| Description |
Doma paney is a combination of areca nut, betel leaf and a little paste of lime. Although the combination was scarcely available in Bhutan earlier times, it now occupies an important place in our culture. Many Bhutanese — irrespective of age, gender, occupation or social status — enjoy chewing doma paney. It acts as an icebreaker for chitchats, serves as a gift of friendship between individuals, is an indispensable item on auspicious occasions and for some individuals the chewing of doma paney has become a regular daily habit that is very hard to break. Among the Hindu community in the south, doma paney is offered as an invitation to important occasions.
Bhutanese link this custom with the visit of Guru Padmasambhava in the 8th century when the inhabitants were blessed and ordained with ge-nyen vows to refrain
from killing animals and consuming their meat and blood. In the 17th century, Zhabdrung Rinpoche received gifts of betel nuts and leaves from his chief patron, the king of Gatrikha (Cooch Behar) in India, Zhabdrung included these items as the first offering item in the zhugdre ceremony. The custom became very popular after that.
In earlier times, people used ingredients that were locally available, but later these same ingredients were imported from India in large quantities. More recently,
people have started cultivating the areca palm and the betel vine in their own gardens, but there is still not sufficient supply to meet the demand. here is a saying associated with doma paney:
Areca nut, the foodstuff from India,
Dissect it as if axing summer woods.
A beloved is the betel leaf,
Tear it as if tearing leaves.
The dazzling white lime,
Paint it as if to whitewash.
The culture of chewing doma paney is so strong that even old people manage to consume it by crushing it in a drechag (metal grinder, also called chagdre) or in a kodre. Drechag or chagdre is a metal tube and a metal pestle, which is used to crush the betel nut and the other ingredient in the tube. The kodre is a skin bag, which is crushed between stones with the three ingredients inside.
The betel nuts and leaves are kept in a rectangular box with a hinged lid called a chaka, while the lime paste is kept in a circular box with a conical lid, called a trimi.
Both chaka and trimi are usually made of silver or brass and embossed with intricate designs. Sometimes they are gold- or silver-plated. The king and the chief abbot would have doma bathra, a round silver betel nut container, which is carved with intricate motifs such as lotus or dragon. |
