embroidered panel

sofa bed clothes stand

sofar falonk alkoni

My favourite furniture

EMB0114

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. Lala❜s parents built the furniture for their personal use. Her father made it himself since he is a carpenter. Lala used to take naps on the sofar falonk (sofa bed) and chat with her parents while lounging on it. When she came to Bangladesh, Lala gave away the bed to one of her sisters in Burma.