16 Fascinating Traditions That Survived Centuries | Still Standing Marathon | Business Insider

[Music] from pouring cementile designs freehand to crushing fruit and distilling it into liquor we visited family businesses and artisans around the world to see how their centuries-old trees and traditions are still standing [Music] this is how cement tiles are handmade at one of the few workshops left in egypt [Music] the craft has been around since the 1800s when cement became a cheap and efficient way to build [Music] but for syed hussein it's an art form even though other types of tiles have threatened his business he's stayed true to his trade [Music] we visited cairo to see how his workshop is still standing [Music] syed has been making tiles since he was 12 years old and much of his process is still the same [Music] as he begins with sifting white cement [Music] once it's become a fine powder he mixes in pigments to get just the right hue [Music] working with colors is his specialty [Music] [Music] [Music] pours each color into its own section using one of his stencils he's had these for over 35 years [Music] foreign [Music] some designs syed does freehand [Music] he tops off the mold with a mixture of sand cement and limestone a crucial step to ensure the pattern stays in place [Music] solidifies the cement within seconds syed learned this craft from his father who worked at a shop owned by greek immigrants foreign cement tiles have roots in other parts of europe too factory started popping up in countries like the uk and france during the 1800s right after cement was discovered as a cheap and efficient building material and in belgium the industry flourished after world war one when the country needed rebuilding and cement tiles were an affordable option eventually changing tastes in europe's tile market pushed cement aside by the mid-20th century and in egypt syed says ceramic and marble tiles took over the market in the 1990s shaking up his business he says since then the high cost of materials and hard physical labor have steered workers away from the craft [Music] bed [Music] was able to stay in business by making new cheaper designs now he and his two employees are among the few tile makers left his team can make up to 150 tiles in just a day they sell one square meter of them for 500 egyptian pounds or 31 dollars to people around cairo it is has been offering free apprenticeships to young craftsmen for the past 40 years [Music] [Music] and he says not just anybody can master it [Music] but the most important thing for syed is that this art lives on [Music] foreign juice from cashew fruit is the one ingredient in feni a rare liquor made only in this part of the world this family is one of the few still using techniques that date back to the 1500s while some brands are pushing to bring feni to the mainstream these farmers found a way to stay in business by hand making small batches and selling locally we visited goa india to see how the centuries-old tradition is still standing the gown car family searches their land for fallen fruits every morning the fruits fall when they're ripe they use a wooden stick with a needle at the end to pick up each cashew fruit drupati gankar is the matriarch of the 100 year old family operation she's been making feni for 60 years and took over the business after her husband passed away during feni season from march to april her children and grandchildren help out after filling around eight buckets in an hour they take out the seeds one by one the family separates the cashew fruit from the cashew nut they sell the raw cashews to factories that roast and package them then it's time to juice santosh gankar puts on mining boots the hard souls get more juice out of the fruits he grew up helping his mother on the farm and has been doing this full time for 25 years [Music] little by little he stomps away the family used to use a big wooden stick for this step but they eventually found that stomping with their feet was more effective it can get slippery so santosh holds on tight for balance juicing a full vat of cashew apples takes about an hour and in the 100 degree heat it can be exhausting during breaks they get fresh cashew fruit juice that you can't find in stores it has a shelf life of just one day then santosh piles the last bits of fruit into a mound he wraps it with a rope and drags a few rocks on top to squeeze out every last drop of juice [Music] they leave the fruits like this overnight machines would speed up this process but it's not an option for this family plus santosh says handmade fenney tastes better [Music] they throw away the fruit waste or give it to farmers to use as cattle feed bucket by bucket they filter out any pulp fibers through a cloth then the juice sits to ferment for two or three days they transfer it into a copper drum meanwhile drupati prepares to seal the drum by dousing a piece of cloth and mud the mud comes from nearby ant hills the ants and snakes that live in these mounds refine the soil which makes it better for sealing the tanks drupati wraps the clay covered cloth around the openings to ensure no air escapes she lights a fire to heat the juice using