Visitors to be offered 'bamboo-made gift'

By Amar Raj Naharki, Tanahun, May 28: The local Bhujel community will now be serving modern 'boutique' gift made from bamboo for tourists visiting Bandipur, a major tourist destination in Tanahun.

The residents of Bhujel village in Bandipur Rural Municipality-5, who have traditionally been weaving only Doko and Nanglo, have now become professionally involved in producing attractive souvenirs.

As the market for household items shrinks these days, the local Bhujel community has diversified their ancestral skills, keeping in mind the changing market demands and tourism potential.

With technical support from the Micro Enterprise Development Programme for Poverty Alleviation (MEDP), local entrepreneurs have started manufacturing multi-purpose items including attractive furniture, flower pots, pen holders, cups, mugs, decorative clocks and photo frames from a combination of bamboo and wood. Although Bhujel village itself is not a tourist destination, the goal is to bring the handicrafts produced there to the main market area of Bandipur and sell them as attractive souvenirs. 

Surendra Bahadur Thapa, Chairman of the Bandipur Rural Municipality, said that the local government has given special priority to integrating ancestral skills with the modern market and tourism sector. 

Chairman Thapa said that the training was provided because it was not possible to get a return on investment by producing only traditional materials.

The rural municipality will provide necessary facilitation in the production, branding and marketing of decorative items that suit the tastes of tourists. The rural municipality has stated that it is believed that this will bring about a qualitative change in the living standards of the locals. 

Panchamaya Gurung, Vice President, said that this campaign will prove to be a milestone for sustainable income generation of the poor and marginalized communities. 

Gurung said that the rural municipality has a policy of making maximum use of local raw materials and indigenous skills to create self-employment for women and youth. Bandipur is an established and large centre for the consumption of manufactured goods, entrepreneurs will not have to face market problems.

Meanwhile, local entrepreneurs have experienced that their ancestral profession is in crisis as traditional products no longer fetch a fair price.

Tara Maya Bhujel, local entrepreneur demanded that subsidies be provided to entrepreneurs producing bamboo handicrafts based on production, just as subsidies are provided to farmers in the agricultural sector on milk.

Bhujel said that as the demand for traditional materials has been reduced, the youth who have not been able to pass on their skills to the next generation are forced to go abroad for employment. There is hope that income can be increased through modern handicraft materials.

The rural municipality recently conducted a 7-day entrepreneurial development training to identify potential entrepreneurs and lay the foundation for this business. 

During the training, participants were also trained on business awareness, business operation methods, market management, as well as theoretical and practical aspects of gender equality and social inclusion.