Not much is known about the art of knitting in ancient Bon civilization. However, in terms of khatag, a few folk tales bring to light the origin of how the use of khatag came into practice. 

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During the time of king གྲི་གུམ་བཙན་པོ། ‘Drigum Tsenspo’, a descendent of གཤེན། ‘shen’ (Bon priest), was believed to have donkey ears. So, in order to hide his donkey ears, a woollen thread was bound around his forehead. Since then, the phrase “འཕྲུལ་གཤེན་བལ་ཐོད་ཅན།,” “wool fore-headed shen” came to be used which later got popularized. From then on, people in the agricultural and nomadic community started to bind a white woollen thread, which later is said to have evolved into the knitted khatag around their water and traditional beer containers during the new lunar year. This traditional Bon practice is believed to be one of the origins that brought about the use of khatags. 

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The origin of སྤུ་དར། ‘pur dhar’ which is offered during funeral has a different story. It is traced back to a folk story about two friends, who were very loyal and kind to each other. Although one of them was rich and the other poor, this never bothered them. Sadly one day, the rich friend passed away suddenly due to uncertain conditions. His sudden death made the poor friend very sad. Since, he was poor and did not have much to offer, in his grief he removed the white woollen thread which was tied around his cow's neck and put it on his dead friend's neck as a symbol of his loyalty and appreciation for his good friend. This was later adopted as a practice now known as ‘pur dhar’. The term སྤུར། ‘pur’ refers to a dead body or corpse, and དར། ‘dhar’ refers to silk fabric.