wood harvested from their land it burns for around 8 hours steam passes through the pipe and into a tank filled with water it cools down the vapor and a slow stream of vodak comes out the other end arak is a less alcoholic beverage that the family sells when there's demand otherwise they put it back into the copper pot and distill it for another seven to eight hours once it reaches the right temperature it's feni with 40 to 45 alcohol they also test it by looking at the bubbles which should be big and spread apart slowly the family learned this through decades of experience and close observation processes which chemically they make 175 liters of fenney every season and usually sell all of it to local buyers but business today looks a little different than it used to people in nearby villages have moved to bigger cities for work so fewer people come by to drink feni the family brings in around 50 000 indian rupees or nearly seven hundred dollars in a season and their operation probably won't be getting any bigger since buying more land can be expensive the government auctions off trees to the highest bidder meanwhile other funny makers in goa are looking to expand the market and popularize the drink a brand called kazulo draws in locals and tourists with a tasting room and distillery tours basically when you step out from here you're baptized into a new fenney drinker one of the tour's big attractions is the underwater aging technique workers have to dive in the water to pull out aged bottles of fenney we have feni that has been resting for more than two years so that the flavors mellow down but under control temperature it was an old technique used by the georgians for wines kazulo gets its fenney from local farmers who hand make it in the traditional way just like the gown cut family some of these methods date back to at least the 1500s when farmers in this region used to make liquor from coconut palm sap called tari our ancestors had this thought where they said you know what let's innovate let's take an extra step ahead you know if we can do a distilled toddy which has sugar let's try distilling fruits after the portuguese brought cashew trees from brazil to goa at some point during the 16th century distilling cashew feni became more common since it was easier to produce it's been popular throughout goa ever since but it hasn't been able to break out beyond state lines feni comes under the country liquor category that very notion puts you in a place saying that you know what it's an inferior spirit the world outside goa is so difficult to enter in terms of spirit it is a great spirit with a great story and a great culture but we've not been able to put it out so we use chili and salt we've been in a bubble for more than 200 years fenia's existed but never spoken about and now it's time that we come out of a bubble for the gown god family they're not sure how much longer their business will sustain them this is one of the only shops in the world that still measures every head before selling a hat lock and co-workers have been designing and selling high quality hats for nearly 350 years making it the oldest hat shop in the world it's outfitted british royalty and invented iconic headwear like charlie chaplin's bowler the shop has survived industrialization and two world wars but the kovid 19 pandemic was the first time it had to close its doors we went to the heart of london to see how this legendary boutique is still standing master hatter j vagila greets every client as they walk in hello how are you most hat stores don't do custom shaping and sizing but at lock and co customers don't get off the rack treatment spot on 61. then jay brings them to the custom fitting device called a conformator this one is 150 years old and still in use at lock every day jay inserts a piece of paper into the conformator and locks the top part in place it punches dots in the paper that outline the exact head shape jay uses the paper to calibrate the other sizing tool the formula he adjusts each of the wooden keys to match the cutout then he puts this inside the hat with light steam and a brush jay adjusts the hat until it's soft and takes on the perfect shape he removes the familian and gives the client a final fitting of their customized hat great great two floors up head designer awan golding hand crafts couture pieces for lock's women's collection owan chooses her materials mixing and matching textures and colors next she chooses a wooden hat block lock and co has a large collection that includes vintage ones ewan softens the fabric over the block using water and steam she stretches and pulls it allowing the material to take shape before pinning it in place so you're using a lot of heat and pressure to block and it's this is the same process in hat blocking with any material you use and this is the way that hat making has been done forever in fact mass-produced hats are made with the same principles in mind but with hydraulic machines instead of by hand a wand makes sure there are no wrinkles in the first layer before she repeats the process this time with french canvas she leaves it for a day to harden and hold its shape on the block she