Bambooworking is the activity or skill of making items from bamboo, and includes architecture, carpentry, furniture and cabinetry, carving, joinery, and weaving. Its historical roots in Asia span cultures, civilizations, and millennia, and is found across East, South, and Southeast Asia.
Functional uses
Writing surface
Bamboo was in widespread use in early China as a medium for written documents. The earliest surviving examples of such documents, written in ink on string-bound bundles of bamboo strips (or "slips"), date from the fifth century BC, during the Warring States period. References in earlier texts surviving on other media indicate some precursor of these Warring States period bamboo slips was used as early as the late Shang period (from about 1250 BC).
Bamboo or wooden strips were used as the standard writing material during the early Han dynasty, and excavated examples have been found in abundance. Subsequently, paper began to displace bamboo and wooden strips from mainstream uses, and by the fourth century AD, bamboo slips had been largely abandoned as a medium for writing in China.
Bamboo fiber has been used to make paper in China since early times. A high-quality, handmade bamboo paper is still produced in small quantities. Coarse bamboo paper is still used to make spirit money in many Chinese communities.
Bamboo pulps are mainly produced in China, Myanmar, Thailand, and India, and are used in printing and writing papers. Several paper industries are surviving on bamboo forests. Ballarpur (Chandrapur, Maharstra) paper mills use bamboo for paper production. The most common bamboo species used for paper are Dendrocalamus asper and Bambusa blumeana. It is also possible to make dissolving pulp from bamboo. The average fiber length is similar to hardwoods, but the properties of bamboo pulp are closer to softwood pulps due to it having a very broad fiber length distribution. With the help of molecular tools, it is now possible to distinguish the superior fiber-yielding species/varieties even at juvenile stages of their growth, which can help in unadulterated merchandise production.
In Central India, there are regular bamboo working circles in the forest areas of Maharashtra, Madhyapradesh, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh. Most of the bamboo is harvested for papermaking. Bamboo is cut after three years of its germination. No cutting is done during the rainy season (July–September); broken and malformed culms are harvested first.
Writing pen
In olden times, people in India used handmade pens (known as Kalam or boru (बोरू)) made from thin bamboo sticks (with diameters of 5–10 mm and lengths of 100–150 mm) by simply peeling them on one side and making a nib-like pattern at the end. The pen would then be dipped in ink for writing.
Textiles
Since the fibers of bamboo are very short (less than 3 mm or 1⁄8 in), they are not usually transformed into yarn by a natural process. The usual process by which textiles labeled as being made of bamboo are produced uses only rayon made from the fibers, with heavy employment of chemicals. To accomplish this, the fibers are broken down with chemicals and extruded through mechanical spinnerets; the chemicals include lye, carbon disulfide, and strong acids. Retailers have sold both end products as "bamboo fabric" to cash in on bamboo's current ecofriendly cachet. The Canadian Competition Bureau and the US Federal Trade Commission, as of mid-2009, are cracking down on the practice of labeling bamboo rayon as natural bamboo fabric. Under the guidelines of both agencies, these products must be labeled as rayon, with the optional qualifier "from bamboo".
Fabric
Basketry
Construction
Bamboo, like true wood, is a natural building material with a high strength-to-weight ratio useful for structures. In its natural form, bamboo as a construction material is traditionally associated with the cultures of South Asia, East Asia, and the South Pacific, to some extent in Central and South America, and by extension, in the aesthetic of Tiki culture.
In China and India, bamboo was used to hold up simple suspension bridges, either by making cables of split bamboo or twisting whole culms of sufficiently pliable bamboo together. One such bridge in the area of Qian-Xian is referenced in writings dating back to 960 AD and may have stood since as far back as the third century BC, due largely to continuous maintenance.
Bamboo has also long been used as scaffolding; the practice has been banned in China for buildings over six stories, but is still in continuous use for skyscrapers in Hong Kong. A modern resort guesthouse in Palawan, Philippines, with traditional woven bamboo walls (sawali)
In the Philippines, the nipa hut is a fairly typical example of the most basic sort of housing where bamboo is used. The walls are split and woven bamboo, and bamboo slats and poles may be used as its support.
In Japanese architecture, bamboo is used primarily as a supplemental or decorative element in buildings, such as fencing, fountains, grates, and gutters, largely due to the ready abundance of quality timber.
Many ethnic groups in remote areas that have water access in Asia use bamboo that is 3–5 years old to make rafts. They use 8 to 12 poles, 6–7 m (20–23 ft) long, laid together side by side to a width of about 1 m (3 ft). Once the poles are lined up together, they cut a hole crosswise through the poles at each end and use a small bamboo pole pushed through that hole like a screw to hold all the long bamboo poles together. Floating houses use whole bamboo stalks tied together in a big bunch to support the house floating in the water.
Fishing and aquaculture Bamboo is extensively used for fishing and aquaculture applications on the Dayu Bay in Cangnan County, Zhejiang
Bamboo trays used in mussel farming (Abucay, Bataan, Philippines)
Due to its flexibility, bamboo is also used to make fishing rods. The split cane rod is especially prized for fly fishing.
