Spider silk clothing seems to be a myth and legend in the fantasy, but for the bitter cong people in the Ailao Mountains in Yunnan, it was once a daily necessity that was actually worn on the body and covered the body.
In the early 1950s, in the newly liberated Ailao Mountains of Yunnan Province, "wild people" were found, and according to witnesses, these "wild people" were clothed, dressed in leaf and animal skins, and even completely naked, eating wild fruits and wild vegetables and hunting for a living.
After careful investigation, the experts who came later found that this group of "wild people" living in the dense forest were actually wandering and wandering bitter people. The reason why they are mistaken for savages is because their lives are still at the end of the primitive society of Ru Mao drinking blood.
According to historical records, the Kucong people originated from the ancient Qiang tribe, during the Tang and Song dynasties, they were nomadic hunting in the deep mountains and dense forests, and then moved south to the mountain range between Ailao Mountain and Wuliang Mountain, where they lived and multiplied.
Since the 1960s, after three large-scale searches and with the help of the government, the Kucong people have gradually stepped out of the mountains and forests, bid farewell to hunting life, and implemented settlement and farming.
The primitive tribes that stepped out from the depths of the mountains directly transitioned to modern civilization, and are now fifty-six nationalities, a branch of the Lahu people.
Kucong people have long been isolated from the world, the level of productivity is low, and the means of production are scarce, but human beings are born to learn the wisdom of survival and solve the problem of food and clothing in the game with nature.
During the hunt, the Kucong people found a large flower spider, commonly known locally as the grimace spider, although ugly in appearance and terrible in appearance, but the taste was good, and it became a delicacy on the table of the Kucong people. Later, Ku Congren found that this flower spider, in addition to being edible, spider silk is tough and not easy to break, and it is lighter and softer than bark and plantains, and the idea of spider silk clothing soon became action.
The production of spider clothes does not require silk weaving like silk clothes, but it is necessary to make full use of the sticky characteristics of spider silk and let the spider web stick together. The thousands of spider webs collected are ironed and compacted with a hot plate, pressed into a thick piece of cloth, and finally sewn into clothing with stitches and threads.
A complete set of spider suits, which requires 300 cobwebs to make. Includes hat, top and pants. They are earthy yellow overall and feel light to the touch. At first glance, the fabric is somewhat similar to cotton. Because when the cobwebs are removed, there are still insect shells and dead leaves, reaching out to gently touch the spider coat, you will feel a slight prick, perhaps these residues, so that the spider coat emits a faint smell of herbs.
With the progress of society and economic development, the Kucong people have stepped out of the depths of the mountains and entered the modern civilized society. Spider clothes have long been replaced by modern cloth clothes. Nowadays, only one old man living in the East Cottage of Yunnan knows the craft of spider silk clothing. Spider clothes are afraid of water and fire. It is very difficult to keep the clothes, and only four spider clothes have been preserved, and the new generation of bitter cong people have hardly seen this legendary object.
Ku Cong people who make spider clothes in the primitive state of life must not have imagined that when modern technology develops to today, spider silk may become the latest textile material. The latest scientific research shows that the perfect molecular structure of spider silk, especially the drag silk used to fix spider webs, not only has the characteristics of high strength and high toughness, but also its thermal conductivity is better than most materials, which is 1000 times that of silk and 800 times that of other organic materials. This research result allows us to imagine that maybe the bitter cong people wearing spider clothes were warm in winter and cool in summer!
With the departure of the old people, the spider clothes of the Ku Cong people must be unsustainable, and the spider clothes that have been preserved are also the only fruits that have survived, but on this special dress, it not only reflects the wisdom of the life of the Ku Cong people in the mountains, but also the living specimens of the childhood stage that human beings have shared, reflecting the memory of our symbiosis with heaven and earth when we are in a state of confusion.