polishes the dry base with an iron that's quite important when you're using fabric on the outside because any wrinkle will show up and carefully removes all the tacks to free it from the wooden block to make sure that the hat keeps its shape she sews wire into the brim each hat is a piece of art in itself we are not really constrained by function in hat making you really are creating something that is spectacular it doesn't really have to kind of keep you warm it doesn't have to clothe your back then it's time to decorate it for this piece in the winter collection she opts for a dark blue satin and a white flower hats can be anything they can be kind of as large and as crazy as you want or as small and demure and and subtle as well so i think you really cover every emotion really with a hat going to lock and co feels like stepping into a different time very little has changed from the layout the front of the store um okay we have electric lights and and a few different bits we focus on the old-fashioned service very high quality products lock and co keeps the conformator patterns for a number of their high profile customers and the shop has invented some of the world's most iconic pieces of headwear throughout history its most famous style is the cook perhaps more commonly known as a bowler hat charlie chaplin ordered his signature hats from the shop and the cook even appeared as bond villain odd jobs weapon of choice winston churchill's trademark styles the homburg and the cambridge are also staples of locknco's catalog british naval hero lord nelson visited the shop several times to purchase his classic bicorn hats including on his last day in london about a month before his death at the battle of trafalgar before going to the front in world war one many british soldiers got the leather straps and their steel helmets fitted here and box hatters helped redesign and fit queen elizabeth ii's coronation crown lock and co is also among the world's oldest family businesses members of the seventh generation of the locke family are still a part of it today everybody that works here it's not just about selling hats it's not just about the knowledge there's a real custodianship of the shop throughout its long history it has had to adapt to changes beyond just fashion trends like expanding its export business and selling online and hats aren't necessarily the easiest things to buy online everybody knows their shoe size but not everybody knows their hat size and it's even had to weather some major disruptions to the business during the blitz the building was actually bombed the bomb came through the roof and all of the floors and landed in the basement and thankfully didn't explode and then more recently obviously the global pandemic is the first time we've ever had to close our doors the shop was closed on and off for almost a year forcing lock to rely only on its website sales we don't do off-site warehousing we don't have a fulfillment center everything goes out of the green front door and so to turn a business that was 80 retail to suddenly 100 online was a big change and required a lot of effort and during the uk's lockdown fashionable events where people would wear hats like weddings and horse races were cancelled now as the country reopens many major events are back on the calendar so while lock and co strives to keep up with the rise and demand it promises to face this post-pandemic chapter with the same traditions it has kept up for centuries we are old-fashioned in all of the positive uh ways that that can be interpreted i think that that's very refreshing uh in the days of sort of fast fashion and and high-paced lifestyles to come into this tiny little oasis of like stepping back in time [Music] bone carving can be traced back to prehistoric times in india artisans have been turning buffalo bones into works of art since at least the 16th century when royals would commission works like this in ivory but more recently a scarcity of materials and legal restraints have pushed people away from the craft we visited lucknow india to see how one group of bone carvers is still standing bones out on the roof of his home [Music] he has enough stock to last him six months these were once widely available when traders sold them out of giant warehouses but now jalaluddin has to get them from butchers instead down in the workshop jalaluddin cuts the bones into smaller pieces he learned the art from his uncle in 1980 it's been in his family for over 50 years and in his lifetime he's seen the industry changed foreign he sells any excess fragments for 13 cents a pound to factories that grind them up and sell them as fertilizer then he shaves down the bone pieces with an electric sander electricity is expensive and sometimes unreliable in this part of india so not all bone carvers can afford to run tools like these the akhtar family says that's part of the reason many have left the craft these pieces will later be glued together to form a lampshade but first jalaluddin needs to boil them with baking soda [Music] they cook for three hours he files down the edges so that they align when he glues them together in the past there were workers who