Firecrackers Bamboo has been traditionally used in Malaysia as a firecracker called a meriam buluh or bamboo cannon. Four-foot-long sections of bamboo are cut, and a mixture of water and calcium carbide are introduced. The resulting acetylene gas is ignited with a stick, producing a loud bang.
Weapons Bamboo has often been used to construct weapons and is still incorporated in several Asian martial arts.
A bamboo staff, sometimes with one end sharpened, is used in the Tamil martial art of silambam, a word derived from a term meaning "hill bamboo". Staves used in the Indian martial art of gatka are commonly made from bamboo, a material favoured for its light weight. A bamboo sword called a shinai is used in the Japanese martial art of kendo. Bamboo is used for crafting the bows, called yumi, and arrows used in the Japanese martial art kyūdō. The first gunpowder-based weapons, such as the fire lance, were made of bamboo. Sharpened bamboo javelins weighted with sand known as bagakay were used as disposable missile weapons in both land and naval warfare in the Philippines. They were thrown in groups at a time at enemy ships or massed enemy formations. Non-disposable finely crafted throwing spears made from bamboo weighted with sand known as sugob were also used. Sugob were mainly used for close-quarters combat and were only thrown when they could be retrieved. Metal-tipped blowgun-spears called sumpit (or sumpitan), used by various ethnic groups in the islands of the Philippines, Borneo, and Sulawesi, were generally made from hollowed bamboo. They used thick short darts dipped in the concentrated sap of Antiaris toxicaria, which could cause lethal cardiac arrest.
Desalination Bamboo can be used in water desalination. A bamboo filter is used to remove the salt from seawater.
Musical instruments
Indicator of climate change The Song dynasty (960–1279 AD) Chinese scientist and polymath Shen Kuo (1031–1095) used the evidence of underground petrified bamboo found in the dry northern climate of Yan'an, Shanbei region, Shaanxi province, to support his geological theory of gradual climate change.
Aesthetic uses Bamboo carving, which originated in the Jiangnan region of China and developed into a specialized art form in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, is the process of designing and creating motifs on the surface or root of bamboo using a variety of knife techniques. As a unique material craft, bamboo carving is a representation of elite Chinese literati culture. On the desks of the ancient Han literati, the implements created using bamboo carving skills are known as the stationery. The literati frequently wrote poetry to laud the fine aesthetic appearance of bamboo-carved stationery and the splendor of the embellished themes despite the fact that they were useful products, highlighting the particular cultural significance of bamboo. As a sort of visual narrative, bamboo-carved stationery depict landscape elements within a specific spatial context. The Han cultural and artistic consciousness is embodied in this process. Bamboo cutting is still regarded in Chinese arts and crafts as a material cultural icon.Gong, X., & De Divitiis, B. (2023). The landscape theme of Han bamboo carving art. Arte, Individuo y Sociedad, Avance en línea, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.5209/aris.84344
Origin and history The oldest known bamboo carving technique identified to date is the three animal-footed bamboo symbol (san shou zu zhu wen diao), which was found during the Western Zhou Dynasty (771-1046 BCE) excavation of a Chu tomb. This bamboo carving tool features straightforward creative patterns.Yucai, D. (1997). Shuo Wen Jie Zi(說文解字). Jiangsu Guangling Ancient Book Engraving and Printing Society
Initially, bamboo was just used for its value as a material for writing or carving straightforward designs. But over time, it evolved into a specific craft within the decorative arts category.Gong, X., & De Divitiis, B. (2023). The landscape theme of Han bamboo carving art. Arte, Individuo y Sociedad, Avance en línea, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.5209/aris.84344
Bamboo-carved stationery products acquired stunning decorative elements as their focus switched from one of craftsmanship to one of art. Thanks to their abundance of creative ideas and carving abilities, bamboo-carving craftsmen evolved from being artisans to being bamboo-carving artists. There are many various kinds of carved bamboo stationery, including brush-pots, pens, paperweights, water containers, armrests, and more. The literati regularly used these items as stationery.
The range of forms and subjects employed demonstrates the attraction of bamboo carving, which dates back to the middle of the Ming era. Both as useful tools and pieces of art, the carvings on the bamboo stationery used by the middle Ming and early Qing literati are valuable.
Throughout the middle of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, bamboo carvings underwent a transition from functional instruments to decorative stationery. During this time, numerous genres emerged, including the Jiading and Jinling genres in Shanghai and Nanjing, respectively.Ji, R. (1996). On the re lationship between the c ourt and folk craftsmanship in the early Qing Dynasty——From the two collections in the ‘National Palace Museum’. Forbidden City Academic Quarterly, 1, 94. Zhu He, the inventor of the Jiading style of bamboo carving, employed a variety of knife techniques, for instance, to represent his imagined three-dimensional craft motif in actual space and imitate the styles of other painters. He carved the motif in the bamboo, imitating the brushstrokes with a knife. Additionally, he imitated the artwork's design. Creative bamboo cutting methods transform flat paintings into three-dimensional space sculptures.Chinese national academy of arts. (1994). Art History Series(美術史論丛刊). Culture and Art Press.