embroidered panel

sofa set table

sofar kum tabil

My favourite furniture

EMB0122

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. Umme Habiba liked spending time at her nani❜s (grandmother❜s) house when she lived in Myanmar. At her nani❜s house, only guests would be seated on the sofar kum (sofa set) while water was kept on the tebil (table). Carpenters were hired to build this furniture.