Description: Vintage large unframed framed circular Ngatu Tapa Cloth. Tapa cloth is in good condition with toning and staining on back side. Measures 18.5″ in diameter. Creasing along the middle from quarter folds in storage. Will ship folded.

About: Ngatu is Tongan barkcloth. In Tonga, girls from an early age learn to make ngatu from the bark of the paper mulberry tree. Other natural resources are used as dyes and glue, and the cloth is beaten with mallets made from the dense wood of trees. Tapa making in Tonga is characterised by freehand drawing and by rubbing on pattern blocks called kupesi. Ngatu can sometimes tell a story, using symbols drawn from the natural world, although today they may depict the kings palace, tonga’s coat of arms and even power lines.

Ngatu are still considered to be significant gifts in any ceremony in Tonga, and are also regarded as valuable by Tongans living overseas. Tonga and Fiji are still important centres of modern tapa manufacture, and very large pieces continue to be made for ceremonial purposes.