Sericulture was practiced in Sohilya Iapngar Village from time immemorial, mostly for consuming the Eri Silk worm, it was in the early 70s that the art of Eri Silk Spinning and Handloom weaving was brought to Iapngar from Thaiang by a lady name ‘Kristina Dris Lyngdoh Thaiang’,. This lady imparts her arts to other women, since then till date some women who were trained by her continue to spin and weave. One of her students, Kong Prissila Rymbai who passes her knowledge to her daughter, who is now a founder of the “EriWeave”
Kong Iaishah Rymbai the successor of Kong Prissila Rymbai, who is proprietor of “EriWeave”, also a school teacher and a handloom weaver. Back story that inspired Kong Iaishah Rymbai to start “EriWeave”, was an incident in December of 2018, when Kong Iaishah Rymbai received an ordered to weave 50 Eri silk scarves, due to the shortage of yarn, the ordered is lack behind, this make Kong Iaishah Rymbai to have a thought why? When the Eri silk cocoon a raw material needed for yarn is widely available in the area. The answer is not because of Yarn Shortage, it’s the limited number of people knows how to Spin and Weave.
Kong Iaishah Rymbai take an initiative to engage many spinners, unfortunately, giving training to peoples is hard and difficult, since it’s required time and dedication. Kong Iaishah Rymbai approached the Raid Iapngar Handloom Weaver Cooperative Society to discuss the ideas and ways to promote the livelihood to the next level. The cooperation like the ideas and accepted. With a team of 5 women, awareness is given to other women on how they can earn by spinning, as well as giving them proper training on Yarn Spinning and Weaving.
