De-Zo : Process Handmade paper: Paper making art fromBhutan
De-zo is one great art of Bhutan
out of famous thirteen crafts.
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| De-zo Hand made paper |
De-zo is an art of making paper.
Though paper making is common art and, we must be thinking about the special of
craft which has bought a place of, finest art of Bhutan. Well we understand it
here, the importance, process and religious value of De-zo.
This is traditional art of Bhutan
and specifically made out of bark of tree Daphne. Tree Daphne is associated
with an old Greek mythology. The personification of the laurel (Greek Daphne) a
tree whose tree formed into a garland, were particularly associated with
Apollo, one of her lover and she rejected all including Apollo. Tree Daphne was
a type of female nymph associated with fountains, wells, springs, streams,
brooks and other bodies of fresh water.
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| Daphne Tree Image 1 |
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| Daphne Tree Image 2 |
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| Daphne Tree Image 3 |
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| Daphne Tree Image 4 |
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| Fantasy Daphne Tree Image 5 |
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| Daphne Tree Image 6 |
However, botanical terms, it is
an evergreen shrub. Its dark leaves are shiny on top and lighter on the bottom,
and grow in spiral like rings around the stem. Greenish yellow Flowers spreads
across aromatic smell, growing in fluted clusters at the tips of branches from
late winter to early spring and develop into small black berries by early
summer. It is sometimes mistaken by rhododendron in gardens or thought of
native species of forest. Daphne comes in variety from a meter high and tall
with pink creamy scented flowers. Daphne papyri grown at an attitude of 1500
feet and below produces a strong, dark paper. The edgeworthia papyri found at
higher attitudes of 3000 feet and above produces a whiter more fragile paper.
The paper making is done, without causing any harm to Mother Nature and without
the use of any chemicals.
Though securing space in older
days, in De-zo paper ma king craft, Tree Daphne made paper is quickly replaced
by easy made readily available commercial viable papers. But Daphne made hand
papers are still widely used in carry bags, wrapping papers, and paper to write
on religious scripts and texts, using traditional Bhutan ink or gold.
In Trashiyangtse,
this art is still in progress due to easy availability of raw material.
Historically, this paper has been utilized at Buddhist monasteries for
manuscripts books and for writing prayers and mantras. Today it is preserved as
old age tradition. (Jungshi Handmade paper factory Thimphu). The word Jungshi
means natural.
Process Detailing:
Old process: A very important culture of Bhutan
is hand- made paper making described in just few simple steps.
1.
Pulling the bark of tree and soaking
the strips of bark in water for 24 hours.
2.
The bark is boiled and washed,
cleaned, separated, for fine fibers and bad fibers and crushed.
3.
It is then pounded by a machine into
a wood pulp and mixed with hand in vat.
4.
A wooden frame (approx. 2ft*3ft.) with
bamboo screen filter is dipped into a vat of pulp and starch mixture. Starch is
made out of Hibiscus plant root.
5.
It is done about 1500 times a day, by hand
creating a stack of paper.
6.
It is then whistled around to allow a thin
layer if mixture to spread out evenly over the screen.
7.
It is transferred to a table where the screen
is carefully removed to result in a single sheet of Bhutanese paper.
8.
The screen is laid on the top of the
stack and carefully removed, leaving a new sheet of paper.
9.
The stack of paper is compressed to
squeeze out extra water.
10.
Each sheet of paper is taken off the
stack, one by one and hung dry on smooth vertical easel type boards. It may be
dried in sun.
11.
Each paper is brushed and cleans
after it is dried.
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| Step 1 |
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| Step 2 |
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| Step 3 |
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| Step 4 |
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| Step 5 |
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| Step 6 |
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| Step 7 |
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| Step 8 |
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| Step 9 |
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| Step 10 |
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| Step 11 |
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| Final step |
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| More images on paper making 1 |
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| More images on paper making 2 |
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| Paper making image 3 |
12.
The final step is sorting the beast
handmade paper and recycling the rejected paper.
It takes three days, with complete process to
make one sheet of paper. Dipping and swishing is part of it. The paper made by
this process is commonly used for making greeting cards, gift wraps, and for
other precious decorative purposes. The quality of paper is isn’t very good for
printing and copying but it carries the jungshi feel to it, much like natures
feel, touch of bark of tree and flowers pulps it is made from.
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| Use of hand made paper |
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| Hand made paper rolls |
Source of Information:
Jungshi Handmade paper factory brochure and National women’s Association of
Bhutan.
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