The Ede’s costume

(Cinet)- The Ede has a variety of costume and its aesthetic style is typical for ethnic groups in the Central Highlands. The traditional costume of the Ede is indigo-blue with colorful patterns. Women wear their blouses, trousers or skirts while men wear their loin-cloths or shirts. The people are fond of using jewelries in silver, bronze and pearl. In the past, a famous custom “ca rang” ordered the whole people to amputate 6 upper-jaw front teeth. However, the youth abolishes this outdated custom “ca rang” at present.

The Ede’s men have short hair and wear indigo-blue scarf on their head. Their costumes comprise shirts and loin-cloths.

Shirts have two basic kinds:

A kind of long-sleeved shirts: pierced neck, long body covering the rear and split dress. This kind is rather typical for the Ede through costumes for men. The indigo-blue surface of body and sleeve in the bust, two sides of shoulder blade, opening of the sleeve, borders at collar, split places and fringe is decorated. Specially, the mid of the bust has horizontal stripe in harmony with the lay-out of a rectangle which makes beauty and strength.

Another kind: Long shirt (over knee), pierced neck, normal sleeve non-decorated as the above-mentioned kind of short shirts…There are many kinds of loin-cloths distinguished on the basis of short or long with different ways of designed patterns. The best kinds are kteh, drai, drech and piek while the normal are bong and bal with a few pattern. Besides those, the others are short-sleeved or non-sleeved shirts. The most valuable kind is Kteh with a unique pattern “swing-spreading eagle”, along two sides of underarm seam, fringe after the back enclosed pearl. Men also wear earrings and necklaces.

The Ede’s women often have long-tied hair and wear skirts. Women also wear long-sleeved T-shirt with its pierced neck. These shirts’ body is long covering the rear and letting off the skirts. On the indigo-blue surface, organs are decorated: collar, two sides of shoulder blade, arm, opening of the sleeve and fringe. Those borders in combination small patterns are made of red, white or yellow fiber. A distinctive difference for women’s shirts of the Ede and the Gia rai is decorative style (there is any line in the middle of body). Women’s skirts are open (large cloths are made of skirts) surrounding the Body. On the indigo-blue surface, the skirts are also decorated with horizontal stripes at the front and below edges and mid-body made of same colorful thread as shirts. Decorative projection mainly focuses on the front and below edges. This style is possibly different from that of the Gia Rai. There are various kinds of skirts on which a clear distinguish is that patterns are processed much or few. The best kinds of skirts are myeng dech, myeng drai and myeng piek respectively. The normal kind of skirts used for tilling the fields is bong. Presently, young girls often wear close skirts. Dech is a major pattern at fringe. Besides that, women wear short-sleeved undershirts. Formerly, women keep their long hair to gather them in big buns and wear hats. They wear jewelry made of silver or bronze. They also wear a set of bracelets which make clash sounds for helping them to recognize their acquaintances and relatives.