Spinning in the Himalayas, Part 2: Spinner and Charkha

For centuries, the Gurung people of Nepal’s Annapurna mountains have herded sheep and spun wool on charkhas to make yarn for blankets and cloaks. Learn about the hardy shepherds and sheep, plus get a glimpse into their fiber prep methods, in Part I of “Spinning in the Himalayas.”

The Charkha

Gurung spinners in the mid-hill villages of Ghandruk, Ghalegaun, and Sikles use a spindle wheel they call a charkha or a rad in the local Gurung language. The term charkha calls to mind Ghandi’s charkha from neighboring India. In rural Nepali villages, however, the charkha is simply, a rough, homemade spindle wheel. Nepali social activist and devotee of Ghandi, Tulsi Mehar Shrestha, is credited with bringing the charkha from India into Kathmandu in the 1920s, but evidence in paintings from the nineteenth century show that fiber has been spun on charkhas in Nepal for at least 200 years and quite likely, for much longer.

A charkha from the village of Sikles; photo by Kathleen Mahoney

Shrestha did have a significant impact on hand spinning in Nepal. As a young man he spoke out against the oppression of marginalized people, especially women. He was an early social reformer and advocated programs to help women become financially self-sufficient. Then Prime Minister Chandra Shumsher J. B. Rana accused Shrestha of being anti-national and gave him the choice between exile or life imprisonment. Shrestha left for India and stayed with Mahatma Gandhi at Sabarmati Ashram for about five years, learning to spin on a charkha and to weave cotton. Shrestha’s experiences with Mahatma Gandhi gave him a greater insight into the lives of the underprivileged, instilling an even greater commitment to return to Nepal to work for social change. Gandhi wrote a letter to the Nepali Prime Minister requesting Shrestha be allowed to return to Nepal where he could work on behalf of the Nepalese people. The request was granted. Shrestha returned to Kathmandu in 1923 with some charkhas and a bale of raw cotton donated by Gandhi and began his spinning program.

Shrestha started distributing cotton to women in villages and encouraged them to spin with the charkha. In 1927, he established Shree Chandra Kamdhenu Charkha Pracharak Mahaguthi, the first social nongovernmental organization in Nepal, which focused on empowering women. Today, the organization manages two stores in Kathmandu, Mahaguthi, specializing in Nepalese handicrafts.

Click on any image below to open it in full-screen mode and to learn more about the charkhas from the three villages.

A charkha from the village of Ghalegaun; notice the stone drive wheel. Phul Maya adjusts the spindle on her charkha in Ghalegaun; photo by Sally Conover The dowel handle is used to spin the wheel on this charkha from the village of Ghandruk. Top view of the charkha from the village of Ghandruk. Another style of charkha from the village of Ghandruk. Top view of the charkha from the village of Ghandruk.

Nepali Charkha

Older spinners in Ghalegaun and Ghandruk remember when men used hand spindles to spin nettle on their way to the fields and back to help the women with the thread production; sometimes they spun wool that way as well. But this practice ended long ago, and now it is only women on charkhas who produce wool yarn for weaving. In Sikles, women spin wool and nettle as they have for generations.

Charkhas are handmade, either by village carpenters or more frequently the husband of the spinner. All parts are slotted together without any nails or screws. Two pieces of rectangular wood, perpendicular to each other, serve as bases for the wheel and handle on one side and support the spindle holder and the metal spindle on the other, which is usually encased in bamboo. On the wheel side, two upright pieces of wood hold an axle, which holds a stone drive wheel and two sets of six spokes. The spokes vary in size and material, from reused plywood to hard wood. A handle with a wide hole attaches to the axle on one side. The axle is bamboo, wood, or metal. The drive wheel is always stone.

On the spindle side, a single upright piece of wood has a hole through it and on the outside of this upright piece, a wire loop, wooden loops, or sometimes two twine loops serve as a support for the spindle. Various types of string or wire (traditionally, a length of split bamboo) connect the spokes from one side to the other and the drive band to the spindle. Now spinners use a variety of options from rubber-coated cable to thin plastic bands to heavy string.

Click on any image below to open it in full-screen mode.

Udima rotates the wheel with one hand, while drafting with the other. A wooden dowl can be placed in the hole to rotate the wheel instead of using a finger.

The spinner rotates the wheel with her finger poked through the hole in the handle, or sometimes grasps a wooden dowl placed through the hole in the handle. She drafts with the other hand, spinning off the tip of the spindle at about a 30-degree angle. Once a length of yarn forms, she stops drafting to wind the yarn onto the spindle before continuing. Spinners in all three villages spin clockwise to create their singles and counterclockwise to ply. Regardless of the end use, all weavers use 2-ply for weaving.

Follow the journey from shearing to finished yarn including wool prep and spinning in the Himalayas.

Spinners’ Stories

Get a closer look! Click any image in the gallery below to open it in full-screen mode and read more about the spinners in each village.

