri Lankans taking them to the international arena.