Mohammed Ayoub

Farming tools

Cycle of rice

Basketry

Basketry (BSK)

Farming

Rice cultivation

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. 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, can be played to motivate the oxen and keep them on tempo. Doloin can vary in size from three to seven feet in height and cost from 40,000-70,000 Myanmar kyat ($30-50 USD).