Eri silk
strong wild silk from the cocoons of Samia cynthia ricini
Eri silk is a type of peace silk produced by the domesticated silkworm Samia ricini. It is primarily produced in the northeastern Indian states of Assam, Nagaland and Meghalaya, but it is also found in Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh on a smaller scale. It was imported to Thailand in 1974.
Eri is derived from the Assamese word "era," which refers to castor, a plant on which the Eri silkworms feed. The silk is produced by worms that consume the leaves of the castor oil plant (Ricinus communis).
Silk cocoons are generally boiled to kill the unhatched worm still inside to preserve the continuity of the silk fibers; Eri silk cocoons are open at one end, allowing the moth to leave before the cocoon is processed. This unique characteristic of Eri silk means it can be harvested without killing the silkworm, making it a more ethical alternative to other types of silk. Thus, the woolly white silk is often referred to as the fabric of peace when it is processed without killing the silkworm. This process results in a silk called Ahimsa silk. Moths leave the cocoon and then the cocoons are harvested to be spun.
The public source identifies “Eri silk” as strong wild silk from the cocoons of Samia cynthia ricini. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around silk, strong and wild.
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This entry incorporates text from “Eri silk” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.