Ainu While
woven, traditional Ainu bark cloth is produced similarly before spinning to other barkcloths. It is produced largely from fibers of the
lobed elm.
Austronesia Before the development of woven textiles, barkcloth made from trees belonging to the mulberry family (
Moraceae) were an important aspect of the
pre-Austronesian and
Austronesian material culture during the
Neolithic period. Stone barkcloth beaters, in particular, are considered part of the "Austronesian toolkit." They have been found in abundance in the
Pearl River basin in
Southern China, which is considered to be part of the homelands of the Austronesian peoples before they started migrating into islands during the
Austronesian expansion (c.3000 to 1500 BC). The oldest example, found in the Dingmo Site in
Guangxi, has been dated back to ~5900 BC. They were spread along with Austronesian voyagers into
Island Southeast Asia,
Oceania (with the notable exception of
Micronesia), and
Madagascar. Genetic studies on the
paper mulberry populations in the Pacific have all confirmed close genealogical ties to populations in Taiwan and Southern China. Though they exist in abundance in archaeological sites in Island Southeast Asia, barkcloth have largely disappeared in the region as they were replaced by woven textiles. But they survived until around the 19th century in the outlying regions of the Austronesian expansion, particularly in
Island Melanesia and
Polynesia, as well as the interior highlands of
Borneo.
Indonesia In addition to Sulawesi
tapa cloth,
daluang is produced in
Java from
paper mulberry bark, also called "kulit kayu", for sarongs, tunics, headgear, and other items.
Daluang features prominently in
wayang performance, particularly
wayang beber. Barkcloth in Sulawesi, Indonesia is called "fuya", and has been used for major rites such as puberty, marriage, death, for at least 4000 years. Its manufacture is nearly extinct in Indonesia. The Weltmuseum collection in Vienna holds hundreds of barkcloth coverings, which claims that its use declined over time due to Christianization, Islamicization, modernization, and the prevalence of washable woven textiles.
Uganda of the
Democratic Republic of Congo Barkcloth has been manufactured in
Buganda,
Uganda, for centuries and is Uganda's sole representative on the
UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists. In Uganda, the Barkcloth is made from the bark of the
ficus natalensis tree. Barkcloth was the main cloth worn by people in Buganda, Bunyoro, etc until the introduction of cotton and silk cloth by Arab traders in the early 1840s around the time of
Kabaka Ssuuna II.
Vietnam The production of barkcloth may have originated in Southeastern China, in a region adjacent to Vietnam. South East China was the origins to the ancestors of many people, including those who migrated to Vietnam. Throughout ancient Vietnam, the bark-cloth was widely made; this practice of producing barkcloth has survived in modern times in a few rural areas in Vietnam. ==Modern cotton "barkcloth"==