Baasher Ghor - The Bamboo House

Images from the tribal villages in Lawachara National Park in Bangladesh, taken during the MS:SP Fellowship, have been selected for inclusion in the project 'Baasher Ghor - The Bamboo House'.

NID & The Centre for Environment Education.

One of the HAT LAB participants, Prarthana Borah, is a programme coordinator at CEE; The Centre for Environment Education. We went to visit the beautiful CEE campus and to see and learn about the educational work she and CEE are involved with across the whole of India.

'The Centre for Environment Education, CEE was created in recognition of the importance of environmental education in India's overall environment and development strategy. It is a national institution engaged in developing programmes and material that improve public awareness and understanding of the environment with a view to promoting the conservation and sustainable use of nature and natural resources, leading to a better environment and a better quality of life. CEE was established in 1984 as a Centre of Excellence in Environmental Education, supported by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Government of India. CEE is part of The Nehru Foundation for Development, (its parent organisation) which has been promoting educational work in the areas of science, nature study, health, development, and the environment since 1966."

The Centre is involved in the development of environmental educational programmes for both formal (schools to higher education) and informal (community education) settings. It provides training for educators and teachers as well as long term education for graduates and post graduates in environmental education. It is responsible for producing learning materials to promote understanding of environmental awareness as well as publishing papers and books diseminating information on environmental and sustainability issues. CEE lobbies at regional, national and international levels and provides support for a diverse range of sustainable and environmental projects including design and materials projects which support the use of sustainable, reused and/or recycled materials. In Ahmedabad CEE are exploring projects aimed at greening the old city pols; encouraging the growing of produce and plants on roof terraces and balconies as well as trying to planting to encourage wildlife back into the city.

The Campus includes a Library and documentation centre - where books, periodicals, maps, charts, posters, kits, as well as audio-visual and other non-print material on Environment Education (EE) and related subjects are available to reference, loan or buy. An Information Service Centre, established to collect and disseminate information on Environmental Education, Education for Sustainable Development and related areas forming an archive and information hub to support the needs of environmental educators, decision makers, researchers and the general public. 

CEE has a tour bus which takes exhibitions out to villages and towns to promote environmental awareness.

There is a graphic design studios, producing art work for leaflets, publications, temporary and permanent exhibition.

And an exhibition design studio and workshop, producing displays for exhibitions promoting the objectives of CEE.

The skill of the model makers was clear to see... 

The centre had an entrance building, a retail area selling books, publications and some of the design artefacts that are produced as part of CEE projects. Outside this space was a interesting open area  - a steel structure, clad with strips of bamboo. It produced layers of light bamboo and shadows.

Bamboo is increasingly becoming a material of choice in design practices and across the whole range of scales (product to Architecture) due to its environmental and sustainable qualities. It is fast growing, environmentally sound, available on a whole range of scales from large diameter, tall, structurally strong  'tubes' to fine woven panels for buildings, as well as all manner of domestic items from baskets and cooking utensils to mats, its even being spun and woven into fibres to make blankets and towels. Both NID and CEE are involved in design, economic and social projects exploring further ideas and possibilities for this versatile material.

Along with Barney and Steve Dixon I went on to visit Neelima Hasija Associate Senior Designer- Industrial Design & Coordinator for the Ceramic and Glass Discipline at the National Institute of Design.

NID is a leading design college in India, It was established in 1961 by the Governement of India under the Ministry for Industry as an autonomous leading national institution for design education, training, service and research. The school follows the teaching principles of the Bauhaus and Ulm Schools of Design in Germany and the college has an international reputation as a leading light in the field of design and as a catalyst for change in Indian design, industry and the countries economic development.

"During the early years of post independence India, manifold changes were taking place in economic and social scenario and in production processes with the introduction of new technologies even in the remotest corners of the Indian sub-continent. There were at that time, great thinkers who realized that the process of development demanded a closer look at the future policies and resources that would later on determine the pattern and pace of growth envisioned for India of the future. The Industrial Policy Resolution of 1953 outlined these concerns and indicated broad guidelines. It was as result of these activities that the Government of India invited the renowned design team of Charles and Ray Eames to recommend a programme of design to serve as an aid to the newly established small industries in India. On the basis of their ground breaking and insightful document, 'The India Report', the Government of India set up the National Institute of Design in 1961 as an autonomous national institution for research, service and training in Industrial Design and Visual Communication."


Students from around the world come to study here and both the students projects and staff research includes field work, studying and documenting the indigenous crafts of India. The college has a shop which sells work produced by current and recent graduates as well as publications and work by staff. I picked up a great book  'Bamboo and Cane Crafts of North East India'  By MP Ranjan documenting the use of cane and bamboo across different states and on different scales from fish baskets to architectural work.
Outside the shop I was introduced to Manish Vaidya the buyer and retail manager of the Craft Centre at the House of MG. He kindly offered to meet and show me some of the workshops in the Old City.

