After returning home from Kuwait following a serious workplace accident that left him with a steel implant in his leg, Rabin BK of Marang, Dhaulagiri Rural Municipality-6, is now building his future by turning his ancestral skills into a business.
His traditional craft has enabled him to become financially self-reliant. Operating from a small temporary shed in Mangalaghat, Beni Municipality-7, BK produces wooden thekis (wooden butter churn) and various artistic items.
He says he finds greater satisfaction in continuing the skills he learned from his ancestors in his own homeland than in enduring the hardships of foreign employment.
BK returned to Nepal after suffering an accident just three months after arriving in Kuwait for foreign employment.
“I met with an accident just three months after arriving in Kuwait for work. I returned home after nine months, following surgery to insert a steel implant in my leg. After coming back, I took up my ancestral occupation. I feel proud to be able to work hard in my own homeland,” he said.
He has rented land in Mangalaghat to operate his workshop. The steel implant inserted in his leg following the accident in Kuwait remains in place.
BK produces various artistic items from locally available wood, which he purchases from forests in rural areas, and sells them both domestically and abroad. He has established a small enterprise specialising in wooden products.
He says he is often busy fulfilling orders for the products manufactured at his workshop and faces no difficulty in selling them.
“I may not earn as much by making wooden products as I could have earned abroad, but I am satisfied to be able to remain in my own place and continue my ancestral occupation,” he said.
“There is very little possibility that the younger generation will take up this profession. Therefore, I am trying to preserve the skills and occupation handed down by my ancestors and develop them as a business,” he said.
He said his family’s economic self-reliance had been made possible through the skills inherited from his ancestors.
BK added that the support and cooperation of locals had also encouraged him in running the enterprise. He said his wooden products now reach various parts of Nepal as well as foreign countries.
“There is even demand from abroad for wooden thekis,” he said.
He currently earns around Rs. 40,000 a month after deducting expenses. According to BK, wooden thekis are durable and can be used for many years.
He said demand for thekis remains strong because they are convenient for preparing yoghurt and making buttermilk, while also enhancing its taste.
He purchases wood from rural areas and brings it to Beni, where he makes different products according to customer demand.
Along with thekis, BK produces various traditional wooden untensils such as puchai, saws, mana-pathi measuring containers, tumba, plates, bowls, glasses and khurpeta.
He said he manufactures products ranging in price from Rs. 200 to Rs. 20,000 and sells them in local markets, different parts of the country and abroad.
Products that cannot be sold directly from his workshop are taken to fairs and festivals, urban markets and rural villages for sale, he added.
