How much do you know about Dai handmade paper craft?

The Dai handmade papermaking technique is a craft developed and evolved on the basis of traditional Chinese papermaking. One of the areas where it has been passed down is Mangshizhai, Yongkang Town, Yongde County, Lincang City, and Mangtuan Village, Mengding Town, Gengma Dai and Wa Autonomous County. Lincang can make paper all year round, and an average papermaker can make 300 sheets of paper per day. The raw material for making paper is the bark of the mulberry tree (Broussonetia papyrifera), which is known as "burying sand" in Dai. Neither Mangshizhai nor Mangtuan Village grows kozo trees, so the raw material has to be purchased from nearby villages. The peeling of kozo skin is seasonal, and there is a folk saying of "seven bamboo and eight wood". Papermaking process retains the complete invention of papermaking at the beginning of the "soaking, evaporation, pounding pulp, pouring paper, sunshine paper", *** there are 5 steps of the process of 11 procedures, including picking, sunshine, soaking, mixing ash, steaming, washing, pounding pulp, pouring paper, sunshine paper, calendaring, unveiling the paper, and so on. Papermaking tools are simple, except for an iron pot are all bamboo and wood utensils supplemented by stone, which pouring paper with bamboo curtains made of homemade cloth and bamboo, and the Northern Wei Dynasty Jia Si Fo in the "Qimin Essentials" recorded in the kozo papermaking methods consistent. The paper has the advantages of being tough and white, soft and smooth, not aged for a long time, not torn, and anti-corrosive and moth-proof, etc. It is mostly used as a scripture copying in the Maeng Monastery of Southern Theravada Buddhism, and is also widely used in folk activities and daily life, food and tea packaging, and bundling of coins in the financial system, etc., and it has a very good role of cleanliness, environmental protection, and a rich cultural connotation. At present, folk handicrafts processing and calligraphy, art circles, tea factories use handmade leather paper in large quantities, and the development prospect is very good. Lincang Dai handmade paper craft to maintain a one-family production form, passing women do not pass male, inheritance of the genealogy of the ancestors along. In recent years, due to the large number of rubber and other economic forestry plantations, resulting in a shortage of tree resources, the cost has become expensive, coupled with the paper-making process is complicated and labor-intensive, the scale of papermaking is far less than before. At present, of the 200 households in the two villages, only 40 households are still making paper, and the papermakers are all women over 40 years old. Mangtuan village inheritance situation is better, the traditional skills remain intact; Mangshi Zhai will make paper 10 women aged 60 years old or older, the lack of young inheritors.