These thin stripes are omnipresent in Kerala's everyday wear. Men wear "Mundus" (sarongs), and women wear Saris, both adorned with these stripes on the border. The coast of Kerala was a big part of international trade routes since the Greco-Roman times - this stripe on the border was possibly inspired by ancient Roman textiles. More recently, in the late 18th century, gold coins paid by Portuguese spice merchants made its way into the handloom stripe in the form of Gold fibers (Zari) - a tradition alive to this day.
A "backwater" network of interconnected canals, rivers, lakes and inlets runs across nearly half the entire state. This is one of the big reasons why it is India's most popular tourist destination. The combination of fresh and salt-water systems has created a unique eco-system of plants and animals, none more famous than the official state fish "karimeen", a delicacy typically enjoyed on a backwater houseboat.