Farming
Rice threshing machine model
A doloin is a hand or cattle-operated rice threshing machine used by Rohingya farmers before modern threshing machines were introduced to rural Arakan. This kind of threshing is very labour-intensive; thus the doloin is rarely seen now. Many young Rohingya people have never seen an authentic doloin, though they have heard about them. A doloin is constructed using basketry techniques. The tall, funnel-shaped bamboo basket that forms the body of the doloin is sealed with mud and mounted on a wooden pedestal. A large wooden paddle, hand-operated by two people or turned by oxen, is used to turn the doloin and thresh the rice. A special genre of Rohingya music, called Boillachairi, was sung to motivate the oxen and keep them on tempo. A doloin can vary in size from three to seven feet in height and cost from 40,000-70,000 Myanmar kyat ($30-50 USD).