It is a shawl which gives warmth and protects you from the cold at the same time. In olden days, these shawls were mostly used by rich men whom we call "Thahtay”, and the word "Wada" comes from "Thahtay Wada" which means rich men's ideas.
The special characteristic of this shawl is its weaving process, which involves two colours of threads into 2 layers. That's why the two surfaces are different in colours and the specific differences in the weaving steps in making Wada blanket shawl makes them stand out from other shawls. First, it is necessary to weigh in the threads that are to be used and see that they weigh 50 ticals, and tie them into knots, so that when they are dyed, they are dyed evenly, thus taking less time. Then, the threads are boiled for half an hour in order to make them soft when they are dyed, and to make their colours firm. Then to cool the threads they are taken out of the boiling pot and set to cool, and when they are cooled, they are dyed. The pot is then fill in to be boiled again. First we use the base dye and later on add in the required colour that is to be dyed. Hot-water is used when the color dyeing is done, because many chemicals are involved here, and hot-water will dissolve them. When dyeing in the colour, alum, acid and nitric are involved and you just need plain cold-water to fix the colour here. Then, dying process is repeated 3 times. When the threads are dried, they are put on the looms to be weaved. When weaving, as there are 2 layers of threads and 2 colours involve, we have to use two shuttles. The two shuttles are moved by hand. But the shuttles for making patterns are moved by the weaver's feet.
Before, weaving was done by hand, but nowadays they are substituted by machines. With hand weaving, it usually takes 3 days to weave a shawl, while with a machine it takes only 2 hours.
Myanmar people have been using the Wada cotton shawl which is most suitable with the climatic conditions of Myanmar since the time of our forefathers.
