Some of you might know but i am off on a Year travelling around the world, We have been to Nepal and India so far- In India we have spent time in the Sikkim to the north east and made our way threw Varanasi,Agra and New-Delhi to the state of Himachal Pardesh and spent some time in Daramshala.
I attended a class there of some traditional craft making including some Bowls(mostly made of coconut), bone tools and rope making- the interesting thing is that here the word rope is "jute"(pronounced- i don't know how it is written). There was no use of metal tools and there was no use of abrasive paper, to cut the coconut the teacher used a bone saw that seemed like it was a disposable tool but it cut threw more then ten coconuts with out trouble.
The abrasive shown here in hand is a sand stone- i have never done this before and the finished product looks like it has been worked with machine tools where all we used was this stone mixed with some sand and polishing by hand with some old fabric.
My Bushy look-
We continued to the north west and spent a few weeks in the state of Ladakh in the city of Leh, i visited some old village in the mountains and in the Nubra Valley which are cut off from the rest of india for almost 8 months a year, some of the these villages use the majority of traditional tools, I found a fantastic old man whom still carries his fire steel with him and took me to a magnificent Heritage building to show me some of the older styles.
These are dated almost two hundred years ago-
The first on the right is meant for a child or young youth accompanying his father or brother on a Yak herding journey. The other two are for heads of families or clans therefore they are more decorated.
The sets i saw in use have the same design where the leather that the steel is attached to is actually a pouch with some tinder(usually a dry piece of a plant that is common here in the Himalayas that can be fluffed up like flint) also in that pouch an old piece of cloth. Though they were not as nice as the ones in the picture it is of allot value to them and once given one a man will carry it for the rest of his life.
Bottom line- they still use them although they know of the existence of matches and lighters. Amazing !!!!!
I attended a class there of some traditional craft making including some Bowls(mostly made of coconut), bone tools and rope making- the interesting thing is that here the word rope is "jute"(pronounced- i don't know how it is written). There was no use of metal tools and there was no use of abrasive paper, to cut the coconut the teacher used a bone saw that seemed like it was a disposable tool but it cut threw more then ten coconuts with out trouble.
The abrasive shown here in hand is a sand stone- i have never done this before and the finished product looks like it has been worked with machine tools where all we used was this stone mixed with some sand and polishing by hand with some old fabric.
My Bushy look-
We continued to the north west and spent a few weeks in the state of Ladakh in the city of Leh, i visited some old village in the mountains and in the Nubra Valley which are cut off from the rest of india for almost 8 months a year, some of the these villages use the majority of traditional tools, I found a fantastic old man whom still carries his fire steel with him and took me to a magnificent Heritage building to show me some of the older styles.
These are dated almost two hundred years ago-
The first on the right is meant for a child or young youth accompanying his father or brother on a Yak herding journey. The other two are for heads of families or clans therefore they are more decorated.
The sets i saw in use have the same design where the leather that the steel is attached to is actually a pouch with some tinder(usually a dry piece of a plant that is common here in the Himalayas that can be fluffed up like flint) also in that pouch an old piece of cloth. Though they were not as nice as the ones in the picture it is of allot value to them and once given one a man will carry it for the rest of his life.
Bottom line- they still use them although they know of the existence of matches and lighters. Amazing !!!!!