specialized in the step but now jalaluddin has to do all the processes himself once the glue is dry he drills tiny holes to create a piece called the net he used to do this by hand but the drill press has made the process much more efficient then he submerges the bones and hydrogen peroxide to clean them normally the pieces lay out in the sun to whiten but when it's rainy jalaluddin uses a light bulb instead of he polishes each piece with this buffing machine and then puts all the parts together to create the shape of a lamp some designs call for different tools like this one the artisans hand-make it themselves he's hand carving holes with the help of a wooden anvil the block keeps the piece in place while workers carve they used to fix the wooden blocks into the ground but over time they started using a stone to weigh down the block instead of and won a state award at 18. but he wasn't always excited about the job [Music] work with just one or two other artisans who have different expertises salahuddin begs specialty is engraving many bone carving designs resemble architecture from the mughal empire 18th century buildings still stand from when the muslim dynasty ruled india back then royals commissioned artisans to carve ivory to their liking but when the ivory trade was banned in the 1990s carving bones from camels or buffaloes became a legal and cheaper alternative the akhtar family says their business peaked during the early 2000s with support from the government jalaluddin won a national award in 2012 and a couple years later the government sent him to brazil to show off his work so happy funding shrunk and business hasn't been the same ever since then in 2017 the government put restrictions on slaughterhouses and forced many of them to shut their doors cutting off artists bone supply raw materials became too expensive for such a small market some artisans went abroad for better work and others didn't pass on the craft within their families workshops to people in the community it's part of the government's initiative to save the art and while the pandemic has slowed down classes and regular business it's also given the akhtar's time to develop new designs like this lamp it sells for around 12 000 indian rupees or 200 they export most of their products to foreign customers this is one of their most rare and expensive pieces it's a perfume holder made from camelbone they crafted it 30 years ago and just recently sold it for 1200 dollars to an art collector market because fresh roses are the main ingredient for this ancient way of making perfume the tradition is thousands of years old and this small city in india is one of the only places that still makes it this way one batch can take weeks or even months to prepare the result is 100 pure perfume also called the arabic word for fragrance but what makes the uttar so special is also what is leading to its demise the time consuming process is hard to sustain we visited india's perfume capital canoge to see how this craft is still standing workers gather roses in these fields near canoge and deliver them to distilleries while they're still fresh this one is over 100 years old it's owned by ml ram narayan perfumers there is no electricity and no industrial machinery here workers have already prepped these copper containers or the eggs filling them with just the right amount of water about 80 kilos of once the flowers arrive they are carefully weighed it is an essential part of the process as getting an accurate ratio is key the roses are evenly spread out and it takes two men to carry and pour them into the dates as the petals begin to seep in the water a craftsman seals the container rim with a mixture of clay and cotton they then light firewood inside an earthen oven called a patty and the alchemy begins the heat boils the water and flowers until the emits steam it condenses as it travels through this hollow bamboo pipe or changa that connects to the popcorn a smaller container filled with sandalwood oil that forms the base of uter this is where every last drop of fragrant water will gather over six hours in the meantime workers constantly check the temperatures of the different vessels using their hands and years of experience instead of thermometers they monitor the fire to make sure the eggs are warm enough to create steam but not too much otherwise it can destroy the scent they also have to make sure the popcor stays cool enough to turn the steam back into liquid this is a job which requires a lot of patience it requires a lot of time and effort the input has to be good to get great outcomes so all the every stage of our of our process has to be given a lot of focus and to be done with a lot of concentration and any slip-off can you know have negative results and the result is the all-natural utter free from any alcohol or artificial chemicals with a scent that can linger for days here they make over 15 different kinds of oils but one of their most prized is mitti atar literally meaning earth perfume when let's say there is rain on dry purged earth and you know the smell the sweet soothing smell that one gets so that's the smell that you can expect from other metis to recreate