Kengkhar Women
Prove Equal To Men In Craft
Over 25 crafts
persons were trained by skilled locals on the techniques of making silver
decorative belt patterns and motifs for Ara Palang (alcohol cask) in Murung
village under Kengkhar gewog in Mongar.
The project
was recently taken up by Helvetas to train craftsperson as part of the skills
development program of local traditional craft.
Traditionally,
the art and craft to manufacture the product was a ‘men only’ domain, and
limited women’s role to polishing silver decorative patterns, extracting and
transporting raw materials from the forest.
However, women
are beginning to take up the occupation more seriously and from the recent
training, the organization has identified some potential and skilled female Ara
palang-makers in Murung village.
“Women are
equally skilled and are capable of crafting high quality Ara palang,” project
Coordinator with the Helvetas, Kunzang Dorji said. More women now showed
interest in the trade and Murung women had no hesitation to work just as
equally as men.
One among such
female craftsperson in Kengkhar is Pem Zam.
She said there
is nothing that women cannot do and that some women could craft better alcohol
cask than men. Women also proved superior in identifying better raw materials
from the forest.
The raw
materials to craft Jandop (alcohol cask) in Kengkhar, Monggar had come to an
end yet the skilled people in order to maintain the age-old tradition travelled
far to Pemagatshel and Lhuentse to collect raw materials.
According to
Kunzang Dorji, Kengkhar is eminent for highly-skilled alcohol cask makers, a
tradition which is an old age practice.
He said that
such produce have been a prime product of local trade with the neighboring
villages and dzongkhags, who engaged in barter systems of trade in the past.
With the
increasing demand of Ara palang of Kengkharpas, the women in the area realized
that the product has become an unmistakable symbol of their cultural product
and community identity and also a major source of family income.
The Project
Coordinator said that the project’s aim is to help preserve local crafts
heritage through skills enhancement and supply of basic tools and equipments
and help open-up markets for crafts.
He said the
enterprise development livelihood programs will be implemented in close
collaboration with Tarayana Foundation, who has already initiated experimental
plantation of the Dongtshong shing (sp. Boehmeria Rugulosa) an important
material crucial to Ara Palang and the survival of the craft.
The community
of Kengkhar has inherent skills in several crafts, in particular wood crafting
and silver-smithy.
Kunzang Dorji
said that with adequate support in terms of skills development and other
entrepreneurial training in related crafts, Kengkhar can emerge as the model
crafts gewog in Bhutan.
The training
is a part of the Leveraging and Preserving Cultural Diversity (LCD) project’s
enterprise development activity, supported by Helvetas Swiss Inter-cooperation
and a grant from the European Union under the theme “investing in people-access
to local culture, protection and promotion of cultural Diversity”.
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Source:http://www.thebhutanese.bt/kengkhar-women-prove-equal-to-men-in-craft/
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