Bamboo Arts of India

                                      Bamboo Arts of India

India has a wealth of craftsmanship and Bamboo Arts is no exception.  The bamboo arts of Southern India, Bengal and eastern and North Eastern States excel and even today, they are thriving in spite of completion from the plastic and modern world.  The concept of cottage industries in India has transformed the lives of unemployed, uneducated, local artisans who are gifted in several traditional art forms of India.

Bamboo art apart are in use for many domestic purposes and also in musical instruments.  Even the household ones are made with such esthetic sense, one cannot but appreciate the imagination and implementation of thoughts of the craftsmen.  I have had number of occasions to run into these “products” selling on the roadsides to the one exhibited well in a hall for promotion of these “products”.  

Some interesting facts on Bamboo:

1.   Certain species of bamboo can grow 91 cm (3 ft) within a 24-hour period, at a rate of almost 4 cm (1.5 in) an hour (a growth around 1 mm every 90 seconds, or one inch every 40 minutes).

2.   Unlike all trees, individual bamboo culms emerge from the ground at their full diameter and grow to their full height in a single growing season of three to four months.  

3.   Bamboo has a higher Compressive strength than wood, brick, or concrete and a  tensile strength that rivals steel. 
4. Bamboo was used for the structural members of the Indian Pavilion at Expo 2010 in Shanghai. The pavilion was the world’s largest bamboo dome, about 34 m (112 ft) in diameter, with bamboo beams/members overlaid with a ferro-concrete slab, waterproofing, copper plate, solar PV panels, a small windmill, and live plants. A total of 30 km (19 mi) of bamboo was used. The dome was supported on 18-m-long steel piles and a series of steel ring beams. The bamboo was treated with borax and boric acid as a fire retardant and insecticide and bent in the required shape.

Even today the bamboo furnitures are being used in households though becoming sparse.  Will they become the thing of the past?

Bamboo products give a livelihood for several people involved in growing of bamboos to artisans and also those who market it.  Will we support it and not make it a thing of the past?

All said and done, definitely it will give the people who love music a wonderful time for years to come.