A loose tunic for women, the kushung — also known as kushu atsa (Dzongkha for ‘brocaded dress’) — was made and worn in north-central and eastern Bhutan until the mid-nineteenth century. It was woven using local unbleached cotton or nettle fibre, and generally sparsely decorated. However, the supplementary weft patterning it featured was a precursor of Bhutan’s celebrated kushuthara weave. Once an everyday garment among the region’s pre-Buddhist cultures, it is now largely replaced by the kira, and restricted to specific rituals; only a few well-maintained examples of the garment survive today.

Colloquially known as ganmo atsa (‘old woman’s dress’) or delemé shingkha (‘long ago petticoat’), the kushung has been considered an archaic garment for at least a century — the exact history of its disappearance is not known. Based on the modest decoration and the worn state of the early examples found, it is thought to have been an item of common, everyday wear, made and used in the districts of Lhuentse (specifically the village of Kurtoe), Trashiyangtse and Bumthang. Prior to the seventeenth century these regions, like others that make up present-day Bhutan, functioned as separate principalities — with their cultures variously borrowing from Tibetan culture, Buddhist influence and animistic worship. The kushung, in its form and motifs, reflects all these influences. 

Its use began to decline from the seventeenth century onwards, probably associated with the region’s changing political and religious landscape. Escaping from Tibet in 1616, Ngawang Namgyal (1594–1651), an important cleric of the Drukpa Kagyu school of Buddhism, set up a base in western Bhutan. He would proceed to unify Bhutan’s independent territories into a Buddhist nation state, with a focus on creating a national cultural identity distinct from that of Tibet. In this process, the wrap-around dress kira, which was already dominant in the central and western regions, was adopted nationwide. The kushung gradually became restricted to occasional ceremonial use — relatively later examples are more elaborately patterned and well-preserved — however, the intricate kushuthara textile developed by the same weavers later gained national prominence and was incorporated into the kira.

The kushung is made of two lengths of woven cotton or nettle fibre that are stitched together in the warp direction, leaving an opening for the neck at the centre, and doubled over to create the shoulder line. The selvedges along the sides are stitched together leaving holes for the arms. The neck is either left plain, or is finely decorated along the edge with embroidery; appliqué in cotton, wool or silk; and ribbons and tassels — the specific choice of decoration is thought to have served as an identifier of the weaving family. The front and back of the garment are usually embellished with motifs that are mirrored across the shoulder line and organised along warp-wise sections demarcated by narrow, coloured stripes called reth. 

The tunic derives its name from kushu, Dzongkha for ‘intricate patterning’ or ‘brocade’, which alludes to the supplementary weft motifs and patterns it features — later adapted into the kushuthara weave for the kira. Predominantly rendered in red and blue, these motifs and patterns on the kushung employ the weaving techniques known as sapma and thrima, with the relatively flatter sapma generally predominant. They include diamond sceptres, floral and geometric motifs, and *swastikas* — which are also seen in kushuthara; as well as representations of *gau* (protective amulets), torma (ritual dough figurines), dorje (thunderbolts), zangdo pelri — the heavenly abode of the lama Padmasambhava — and other Buddhist shrine-like shapes. In addition, kushung motifs include human and animal figures — under the Buddhist cultural codes developed in Bhutan from the seventeenth century onwards, these are no longer considered appropriate to represent on clothing. 

While the rest of the garment is sparsely patterned, the bottom section of the kushung often features a wide and particularly dense border known as takshing thrima or khodang — using a form of patterning that is not known to appear in any other Bhutanese textile. Organised in horizontal bands of varying widths, it comprises sets of repeating motifs woven using multiple supplementary weft threads of dyed wool or nettle that are thicker than those of the ground weave, creating raised, embroidery-like patterns. The garment is finished with a fringe about 15 to 25 centimetres long, plied from the warp threads, which is thought to have served the practical purpose of warding off insects while working in the fields.

Kushungs are little known across Bhutan except in their native region, where too they are largely restricted to temples. Here they adorn some deities, and are worn by ceremonial dancers in pre-Buddhist rituals, such as the Bulli Mani festival and a festival dedicated to the Bon deity; a similar archaic tunic called the shingkha, darker and thicker than the kushung, is also worn during these rituals. Some are also preserved in homes as family heirlooms along with other valuables in a yanggam, or ‘box of happiness’. These articles are brought out once a year to be blessed by lamas as part of a prosperity ritual known as rimdro. 

Some surviving kushungs are part of private collections, while some others are housed in museums, both in Bhutan — such as the Textile Museum in Thimphu and the Ogyen Choling Museum in Bumthang — and around the world, including the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.