the smell of earth they use old clay pots that were used for spices or tea they crush the pots and add them to the water just as they did with the roses but while rosetta is made in a day others can take weeks or even months to produce they are distilled and redistilled till the smell is potent enough the last step is the bottling process it's also old school using a funnel and a bucket every tiny bottle is filled by hand expensive authors can sell for 10 000 indian rupees or 135 us dollars and that's the price for just two teaspoons of it the raw materials are costly and it takes foreign for at least 400 years as a matter of fact uh canada has got the uh geographical indication for another so technically uh and other can only be from canada but the method of steam distilling is said to have originated in ancient persia and the middle east thousands of years ago in india it was popularized by mughal kings during the 17th century but these days young brand conscious indians mostly use western perfumes as a result in the last 20 years 80 percent of india's traditional distilleries have closed down and the people of kanoj have felt the decline so the whole town is involved in in the business of perfumery i would say about 80 to 85 percent of the people living in the industry in in the town are associated to the perfume industry in one way or the other a lot of people say that you know it's losing its shame and stuff like that but i we personally don't feel that way every day we strive to uh innovate and you know find a new application for our oils so we've seen growth no doubt muslims all across south asia have used atar for centuries it's believed to be one of prophet muhammad's most prized possessions [Music] and outside of india these chemical free uttars are popular in the middle east fragrance houses have also been importing uttar to use it as an ingredient in their modern perfumes breathing new life into an ancient industry we are very proud of our lineage and but at the same time it's a lot of responsibility as well when you have to maintain and sustain certain standards then that becomes difficult makes us proud to carry forward a legacy of five generations after all recreating the smell of rain on earth is no small legacy [Music] for 600 years this machine has been heating and shaping traditional fez hats in cairo but businesses like this nearly disappeared when the egyptian government banned this kind of headwear in the 1950s part of a sweeping push for modernization today nasser abdelbaset is one of the only fez makers left in cairo we visited his shop to see how his 130 year old business is still standing for over four decades nasser has been crafting what was once a symbol of ottoman life when every single one is custom made the first step is to build the structure of the hat nesser uses woven straw to craft the base [Music] to get the right shape he uses these copper molds they're more than six centuries old says they once tried to make new machines but couldn't find any factories that still manufacture the right parts the inside is lined with green or blue silk then it's time to shape the signature red felt minis [Music] there are several types of fezzes the difference in design depends on who is wearing it and each one has its own mold some named after ottoman rulers [Music] muhammad ali alibaba it's been worn by islamic scholars and imams for centuries the machine reaches up to 350 degrees fahrenheit figuring out just the right temperature for each hat is a delicate dance hello nasser glues the felt and straw together and then his son muhammad handles the finishing touches colored tassels used to signify different professions this white fabric is unique to the azharfez today it's a more traditional look reserved for religious leaders but the fez was once much more widespread it was a defining symbol of the entire ottoman empire that rose to power in the 14th century and controlled large swaths of europe africa and the middle east at its peak in the early 19th century sultan mahmud ii wanted to modernize society by phasing out the turbine and requiring all ottoman men to wear the fez instead so people who preferred sticking to tradition began wrapping a turban around a fez similar to the azhar style nasser makes today but by the time the ottoman empire fell in 1922 the fez was considered old-fashioned turkey's first president wanted to westernize his people by replacing the traditional ottoman headpiece with the european top hat and by 1925 wearing a fez in turkey was punishable by a month in prison but most egyptians still embraced fez styles well into the 1950s that's until egyptian president jamal abdel nasser seen here wearing a military fez banned them in 1958 after leading the revolution [Music] this made mostly sells to islamic studies professors religious leaders and movie producers today it's just nasser and his son running the shop they can make up to a hundred fezes in a day but usually orders are well under that but he remembers hearing stories about a time when business was booming [Music] still nasser is preserving a craft that not many wanted to continue [Music] and customers can rest assured