|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| By
: Ly Vanna, Picture by : Bobby Viceral. |
|
|
At a busy
intersection in bustling Phnom Penh, young women
are standing on the sidewalk, polishing rattan chairs.
They work at the cluster of shops here at the corner
of Norodom and Sotheros boulevards, all overflowing
with furniture made from this tropical vine, called
p'dou in Khmer.So many, in fact, that the place
has been nicknamed Psar P'dou (Rattan Market) by
locals.
Almost every type of furniture or knickknack can
be bought here, fashioned from this prodigious vine
from petite baskets to glass -topped rattan dinner
tables and huge satellite chairs priced between
one dollar and $140.All prices, the sellers admit,
are open to bargaining. "Khmers and foreigners
come here to buy this furniture," said shop
owner Hi Sithon, 45."But |
|
|
|
| the number of
buyers has gone down in recent years. "Rattan is
actually not technically a vine but a member of the palm
family of the genera Calamus, Daemonorops and Korthalsia.
Stems of the larger varieties can grow to 200 meters in
length. Unlike most palms, rattan leaves do not form a
crown but are typically equipped with long barbs with
which it attaches itself to host trees to climb from the
forest floor and glean precious sunlight. Rattan is a
$3 billion industry worldwide, and most rattan products
come from Southeast Asian nations such as Indonesia. Cambodia
is currently not a large commercial exporter, although
domestically the affordable, good-looking wares it creates
are very popular. There is an art to shaping the long,
hard vines that come to the shopkeeper artisans from provinces
all over Cambodia, including Kratie, Siem Reap, Kampong
Thom and Kampong Som. Placing the thick stems over just
enough heat makes it pliable, and it can then be bent
into circles and rainbow arches to make chairs and tables.
Once wood fire was used in the shops. Now gas has taken
over. The expert hands of the rattan artists shape the
white or light brown stems quickly, before they harden
to the strength of timber and a durability all of their
own. "To make one piece of furniture usually takes
about half a day," said one veteran seller who would
only call himself Mr. Sour. "The natural color of
rattan is beautiful. Many people prefer that. |
|
| Otherwise,
we apply varnish, and that takes time to set."
I can make just about everything from rattan big
or small. We have ready-to-buy patterns and models
that we always stock, or some people come to us
with designs they want made up, and I can do that,
too. "Mountain ranges such as the now-protected
Cardamoms (Kror Vanh) stretching across Pursat and
Koh Kong, and the Elephant (Damrei) mountains in
Kampot, which include Bokor National Park, have
traditionally yielded rich harvests of rattan. And
that, not the slight fall in trade, might be the
factor that finally closes these family-run stores.
Shopkeeper Mr. Sour believes "If rattan is
left on a tree, it will kill it," But experts
do not agree. "Actually, rattan can deform
a tree when it grows," said Meng Monyrak, vice
chief of the National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary
Office, |
|
|
|
| Ministry of Environment.
"But nowadays the destruction of rattan areas is
very large, especially for three or four of the 10 species
native to Cambodia. "There are many species of rattan.
Not all are suitable for making furniture. Some are popular
as food, but many of the 10 native species are virtually
ignored commercially, putting the greatest pressure on
a handful of the species in specific forest pockets. "As
a secondary forest product or non-timber forest product
(NTFP), we need to legislate to protect the rattan and
the forests it is being pulled out of. The ministry is
currently preparing laws for controlling NTFP cutting
and harvesting," Mr. Monyrak said. "Just recently
we banned rattan cutting as a business. However, we haven't
taken any action against those who cut it as a small scale
family-sideline yet." In other countries, like Indonesia,
rattan has been successfully cultivated as a commercial
crop and the industry is no longer totally dependent on
wild rattan. And the Brazilian-based Liana Project, which
was established in 1995 and has studied rattan production
worldwide and its impact on the environment, has reported
that "the economic potency (of rattan) served as
an important incentive to preserving and regrowing forests"
in other countries with a strong rattan industry. But
there is a limit to Cambodia's forests that is quickly
being reached, and a limit to the supplies of rattan they
can bear, too. Cambodia currently does not have the resources
to begin commercial planting of rattan. For now, village
families who use rattan cutting to supplement a subsistence
farming income are the ones technically supplying the
shops on Sotheros Boulevard, and that is legal. That means
that the little shops will keep turning out their big,
comfortable chairs and expensive looking tables that are
actually cheaper and as strong as their timber counterparts.
The girls will still to be seen standing on the footpath,
applying varnish and applying the finishing touches to
their shop's creations in the way they have done and their
mothers before them for years past. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Previous
Article |
Next Article
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Suite
B8, Regency Square, InterContinental Hotel, 294 Mao Tse Toung
Boulevard,
Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia.
Tel: (855) 23 213 133 Fax: (855) 23 213 033
E-mail:
editor@leisurecambodia.com |
|
|
|
|
|
Read
Leisure By :