On the way back to Arts Reverie we passed a cycle rickshaw with a giant plastic water storage tank.

Shrimongol to Dhaka

After visiting Lawachara National Park we returned to the cottage, collected our bags and headed for the station to return to Dhaka, enroute we went via some more of the villages.

The ice cream man was there, with a painted aluminium coolbox fitted to his bike.

On the platform someone had a wonderful bag/ basket made from packaging, layered together like papier mache.

As we headed back to Dhaka much of the land we passed through had once been forest, areas have been cleared both for their timber and for tea and rice production.

We paused at stations along the way where boys sold water and snacks to the people on the trains. At some of the stations children jumped onto the trains to collect the plastic bottles and other items for recycling, leaving before the train departed.

Slowly the daylight faded and the light from villages and shops along the route caught my attention. In the outskirts of Dhaka, people shopped near to the level crossings. The shanti's close to the railway line were lit up.

See parts of the journey here: Pani. Tea & Rice. Clearing. Pause. Light. Lights.

Lawachara National Park & Tribal Village

We hitched a lift in an auto rickshaw with some locals and made our way to Lawachara National Park, some 8km east of Srimongol. Lawachara is one of five initial pilot sites across Bangladesh to begin adapting a 'Protected area co-management' approach, under the guidance and direction of Nishorgo.

A beautiful tropical forest, the area (1531ha) is home to hundreds of wildlife, including some 246 species of birds as well as reptiles, amphibians, insects and primates including the endangered Hoolock Gibbon and the Slow Loris. The Park forms part of the larger West Bhanugach Reserve and was once a managed timber plantation. It has only been established as a national park and protected since 1996.

Excessive fuel wood collection, Illicit timber extraction, tourism, land encrouchment, gas pipelines all continue to threaten this habitat.

There are set pathways and walks around the reserve and eco guides are available to hire to take you around the park. Many of the guides are local people, trained as part of the Nishorgo project, with some knowledge of the park and the wildlife.

Within the park (and around the tea plantations) are several ' tribal villages'.

Some are Khasia villages called 'Punji' others are Monipuri villages called 'Para'.

The settlements date back to the early 1940's when people were settled in the area to carry out logging and plantation work in the forest.

We visited a Khasai Punji.

The Khasai communities are forest dependent and use the forest as a source of firewood (to cook and to sell), bamboo, cane (for weaving baskets and mats), wild vegetables, fruits and medicinal plants. They also hunt wild animals, fish and birds. Some of the Khasai are engaged in daily manual labour.

The majority of Khasai are Christian or Hindu. This was the village church.

The villagers were each given 1.2ha of land, they use the land to cultivate lemons and pineapple and are allowed to cultivate betel leaves, their only cash crop, in the forest. The betel plant is an evergreen climber and requires trees to grow up.

The leaf is used for 'pan', a mild stimulant. Leaves are pasted with lime, shavings of areca nut and cinnamon then wrapped into a parcel and chewed. One of the identifying features resulting from a person chewing pan is the red saliva.

A Khasai woman sorting betel leaves.

A Khasai family sitting on a cane mat.

Preparing pan.

Tools for preparing pan.A special knife designed for collecting betel leaves, the collector sometimes has to climb high into the tree canopy to collect the leaves.Different shaped baskets are used to collect the leaves. They are positioned on the back between the shoulder blades, sometimes supported by a band across the forehead or worn like a rucksack.

They baskets have beautiful forms, made with different weaves.

A simple but beautifully made brush.

Use of bamboo poles for drying the clothes.

The houses were awash with colour. Some looked like specially arranged compositions and reminded me of Bruce Chatwin photography.

Some were very bright others had a no-less beautiful, more muted, palette.

Some houses were brightly painted and included the owners names and the dates they were built.

A wonderful line of dots had been created in the earth around one house, formed by the rain running off the corrugated tin roof.
A dot to dot line drawn in the earth, leading around the house.Charcoal marks.
Many buildings were cut into the hillsides of the rolling landscape.The houses were made of different materials depending upon the wealth of the owners, some were brick and cement others concrete, some were wood or mud, others bamboo.

The whole village was a visual feast of colours, compositions, textures, surfaces and constructions.Mud rendered over a bamboo lattice.
A red mark of pan coloured spit below the window.

Blocks of mud rendered with clay.

A more modern bamboo and zinc building built on stilts on the brink of a very steep hill.

A more traditional clay and bamboo (or bark) wall.

The scale of the bamboo made for different qualities in walls.

Most properties had a veranda space, outside to protect from the sun or the rain, used by the occupants to cook, sit or work.

The wide roof allowed for the rain to run off away from the building.

The village had its own school at the top of a hill, with six pupils.

Outside they had built their own Shaheed Minar, which had been used to celebrate Ekushey.