| Description |
Agriculture is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock and over centuries, rise in agricultural has contributed in the growth civilization. Early people have developed and improved varieties of plants and till date the practice is considered to be the important aspect of Bhutanese livelihood. It is one of the sources of income as over69% of the population here, directly depends on it for their livelihood (MoAF, 2011). In 2011, agriculture sector accounted for about 17.7% of the total GDP of the country (RNR Statistics, 2012)
Asham (Maize) plays a critical role in the entire life of given economy and is a pre-dominant cereal crop for the eastern part of the Bhutan for many years contributing to more than half of total maize production in the country. Asham cultivation was one of the main cereal as well as cash crops that supported and supports lively hood for major households in the part of the country.
To these days, the practice and culture of maize cultivation is one of the main live hood and sources of income. Most communities in the eastern part of the country depend on cultivation of Asham to produce following products:
• Kharang- grits, grind maize used as staple food
• Asham me-gogni- roasted corn
• Asham bokpi- corn flour
• Tengma- roasted and pounded maize
• Asham mu-nang- a local term for popcorn
• Zhu- brewed alcohol
Apart from above products, asham is also used as cereals for bartering during the olden days to exchange with wooden and bamboo products produced from other parts of the Dzongkhags. Moreover people also used to exchange with rice, chili, meat and dairy products within or outside the community. People used to offer asham, kharang and bokpi to monks and gomchen(great meditation masters) as they visit begging for cash and kind. Asham and its product were also used during the religious rituals at households. Crafting of Torma (Sacrificial ritual cakes) and Sur (Smoke offering) during the rituals were done by using corn flour.
There has been lots of transformation in the culture, practice and process in cultivation maize in the region due to introduction of hybrid seeds, improve in tools and technologies used compared to old and traditional ways of cultivation.
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| Social and cultural significance |
Maize is an important cereal crop of eastern Bhutanese people as it provides staple food to many farmers, making a living from it. It is cultivated in tropics, sub-tropics and temperate regions unto 500 and from a sea level to 4500 m. It holds the prominent position and majority of the people rely on maize as their integral part of substantial farming because each pert of maize can be used to one or the other use and nothing goes to waste.
In Bhutan and particularly in the eastern region, maize is consumed as in the form of kharang (grits), tengma (roasted and pounded maize), and ashom mungnang (a local term for popcorn). It is also brewed into bangchang and zhu (local drinks), which are indispensable for religious rituals and traditional chores. Maize grits are also consumed mixed with rice. Fresh, immature cobs are eaten boiled or roasted. Corn flour and other residues are excellent feed for cattle. The husk is used as a raw material to make mats. Young green maize stalks are used as fodder for cattle. Green Stover (thinning, leaf stripping, plant tops) is an excellent source of food for cattle during the critical winter months when feed is in short supply. Maize flour has a special use as a burnt offering to appease spirits (sur) and as a substitute for wheat and barley flour for making torma (a ritual figure).
6.1 Asham Cultivation practices
a. Ploughing and land preparation
The cultivation of Asham in the geog has been main source of livelihood apart from few other cash and food crops. Asham is generally cultivated within the second and third month of lunar calendar depending on the altitude of the place. Before the cultivation, those household whom owes the bull had the privilege to plough their land twice. Whereas others have to plough once because it would cost them more and living was comparatively hard during those days. They usually plough their land for the first round and kept for 2-3 weeks so that the soil is totally explored to sun and control weeds before the second round. Therefore, bullock played major role in the agriculture practices especially in ploughing the land in the region and owing bull in any household was considered as wealth.
b. Seeds and sowing.
Predominantly, the people in the area had planted three different type of asham namely: BepaAsham, Tsheksampaasham and zhungkaasham.
BepaAsham: Yellowish- white in color with large sized kernel( Tibetan origin)
Tsheksampa: Small sized plant with corn grown at three nodes.
Zhungkaasham(Hybrid): Hybrid Seeds distributed by government. Was very hard to grind and consume too.
After the harvest of maize, good quality and large sized maize are being selected and hanged in open air shelter after removing the husk. These selected maize are hanged at high elevation from the ground (roof) in order get rid of pests and other diseases.
