| Description |
Wood turned utensils and dishes were present in Bhutan since ancient times. Communities from different parts of Bhutan have a similar type of craft as cups and plates are necessary for all household meals. However, the labour-intensive wood turned lacquer wares from Yangtse earned a considerable reputation in the kingdom.
About a century-old traditional woodturning art (Shag-zo) in Yangtse is still a vibrant and popular means of family business and occupation. The present young artisans in Yangtse who are in their 20s and early 30s are the fifth-generation descendants of Lobazang from Kham in Tibet.
Like other crafts of Bhutan, Shagzo demands a long process. The extracted wood knots and burls have to be dried; soaked in water; roughly shaped (first turned); roughly turned bowls are boiled; dried again; final turned bowls are smoothened with sandpapers and dried leaves of Trema politoria (locally known as Sog sogpa-shing). After colouring them yellow or red, it becomes ready for the next step – lacquering. Lacquering is another time-consuming process. Traditionally, lacquerers mostly use an urushiol-based lacquer common in East Asia derived primarily from toxic wax trees known as Sey Shing in Yangtse.
These wooden bowls are an integral part of both the Bhutanese and Tibetan lifestyles and this explains the high demand for these products in Tibet. In the medieval period, people from Yangtse and Bumdeling traded wooden plates (not Dhapas) and bowls (cups) to Assam (India) and Go-phors (wooden bowl with lid), Lha-phor (bowl with lid used by monks), Dra-phor (bigger than other Phobs originally used by Tibetan Drapas), and Bay-phor (used by Tibetans, and has a deeper interior than Bhutanese hobs) to people of Tibet. Other than products historically exported to Assam and Tibet, Shagzopas make varieties of wood-turned products. |