that his son plans to carry on his legacy foreign [Music] perfect feathers are key to a good badminton 16 of them to be exact craftspeople in india's jadhubaria village have been making these birdies by hand for generations the area used to be filled with over 500 small factories like dodo shuttles but foreign competition and growing demand for synthetic shuttlecocks have forced many to close and scores of workers have left to find higher paying jobs we visited west bengal to see how india's shuttlecock capital is still standing [Music] all of dodo's shuttlecocks are made with white duck feathers workers like israel mullick wash them in small bunches in soapy water usually he works in the final stages of production but today he's on washing duty he and his co-workers scrub by the handful for several seconds it can take workers up to an hour to get through a batch this size local duck meat farmers sell these feathers in bulk to the factory next they rinse the bunches in water and set them aside to drip off [Music] israel fills his buckets with fresh water for a second rinse [Music] he keeps one clean and dilutes a small amount of natural indigo dye in the other this gives the feathers a very subtle tint that keeps them from yellowing working swiftly in tandem they rinse die [Music] and wring out handfuls at a time then they spread them out to dry in the sun for three to four hours processing the clean and dry feathers go inside to be sorted and trimmed this is co-owner subordinate's favorite a worker inspects each feather looking for strength and uniformity if one isn't up to standard it gets discarded then he trims them to exactly three inches long his shears are bolted together to ensure there's no variation in length next a team of workers start to shape them they take just a few seconds to cut out a curved edge on one side and a straight edge on the other the cutters are so practiced that they don't even require a guide to churn through hundreds of identically trimmed feathers a day um [Music] oscar even though the niyogis are proud to use only indian feathers they do import these cork bases from china a worker drills 16 holes into each base with the only machine used at the factory but it isn't fully automated someone still has to guide it into place with a steady hand and a good eye precision like this is also key when it comes to gluing the feathers into the base with just a quick dab of glue a worker aligns each feather so it overlaps with the next occasionally checking that they're all even and then another binds them together with thread d he knots around each feather shaft making two separate rings of thread but for an added bit of security a worker also applies a thin coat of epoxy to the base and threads with a paintbrush [Music] it's time for the finishing touches like a label that indicates the speed of the shuttle [ __ ] and of course the dodo brand [Music] one important aspect of israel's job is to weigh each one before packaging once they're at 70 grams he stacks 10 of them in a tube and prepares them for sale across india depending on the quality dodo sells each tube for 200 to 300 rupees or about three to four dollars production here is often done in stages but from start to finish a single shuttle [ __ ] takes just 30 minutes however this handmade approach means small places like this can't make as much product or as much profit as major global brands that use machines this has forced many of the workers in chatterberry out of the village's traditional industry over the past few years [Music] the rise in synthetic shuttlecocks is another threat plastic and nylon alternatives have become more popular as they're often cheaper and last longer but that's changing in january 2020 the badminton world federation announced it would allow approved synthetic shuttle [ __ ] at all levels of competition starting in 2021 but the coronavirus pandemic has delayed widespread development and approval of them and opinions among professional players are still mixed on how it could impact the sport but for the workers who rely on feathered shuttlecocks there's no substitute for the real thing [Music] this pottery factory has survived six decades of war and conflict at one point there were nearly 40 workshops like this one in the gaza strip but now only a handful are left lazy israeli airstrikes in may were the worst he's ever lived through is determined to save the art they have practiced for three generations we went to gaza to see how this business is still standing [Music] the dry soil they use as a base comes from the eastern parts of gaza it turns into mud in the washtab where workers mix it with water then they filter it to get rid of impurities like small rocks [Music] it takes about two days of drying for the soup of water and mud to turn into clay the machine smooths and molds the clay into chunks the attella family runs two factories next to each other sabri's shop is the largest and has been around since the 1960s sabri's nephew mustafa muhammad atala learned the craft when he was eight years old today he helps his father run their own shop next to sabri's he's making a clay pot called kedra it's used to cook a