Friday, February 29, 2008

Rural assam day to day life !!!














































------------------------------RURAL ASSAM------------------------------------
----------------------------------An assam type house---------------------------
------------------------paddy field------------------------------------



------------------------------In kitchen (chowka)---------------------------------
-------------------------------Traditional meal in traditional Kaahi and baati's---------------------------

-----------------------the rice crusher (Dheki)---------------------------------


---------------------------ladies in charge of poultry----------------------------
------------------------------Rice store house (bhoral)-------------------------
-------------------------------cow shelter houses (Go-hali)--------------------
-----------------------------------the handloom (Taat Xaal)---------------------

-----------------------------------chouka at paakghar-----------------------


-------------------------------lady using handpump (domkol)-------------------------
-------------------------------poultry houses------------------------------
-----------------------------lady with poultries----------------------------------






A traditional middle class Rural Assam household has some common features like

1) Assam type houses made of wood, bamboo with a inverted “v” like dome.

2) Drawing room with Wooden furniture set, small sitting furniture made of bamboo (Murha) to sit. Bell metal accessory to keep betel nut and betel leaf (Paan tamulor bota) for the home use as well as giving it to the visitor after meal/breakfast. Bell metal cultural showpiece (Xorai) on a wooden table in the drawing room and Jaapi on the wall.

3) Dining room with a round/rectangular table with four/six sitting capacity.a cover over a tray with food is usually seen in assamese houses.

4) A puja ghar with photos altars of the revered deity.
Bedroom with wooden beds. It also has tables for the children to read over which you can have lamp with chimney or torch. Wooden manually usable fan (bichoni) is also kept for use In the bedroom as well as in drawing room

5) Assamese Kitchen called as Aakhol Ghor or paakghar normally has two parts. First the dining area plus a small cooking space for tea etc. And the next bigger and more functional room is the actual kitchen with at least two earthen fire places (chowka)

Various cooking accessories found in a traditional rural assamese household are
the keraahi (iron woks) where most of the cooking and frying is done,
the pressure cooker --the most universal cooking accessory
the rimmed, deep, flat-bottomed dekchi
the handi - a special large pot for cooking rice and the handleless modification of the sauce pan -
the tawa (griddle) on which rotis and parotas are made
hetaa or Koroch (ladle),
the khonti (metal spatula),
the ghutni (wooden hand blender) ,
the wooden belona (round pastry board and rolling pin).

6) Bathroom (ga dhua ghar) with a Indian style latrine.

At the back yard the following could be seen:

1) Poultries (Murgi/ Haanh goral)

2) Dairy farm (guhali)

3) Weaving loom (Taat Saal)

4) Small multipurpose rice storage house (Bhoral ) where rice stocks and agricultural tools like sickle(kachi), plough(nangal), plough share(Haal), Khurpi, daa, kotaari etc are kept.

5) Rice crusher (Dheki)

6) Domestic gardens at the backyard where cabbage, cauliflower,radish, Cow peas, potato,carrot, corn, sugarcane, onion, garlic, ginger, pumpkin, bottleguard, White gourd, brinjal, Broad/Butter Beans, Custard Apple,lemon, Corriander, Drumstick, lady finger, tomato, Mint Leaves, cucumber, chillies,spinach, Star Fruit trees, betel-nut, betel leaf, mango trees, coconut trees, banana trees, papaya trees, dry plum trees, Goose berry (aamlokhi) trees, Pomegranate trees, Olive trees, pine apple trees, guava trees, jack fruit trees,etc. are reared or cultivated.

7) Tulasi trees are revered with sprinkling of holy water as a mark of devotion.

8) A pond at the backyard whose water is used for water at home after filtering for drinking purpose, to bring water for bath or toilet, to wash cloths etc.

9) A handpump (domkol)to collect water for necessary work.

10) A big vessel for making food for the cows.

11) A big empty space (varanda, chutal) for all the members to sit, talk or sun tanning.

A boundary made of bamboo called jeura protects the home from trespassing cows. It has horizontal bamboo blockings called nongola.


The ladies usually are busy with the household chores like sweeping the floors, cooking, cleaning of utensils, washing of clothes etc as well as taking care of the chickens and ducks.

The gents would go to the paddy fields with the cows and the required agricultural tools like plough(nangal), plough share(Haal), sickle(kachi), Khurpi, daa, kotaari etc to take care of the rice cultivation.

6 comments:

uddip talukdar said...

amazing photos... I loved all of them... Thanks for uploading them.. I would like to use some of them as reference. Hope you don't mind...

Kandarpa Konwar said...

Dear friend, I could not help but eulogise you for your hardlabour to reflect Assam in front of the world. Keep it up! With best compliments from Kandarpa Konwar

Rajiv said...

Mofid da, lovely pics... brings back so many memories. I have to show a pic of a "daa" ( big knife,bamboo one ) to my friends here in Delhi. Can you mail me one? my id is rajiv.stumbleupon@gmail.com , thanks

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