embroidered panel

dressing table wardrobe

shazoni kum asmali

My favourite furniture

EMB0115

Rohingya families traditionally gifted furniture sets on big life occasions such as weddings or the births of children. Skilled carpenters made the sets to order from the hardwood of local trees in Rakhine such as sheguwan (teak), hatal (jackfruit), or siam fata, or the now popular Australian akashi (acacia). A family might plant trees with the aim of one day making a falonk (bedstead) or sat kum (table and chair set) to set up their daughter in her new household once she got married. Carpenters would carve beautiful decorative details such as flowers or vines. Special pieces of furniture could be very expensive and elaborate. For this workshop, the embroidery artists drew and rendered from memory their most beloved furniture items from Myanmar. Space constraints in the camp mean that few of the refugees in Cox❜s Bazar own any items of their traditional wooden furniture today, and their practice of commissioning and gifting furniture to mark life transitions is on hold for the present time. Yasmin❜s parents gifted her the asmali (wardrobe) when she got married. The shazoni kum (dressing table) was at her uncle❜s house, in front of which she used to play dress up as a child. She drew both of these from memory as she has no furniture at the camp.