Drane Rukaj

Drane Rukaj is one of the few inhabitants of Malësi e Madhe who still retains the knowledge of the construction of Xhublet . Despite her advanced age, Mrs. Rukaj is 81 years old, he remembers in detail the processes and methods applied for the preservation, as well as the maintenance of Xhublet. As usually happened in the tradition of the mountain woman, Drane Rukaj has started dressing in her maiden dress, which she inherited from her aunt, from a young age. Then when she got married, at the age of 18, she started wearing a woman’s dress. The tradition of changing xhublet, between that of a girl and a woman, which had distinctive characteristics from each other, according to the statements of the inhabitants of the area, was a custom that was strictly respected by mountain women. In this way, the xhublet also served as a distinguishing sign of the woman’s status in the community. Drane Rukaj, as he says himself, did not have the opportunity to wear the woman’s xhublet for more than a year, for the reason that after 1960 the use of this clothing in everyday life was banned by the regime of the time. Despite the directives prohibiting the use of the xhublet, Drane, like many mountain women, wore the xhublet whenever there was a Lodge and on other holidays. The tradition of cutting and sewing xhublet, in Drane Ruka’s family, was inherited from generation to generation, and both her grandmother and her mother had made many xhublet. However, Drane Rukaj learned xhublet from her grandmother, since her mother passed away at a young age. Drane says that she made a xhublet with the help of her grandmother, but despite the fading of the tradition of making and wearing a xhublet, she is proud that every time there is a celebration, her daughters and sons’ daughters-in-law wear xhublet.