Once a status symbol, these Kalimpong shoes fast fade in oblivion

NISHA CHETTRI, SNS, KALIMPONG,7 NOVEMBER: A popular greeting 'May your bobbin always be full' may no longer be applicable to these handful of people who have spent their lifetime stitching embroidered shoes in Kalimpong.

Thanks to the ever burgeoning demand for labels, the 21st century lifestyle and diminishing interest in culture, tradition and heritage, the art  is an endangered profession now, and people associated with this fear that it would no longer bet inherited by the next generation.

Arjun Lama, a professional Tibetan shoemaker of Wongmo Villa on DB Giri Road, checks the bobbin on his traditional 'Shanti' sewing machine, and once in place, adjusts the needle with the hand wheel and steps on the foot pedal to sew an embroidered piece to be later attached to a pair of boots that he plans to make. Mr Lama has been making such shoes for the last 34 years. In conversation with this correspondent he recalls the time he learnt the art of making the traditional footwear from an old man from Tibet named Passang Dorjay Bhutia, who was locally known as Pala (father in Tibetan language). "I was in my early twenties when I first learnt about shoes from Pala; I could not go to school,and that's how I landed up here," he says.

According to him, shoes in Tibet once spoke about the status, gender, ethnicity, religion and profession of a person who wore them.

"These kinds of shoes were earlier worn only by the Tibetan aristocracy, which gradually evolved to be a necessity for the common people. The history of the footwear also talks about keeping oneself warm in the cold, snowy climate in Tibet," he adds.

The materials he works with are mostly leather (oxhide/cowhide), jute, fabric and wool. He explained that the shoes are made as per the orders people make and that the names of the traditional boots vary according to the status of the people.

'The type of boots Lamas (monks) wear is known as Ration, which means rainbow in Chinese and it carries a religious meaning. The ones the ladies wear is known as Somba, while boots worn by the average people are known as Ghalo, and the types school Tibetan dancers wear are known as Pumalam," Mr Lama says. "These shoes have no lefts and no rights," he goes on, explaining that any piece can be worn on any foot, unlike the regular footwear.

On the destination of his designs, Mr Lama says they are ordered from Bhutan, Nepal, Tibet (via Nepal) and Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh, the headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

"From Kolkata, Jaipur, Ahmadabad and other places, several people have visited to learn the art of shoe making. I trained a Bengali boy for a month, a handful of Jaipuris and a few people from Ahmadabad for sometime,' he says.

"However, not surprisingly, but sadly, no one from either Sikkim or Darjeeling have shown interest in learning the craft so far, he said.

According to him people glued in modernity are embarrassed to take up shoe making as their profession. "I too do not want my offspring to carry the burden of this laborious inheritance. I dint want my offspring to go through the intensity of hard work like I did," Mr Lama says.

The range of his footwear starts from Rs 2700 to Rs 5000 and he manages to make 100 pairs within a year. Beside the Buddhist buyer (from Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet), international tourists also buy the boots as a good tourism souvenir from Kalimpong. Although fewer people choose to wear the boots these days, the Tibetan want to preserve it as one form of the rich handicraft that the community has.