Mamang Dai is the best known poet and novelist from Arunachal Pradesh, who has also been awarded the prestigious Padma Shri and the Sahitya Akademi award. Once a journalist and civil servant, she is now a member of the Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission based at Itanagar. She is the author of Hambreelmai's Loom.
Tak tak sum, tak tak sum… Hambreelmai sits by the Kamblang river, happy at her loom, copying patterns from the clouds, the birds, the ripples in the water. She is the first weaver, taught by the goddess Matai herself. One day, Sheipung the porcupine sees her exquisite cloth and wants it… What happens next is the story of how the Mishmi people learnt to...