In Ghandruk, Krishna Kumari Gurung, a 60-year-old weaver, spins on the wide front porch of her hotel, quiet during the summer, but filled with tourists during the peak trekking seasons in the fall and spring. She learned to spin and weave from her older sister, but not until she was almost 40. Krishna Kumari’s husband made her charkha, using wood from a type of hardwood tree found in the forest surrounding their home. She’s too busy managing her hotel now to find much time to spin and weave, but she continues simply because it makes her happy. Purnima Gurung and her mother, Nanda Kumari both spin on a charkha they’ve shared for the last 25 years, made by a carpenter in the village. They work alongside each other in a small workshop next to the 200-year-old home they share, chatting away and cracking the occasional joke. Nanda Kumari only cards and spins, she never learned to weave, leaving that to her daughter who took advantage of a government training program a couple of decades ago. Purnima weaves galaicha from the wool they spin. In Ghalegaun, more than a dozen women spin wool. Eighty-year-old Udima Gurung spins on a charkha her neighbor made for her from the wood of a hardy pine tree fifty years ago. She learned to spin and weave from her mother and grandmother, kind of. As a girl, she was so curious about how these crafts were done that she would sneak to her mother’s charkha or loom and try to use them when her mother was out of the room, only to be shooed away on her mother’s return. For unknown reasons her mother didn’t want her to learn, but Udima was insistent and gradually taught herself through watching and practicing on her own. Even at eighty, Udima sometimes pulls a mischievous grin, a reminder that that determined little girl of years ago is alive and well. Photo by Sally Conover Singles spun by Udima On the other side of the village, Khim Kumari Gurung eagerly shows her love of spinning. She brings her charkha from her front porch out to the courtyard, explaining that her husband made it for her years ago. She emerges from her house with a giant bag of yarn and pulls out beautifully spun yarn in several natural shades, pointing to singles, then skeins that have already been plied. She learned to spin from a mother’s neighbor in her home village, about a seven-hour walk from Ghalegaun, when she was 25. Quite against what is customary, she returned to her home village after she was married and lived for several months to learn how to spin and weave. Khim Kumari owns her own sheep with black, brown, and white fleeces and has enough to sell to others in the village. She charges 600 Nepali rupees, about US $4.50 for five-and-a-half pounds, or 2.5 kg. Yarn in black, brown, and white, spun by Khim Kumari. Udima spins on a charkha in the village of Ghalegaun; photo by Sally Conover Dozens of women in Sikles spin wool and nettle. In the courtyard of her home next to the mill she and her husband own, Buddhi Maya Gurung, 66, spins on her mother’s charkha, the same one she learned to spin on when she was about 15. Women in her family have been spinning wool and nettle for generations. She buys her wool from local shepherds, not having sheep of her own. She explains that she buys one dharni of wool for about 250–300 Nepali rupees, less than US $2. A dharni is an old unit of measurement, a term not commonly used today. One dharni is equivalent to about 5 pounds, or 2.23 kg. Down several sets of steep stone steps, at the west end of town, on the front porch of weaver Non Maya’s house, her 34-year-old daughter Purnima spins wool on her grandmother’s charkha. Non Maya, who has been spinning for about fifty years, learned from her mother and eventually taught Purnima. Mother and daughter get their wool from Non Maya’s brother who owns six sheep. They spin white, charcoal, and brown colors which make the stripes for a bokhu. Purnima’s 7-year-old daughter Bhumika adjusts her lungi—traditional wrap cloth—in between practicing Nepali dance moves next to her mother as she spins. Will Bhumika one day claim her place in the generations of women in her family to turn the charkha wheel?

The traditional life of shepherd, spinner, and weaver continues in the mid-hills of the Himalayas as it has for generations. Textile artisans continue to balance their agricultural and tourism work with their handicrafts. While spinning cloth is not a necessity now as inexpensive warm clothing can be purchased from larger cities a few hours away, the craft continues as an important cultural tradition as well as a modest income source. Many village members fear that when the older generations pass away, the ability to make these handicrafts, as well as the stories they tell, will vanish. But for now, shepherds and spinners alike continue to live their traditions.

For information on visiting the locations mentioned here, or to learn more:
Ghalegaun: Rural tourism in Ghalegaun, email: [email protected]
Ghandruk: Annapurna Guest House, email: [email protected]
Sikles: Weavers of Sikles, email: [email protected]

References

• Macfarlane, Alan and Indrabahadur Gurung. Gurungs of Nepal: A Guide to the Gurungs.
• Ratna Pustak Bhandar, Kathmandu, 1992, second edition.

Karen Brock is a Peace Corps Response volunteer serving in central Nepal, helping to promote sustainable tourism. She could not have written this article without the collaboration of fellow Peace Corps Response volunteers Sally Conover and Kathleen Mahoney. All three are grateful to the community members of Ghalegaun, Ghandruk, Landruk, and Sikles for their generous welcome as they gathered information for this article. Special thanks to Ishwor Gurung, Puja Gurung, Munendra Gurung, and Basuna Shrestha for their translation assistance, both linguistic and cultural.