Exploring Jugia Tati Para – Kushtia

In Bangladesh we have several districts which are famous for producing cloth using handlooms. Kushtia is one of those. This district is famous for producing finely knitted Gamchha, Lungi, and Shari using handlooms. Jugia is a village near the Kushtia town which still has several families that use handloom to produce cloth. This unique craft work is diminishing after having a competition with the mechanical industries. That’s why I wanted to visit how they do it before it vanishes forever.

After returning from the Jhaudia Shahi Mosque, I was almost at the end of my tour. I had to catch the bus for Dhaka which was 4:00pm in the afternoon, and it was 1:00pm in the afternoon. So I decided to pass the time around the Jugia Tat Para (also known as Jugia Tat Polli, or Karigor para), where the villagers use to make Gamchha (kind of towel), Lungi, etc using the handlooms.

How to Go:

The village name is Jugia. It took around 20 Taka van fare (a three wheeler similar to rickshaw) from the Mojompur bus station. It took around 20-30 minutes to reach that village. The villagers were interested to know why I was there. I explained to them about my purpose for the visit. They were really surprised and happy to know that someone could come to their village to see this.

So they asked a local boy named Dulal to help me to visit the local houses who were making Gamchha and clothes using handlooms. That boy was really clever and awesome. He helped me enter the houses where women were working with the handlooms. Otherwise it would have been hard to enter any houses, especially where the village women are working. It was really a nice experience to see how people were weaving the clothes using a handloom. It takes labour and patience to do the work. Both male and female do the weaving whenever they get a chance.

I bought several pieces of freshly made Gamchha from the local people for me and my friends. It was a nice experience to watch how they were doing this. Believe me, it’s really a hard working job, and for this they do not get paid that much. The invention of mechanical industries just put a slap on them. That’s why nowadays the number of people who are working with handlooms are shrinking.

Jugia Tati Para (Jugia Tat Palli),
Village: Jugia,
District: Kushtia,
Country: Bangladesh,
GPS Coordinate (23°55’53.8″N, 89°06’12.3″E).

Written by Lonely Traveler,
For blog alonelytraveler.com

Sunday, 9th may 2010