Who Says Tartan is Just For Scots?

WHO SAYS TARTAN IS JUST FOR SCOTS?

published in The Scottish Banner, January 2006

Upper left: A fourteenth century Spanish tartan cotehardie. Upper right: A traditional Bhutanese folk costume. Lower left: A Masai warrior in red tartan. Lower right: a nineteenth century Japanese courtesan. Just say the word “Scotland” and the image that first springs to mind is that of a kilted piper. And when one imagines a kilt, one imagines tartan. Tartan and Scotland are so intertwined in most people’s view that many suppose tartan cloth to be exclusive to that country. Nothing, however, could be further from the truth.

Before we go any further, let’s put a few assumptions to rest. Many erroneously believe tartan and the kilt to be one and the same. Tartan, in fact, refers to the patterned cloth. The kilt is the garment usually made from the cloth. Kilts can be made from solid colored cloth as well as tartan, and solid colored kilts have been worn in Scotland since at least the early seventeenth century. Tartan can be worn or displayed in many ways besides the kilt. The two are not the same. And while the kilt is a garment that originated and developed in Scotland, tartan can be found all over the world.

Any place where the people have the ability to weave cloth is likely to have some kind of tartan. Once the skills are acquired to produce solid color cloth, the next logical step to make it more decorative is to add stripes. If you weave stripes into the warp and weft of the cloth, you have a tartan.

One shouldn’t be surprised, then, to read of 3000 year-old mummies being discovered in the desert of Taklamakan, China, wearing tartan. This cloth can be found photographed in The Mummies of Urumchi, by Elizabeth Wayland Barber. In that same work, Barber documents tartan found in excavations in Hallstatt, in upper Austria, some of which date to 1200 BC.

Barber writes, “Like the Scottish tartans… the Hallstatt plaids contain a rhythmic mixture of wide and very narrow stripes… The overall similarities between Hallstatt plaid twills and recent Scottish ones, right down to the typical weight of the cloth, strongly indicate continuity of tradition. The chief difference is that the Hallstatt plaids contain no more than two colors… whereas the Scottish tartans are generally multicolored.”

Tartan has been found on mummies in Kazakhstan from 2000 BC. A museum in Stravenger, Norway, has a reproduction of a tartan said to have been worn in that country in the fifth century AD.

Some see the existence of these ancient tartans as evidence of pre-historic, kilted Scottish globe-trotters! But nothing could be further from the truth. One Austrian-based company has marketed tartans found in archaeological digs with the baseless claim that Austria was the original home of the kilt! Such silliness aside, though the Scottish kilt is the recognized icon of tartan, it is not tartan’s only application. Most cultures have produced some form of tartan cloth. But the kilt is uniquely Scottish.

With that in mind, it is interesting to take note of some of the unexpected places that tartan has been found.

I have seen fourteenth century Spanish paintings depicting men and women wearing cotehardies made of tartan cloth. One, by the Master of Estamariu, depicts the martyrdom of St. Vincent. One of the saint’s torturers is a man whose cotehardie is half solid red, and half red, green and blue tartan.

Leaving Europe altogether, one can even find tartan clothing depicted in nineteenth century Japanese art. In the illustration (shown here) of courtesan Shitsuka of Tamaya, painted by Jippensha Ikku between 1802-1822, tartan cloth can clearly be seen.

The Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, in the Himalayas, is famous for its tradition of fine hand woven textiles, many of which are of a tartan pattern. One was even included in the book Tartan: The Highland Textile, by Tartan Scholar James D. Scarlett.

The latest unexpected place I have discovered tartans being used is Africa. The warriors of the Masai people, called Moran, are frequently outfitted with bright red tartan. The color red, in that society, is associated with men who have come of age. While some Moran wear solid red clothing, many opt for brightly colored red tartans. I have seen many different tartan patterns photographed among the Masai, most of them in bright red and blue designs.

Tartan truly is an ancient art form, which can be found the world over. For an example of a modern-day non-Scottish application of tartan, just look at the flannel shirts hanging in the closet of nearly every man in western society. Despite this fact, only in Scotland has tartan taken on such a particular cultural significance. Named tartans were, up until modern times, the unique provenance of Scotland. And even many of the named tartans now being created for Ireland, Wales, the United States, Canada, Australia and beyond are created by Scots and those of Scottish heritage.

Tartan will always be associated with Scotland, and rightly so. But we should not be surprised to find tartan in use by other cultures. If we were to find a 2000 year-old piece of tartan cloth buried in the Arizona desert, it would be but one more piece of historical tartan. It certainly wouldn’t indicate prehistoric Scottish adventurers made it to the New World!

That being said, if you want to wear the kilt and are of Austrian, Chinese, Japanese, or even African heritage, we’ve got a tartan for you!

Image caption:

Upper left: A fourteenth century Spanish tartan cotehardie. Upper right: A traditional Bhutanese folk costume. Lower left: A Masai warrior in red tartan. Lower right: a nineteenth century Japanese courtesan.