Most of what Assam makes was designed for Assam: hot, wet, and with things in regular use. Put the same objects in a centrally heated flat in a cold country, or in a sealed air-conditioned apartment, and they fail in ways nobody warns you about.
Silk
Store folded in cotton, never plastic. A plastic garment cover traps moisture against the fibre. In a humid house that produces the yellow-brown staining that gets blamed on age and is actually mildew. A cotton pillowcase costs nothing and works.
Refold along different lines once a year. A crease left in the same place for a decade becomes a break in the fibre and the cloth eventually splits there. This is the single most common way an inherited mekhela chador is lost.
Air it. Twice a year, out of the cupboard, in shade with some air moving. Not in direct sun, which fades dye and weakens fibre.
Washing. Pat silk and anything with zari: dry clean. Eri: cold hand wash with a mild soap, dried flat in shade, never wrung. Muga tolerates washing and traditionally gets better for it, but a finished garment with zari work should still go to a cleaner.
Naphthalene balls. Widely used, and they leave a smell in silk that takes years to come out. Dried neem leaf or a cedar block does the same job without it.
Bell metal
Tamarind, not polish. Tamarind pulp, or lemon with a pinch of wood ash, rubbed on, rinsed, dried immediately. That is the traditional method and it works because the mild acid lifts the oxide without abrading the surface.
Dry it at once. Standing water marks bell metal and the marks are hard to remove.
Let it darken. Bell metal develops a warm brown patina. Most Assamese households allow it and bring the piece up only before a ceremony. Commercial brass polish used monthly will, over a few years, leave a hard yellow surface that is not what the object looked like when it was made.
Never a dishwasher. Detergent and heat together take the finish off permanently.
More on how the metal is made and why it behaves this way: what is a xorai.
Cane and bamboo
Cane dries out and then cracks. This is the failure mode nobody expects, and it is much faster in a dry heated room than it ever is in Assam.
A wipe with a barely damp, not wet, cloth once a month keeps it flexible. In a very dry climate, twice. Once cane has gone brittle and cracked at a bend, there is no fixing it.
Never soak it, never leave it in standing water, and keep it out of a hot car, which is the fastest way to destroy a japi or a tray.
Mould is the opposite problem and it happens in bathrooms and unventilated stores. Air movement solves it. Sun does too, but sunlight also embrittles the leaf, so use it sparingly.
The general rule
These objects were made to be used, in a climate with air moving through the house. The storage habits that preserve a museum piece, sealed, still, dark, are not always the ones that keep a working object alive.
What we have not verified
We have not tested these methods against controls over years. This is collected practice from households and sellers, and from our own things, rather than conservation science.
Related reading
Common questions
- How do you store silk in a humid climate?
- Folded in cotton cloth, never in a plastic cover, in a dry cupboard with air movement. Plastic traps moisture against the fibre and is the main cause of the yellow staining people blame on age.
- How do you clean bell metal without damaging it?
- Tamarind pulp, or lemon with a pinch of wood ash, rubbed on, rinsed and dried at once. Commercial brass polish is faster and strips the warm brown patina over a few years. Never leave bell metal wet and never put it in a dishwasher.
- Why is my cane tray cracking?
- It has dried out. Cane holds moisture and becomes brittle in dry indoor heat, then cracks at the bends. A wipe with a barely damp cloth once a month keeps it flexible. Once it has cracked there is no repair.
- Can you wash a muga silk garment at home?
- Muga tolerates washing better than most silks and traditionally improves with it, but a finished mekhela chador with zari work should be dry cleaned. If you do wash muga, cold water, no detergent with optical brighteners, and dry flat in shade.
Written by
Kundan GuptaWrites from Assam. Checks fares and fees in person before publishing.
Kundan Gupta runs Axomor and edits its Northeast India coverage. He is responsible for the accuracy of the guides published here, including checking permit rules, fees and travel logistics against primary sources before they go live.