Brass Craft Industry in Bangladesh - Dhamrai

The hand-made metal(Brass) Craft of Bangladesh has developed its industry mainly in Dhamrai reserving the traditional craftsmanship alive for years. The article is written after an exploration to the place.

Getting down at the last bust stoppage of Dhamrai named Dullibhita,we hired a van and started for the RothMela Bazaar where the handmade metal craft industry is located. Every year the largest RothMela, a traditional Hindu festival of Bangladesh takes place there. We found last years colourful Roth there and the next one is getting manufactured.
The van crossed the Bazaar and was running on the street through the pleasant surroundings of an old town.We stopped in front of a Metal Workshop.
The outlook of the workshop is like an aged palace or 'Jamidarbari'. We went inside and found it is both a workshop and the residence of the owner. Artists and workers working inside the workshop, an old woman and a Purohit doing preparations of a Hindu prayer(Puja)at one side of the home yard.

According to the metal craft artists in Dhamrai the brass crafts in Bangladesh are manufactured in two processes- Lost Wax Process and Hollow Process.

The Lost Wax Process is used for manufacturing small crafts as things made by lost wax process are solid bodied, no hollow inside. The structure of the object is made by wax at first. The process requires high skilled artists to make the tiny parts of the object. It takes days and nights of work. Next a layer of clay of an inch is put over the wax object and left for some days allowing them to dry. When it finally dries a hole is made near the bottom of the object and it is put on fire. The clay gets burnt and firm and the melted wax comes out of the hole. Later liquid metal (brass) is poured inside the structure through the hole. When the metal becomes solid, the outside clay layer is removed and the required metal object is ready for polish.

The Hollow Process is used for large structures. Objects made by this process are light in weight as the inside part remain hollow. The process is almost similar to the lost wax process. Another layer of wax is given over the object before putting it on fire. Then a layer of clay is put. So, the object contains two layers of both wax and clay. The structure is burnt into fire and the two layers of wax come out. Next, liquid brass is put inside the two layers of clay which replaces the second layer of wax. And the first layer of wax remains as a hollow.

Brass crafts are remarkable hand works of Bangladesh. The industry requires more government attention to achieve adoration in international market.

©[2010] by [Tahmina Khan Tithi]

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