The people in the locality practices two different type of sowing method:
Sowing the seeds following the plough share is normally practices by wealthy family and it is said to be very expensive method of sowing for daily bread earning family. The seeds will be sown about 1 foot apart from each other and to reduce the waste of seeds elderly people will be mostly engaged in sowing the seeds.
To reduce the waste of seeds, people use to sow seeds by manual using hoe. This method of sowing is time consuming and tedious but it reduces the waste of seeds.
c. Care, management and harvest
Weeding, making soil loose and thinning of seedlings was also practiced in those days while cultivating Asham. The frequency of weeding also depends on the economic status of the family in those days. That wealthy family would do weeding and earthing up twice or more whereas rest would do only once or twice because they had to feed day workers with light breakfast (bokpi), lunch (Kharang) and dinner (kharang), food were so scarce during the time.
First weeding and making soil loose would happen when seedlings have 4-6 leaves grown. Simultaneously, thinning was also done to keep the proper space in between the plant. In later days, when maize plan tassel, second round of weeding and earthing up was done to make the place stable and strong base.
In the DawaGupa and chupa, the maize plant’s parts will start to dry and it will be then ready for the harvest.
d. Labour system
Unlike today, the labors were not paid for the daily work. Economically backward households had to work daily just for two khaw (cereals measuring container) of maize or just for the exchange of labor where if one works one day for other household, the household has to return in the form of labour. Bullocks were then used instead of power tiller. So, one man’s labor was equivalent to one bull and had to hire from people who own bulls. Time for the daily labor was from 09:00 hours till 17:00hours. Unlike these days, watches and clocks were not there to study or mark time. Instead they used mark the shadow of tree on particular land mark to break for lunch and sounds of certain insects to stop the work. As they works ends for the day, sharing of zhu was then followed by local and traditional folk songs and dances competition among genders.
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| Transmission method |
As for the transmission of the Asham cultivation, there is no special methods have been used so far. To these days, there is no formal research or written document elaborating and describing the traditional ways of Asham cultivation in the place. The procedures and practices for Asham cultivation are passed on to following generation through as special traits that they practice annually. |
| Community |
Trashigang Dzongkhag is administratively divided into three Dungkhags, 15 Gewogs (blocks) namely Khaling, Kangpara, Kanglung, Bidung, Bartsam, Yangneer, Udzorong, Thrimshing, Shongphu, Samkharand 79 Chiwogs accessed with national highway, district road and farm road, connecting all.
Yangnyer is a remote village and gewoge or community under Tashigang Dzongkhagg. Yangnyer is located over 18.5 km away from Thimphu-Tashiyangtse national highway, and 29 km from the nearest service center with the area of 72.30sq. km. The geog also share the geographical boundaries with Narang, Drametsegeog of Mongar districts from west and Jamkhar, Tashiyangtse, from north-east. The geog has again divided into five chiwogs or administrative subdivision namely: Darjeling, Kharza-Shokang, Lephu and Durung-Ngambinang.
According to the annual report of Value chain study on maize, carried out by the Department of Agriculture and Marketing Cooperatives in October 2019, “a frequent traveler to the far east between 1631 and 1668, J.P.Tavenier makes specific reference to the abundance of corn in the country (Olschak 1979). Although, this was the only written report of maize in the early literature on Bhutan, one may infer that maize cultivation was well established in the 17th century. In 1774, during the expeditions made by George Boggle, (British officer from the East India Company), Boggle noted the presence of Indian corn planted in patches with wheat and barley in the country. From his report, we can speculate that the introduction of the Andean crops, maize and chili to Bhutan may have preceded the potato (Markham 1979)”.
Further, according to the study carried out by the National Biodiversity Centre, Serbithang, 2nd June 2015 titled ‘The history of the introduction and adoption of important food crops in Bhutan” states that maize has been Bhutanese cuisine by the early time of 18th century.
Maize or ahsam is also one among few which is widely grown and suitable for the various climatic conditions, favorable for farmers. However, the maize cultivation in area is practiced annually and considered as the pre-dominant staple food for the locals, no one knows from where the seeds were first introduced. The origin of the staple food, maize or asham, are yet to be discovered.
Data collected by: Mr. Druptho Gyeltshen, Teacher, Gongthung Middle Secondary School, Trashigang |
