Pira Mat

Sitting on the floor in her triple decker apartment, Hungma twists dried corn husk strips into coils, to fashion small rounded pira mats. She also makes small rounded baskets of corn husks, using a similar weaving technique. Pira can also be made of torn strips of fiber, fashioned with wool or torn strips of a sari. Bamboo is used to force the threads through, to make the binding. Various objects can be set upon the small pira or they can be hung on the wall, as decorations. In Bhutanese settings, however, much larger pira are used as mats to sit upon on the house floor. Especially finely-wrought pira welcome honored guests; newborn babies are also placed upon such larger pira, to welcome them into human company and into the family. Pira come in many variations in Worcester’s Bhutanese community.

The highly creative pira shown here is evidence of Hungma’s innovative flair. She is a real risk taker in her design work. Normally corn husk pira are round; this one goes off in other directions.