Every morning, 46-year old Bakht Mashar, walks to his workplace situated on the banks of a river in a remote village called Sheshan, near Lilownai village in Shangla district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Mashar is a carpenter and has been making woodenware for the last 20 years. He makes use of ancient techniques of wood-carving to make wooden dishes, which have become increasingly popular as kitchenware items within cities in Pakistan and also among the diaspora. The use of woodenware has always been common in the rural areas in the past.

“Many of us prefer to use woodenware items to make lassi and desi ghee, because it poses fewer health hazards than steel or glassware,” says Hamesh Gul, a local in Shangla guiding me to Mashar’s makeshift set-up in Lilownai. “This kitchenware is much more durable and safe for our health compared to other materials. We have been using it for many decades in our houses.”

Walking down the zigzag, narrow paths of the mountainous village of Sheshan, we saw Mashar’s workshop from a height. Though hard to find at first, my local guide Mian Mazhar Ali pointed me to Mashar’s place. It is only upon crossing the pedestrian bridge that I was able to see Mashar sitting under the open sky, surrounded by river rocks, carving a bowl.

Shangla’s traditional wooden kitchenware is becoming more popular through its increasing visibility on social media platforms. But only a select few carpenters still practise the art of making it

Mashar is one of the few carpenters in Shangla who make woodenware and sell their products locally, directly to other districts and through market retail.

“I learnt this skill from my father years ago,” Mashar remarks. “Two of my cousins also work as carpenters in our family. However, no one, including my sons, is taking any interest in learning this line of work, because they do not value this art. I think this art will no longer exist after we die.”

Mashar makes complete wooden dinner sets of 22 pieces on order and also custom-made pieces of different kinds of kitchenware, such as bowls, spoons, dinner plates, cups and saucers, bread and butter plates etc.

He tells Eos that he faces difficulties in finding wood as the three different species of trees — aesculus indica, walnut and mallotus philippensis — that go into making of the woodenware are rare and mostly found in protected forests.

“Wood-cutters cut trees located in the mountains, but accessing them is hard work,” remarks Mashar. “Travelling to high altitude locations in extreme weather conditions, making wooden sleepers and then bringing the wood down on one’s shoulders requires at least two to three days of labour.”

He elaborates on the process of procuring wood for kitchenware. After the wood is procured from the forest, it has to be cut into shorter pieces, after which 10 to 15 of these pieces are taken to the river bank every day for carving. Once carved, the kitchenware is shifted back indoors for cleaning, drying and polishing, after which it is ready to be sold to the customers.

“The wood used to make woodenware is not prohibited from being used for such purposes,” says Zahid Hussain, a sub-divisional forest officer at the Forest Department in Shangla. “But, if anyone wants to procure it from the protected forest, they would have to obtain a no-objection certificate and submit a proper application to the Forest Department. A protected forest is government-owned land in a particular place. Deforestation is considered to be illegal if it is done without permission. However, there is no ban on cutting certain species of trees on private lands.”

To process the wood, Mashar’s father made a wooden machine, a 30-feet long wooden spillway, through which water falls on a wooden turbine. On one side of the turbine they fix the pots with a small steel plug, and then they proceed to carve the wood with a tool (usually a knife). There is no usage of electricity or fuel in the running of this machine.

“It is a hard job, but I love my work,” Mashar tells Eos. “I sold a 22-piece dinner set for 5,000 rupees three years ago. Now I have increased its price to 8,000 rupees due to inflation.”

“I sell woodenware by going door-to-door in Shangla because it’s my only source of income,” says Mashar. “Interestingly, I have witnessed a surge in the purchase of woodenware in the last two years, since the people of Shangla started selling things online. Since I do not know how to use the internet, young men purchase dinner sets from me and market them online, which has greatly facilitated my business.”

Arif Ahmad is an entrepreneur in Swat who markets local products online. He says that there is a huge clientele of customers in major cities of Pakistan and also foreign countries, especially in the Middle East, who are interested in buying traditional Pakistani products.

According to Ahmad, people like to purchase woodenware, shawls, footwear and other antiques from Swat, Shangla and other parts of the Malakand division. Ahmad is able to bridge this gap between supply and demand by selling local products nationally and internationally.

“People from parts of Shangla, Swat and even Dubai and Saudi Arabia contact us through online agencies to place their orders,” Mashar tells Eos. “My father and I complete a single dinner set order in a week and send it on to the customers.”

Gul Rangzada used to make woodenware in the Lodhar area of Kana tehsil for over 30 years. “My work was exhibited at different festivals in Islamabad, Peshawar and Swat,” Rangzada remarks. “My products were sold internationally as well, because I signed a contract with an online business company in Islamabad. I was receiving more and more orders from the company every week.”

Rangzada’s business was at its peak before the recent floods. The floods of August 2022 swept away his entire workshop set-up, which consisted of a mini power station, a carving machine and heavy wood-cutting equipment which he had installed after the 2016 floods. He is trying to rebuild his set-up, but his biggest concern is that the area is prone to floods and could destroy his equipment again.

While there are four to six carpenters in two different places in Shangla, currently only Mashar and his cousins are making woodenware in Sheshan Lilowani as Rangzada’s workshop no longer exists.

This craft needs the government’s help in order to give these craftsmen access to national and international markets. This would help the carpenters further develop their businesses, provide a source of income for the locals and opportunities for budding entrepreneurs.

The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Shangla. He writes about social and human rights issues and tweets @Umar_Shangla

Published in Dawn, EOS, April 23rd, 2023