palestinian dish of meat and rice also called kedra that's popular during ramadan and holidays like and that's the busiest time for the business but this ramadan was different gaza a neighboring israel traded deadly rocket fire and devastating airstrikes in early may hundreds of people were killed in gaza and thirteen in israel the latest chapter in a long history of occupation and war was forced to close up shop while shelling was still going on outside sabri's sons came to salvage the inventory they had prepared to sell during ramadan [Laughter] foreign by the end of the 11-day war more than 450 buildings were damaged or destroyed in an area roughly the size of detroit no one in sabri's family died this time but he says he lost a quarter of his inventory because of the vibrations from nearby explosions he restarted production shortly after the cease-fire [Music] but the holiday of eid was just two months away in july so sabri couldn't afford to take a break his father taught him the craft when he opened the store in the 1960s today sabri designs the artwork himself [Music] smaller terracotta pots meant for salad are another best seller during this time before the israeli blockade sabri used to sell 300 of these spots every day now he can't even sell that in one year [Music] everything changed when hamas won the election in 2006. israel and egypt consider it a terrorist group and put strict rules in place limiting what goods could come in and out of gaza israel says the blockade is necessary for security reasons but palestinians say it amounts to collective punishment of everyone in gaza sabri's business plummeted in a place where nearly 60 of people live in poverty traditional handmade ceramic ware just can't compete with cheap metal pots and plastic bowls he's had to let go of all of his employees now he keeps things going with just his family to cut costs he fires the clay in wood-powered furnaces but this ancient technique produces a lot of smoke and neighbors have been complaining about in early 2021 the municipality made it illegal to run the kiln still he's determined not to give up until the next generation of athalas can take over [Music] [Music] it can take at least three months to build a shotgun by hand the zuru family has been building these bespoke firearms here in indian controlled kashmir since the 1950s there used to be dozens of gunsmiths like them in the region's summer capital srinagar this neighborhood is even named after the historic industry but decades of political unrest and tight restrictions on gun ownership have shuttered all but two of the family businesses in the capital india has some of the world's strictest gun laws and in kashmir government red tape ensures that almost no one here can buy one most kashmiris including the zuruz are muslim but india is currently controlled by a hindu nationalist party it says limiting access to weapons in this region will prevent an uprising so we went to kashmir to see how one of the last traditional gun factories is still standing [Music] starts by creating the barrels he's worked here for over 40 years but the business which he runs with his two brothers and nephew has recently suffered he takes a solid steel rod and drills through it on a large boring machine working a few inches at a time he presses through the metal retracts the drill bit clears away the shavings and goes back in again the machine spurts water into the hole to keep both the steel and the drill bit from overheating about 50 people used to work at the factory but these days it's only about six [Music] months one of those workers is among kumar he takes the barrels and solders them together over a fire he works over an open flame to soften the metal and uses borax to remove impurities from it and ensure a clean joint he submerges the barrels in a bucket of acid to clear away any residue from the fire [Music] then it's time to start assembling the gun's action the mechanism that handles how it fires they used to make all the parts of the action in-house [Music] so they just assemble all the pre-made parts by hand they use rasps [Music] hammers and there's a lot of fine tuning to make sure every piece fits together perfectly but some basic materials are hard to find and sometimes they even have to make their own screws the way this type of shotgun works is what's called a brake action it's where the barrel hinges down to load and unload ammunition the zuruz don't keep shotgun cartridges around the factory because they are only focused on making the guns not ammunition at this point indian law requires the company to send the partially completed weapon to a government lab for safety testing this is standard practice for almost every gunmaker in the world large or small but for the zuru gun factory sponsors [Music] this gun passed inspection now it's time to add the hand carved gun butt that kashmiri guns are known for walnut wood from this region is known for being high quality durable and good for carving some customers request detailed designs but others go for a plain finish these guns can cost anywhere from 270 to 470 dollars depending on the level of customization shotgun is a fully functional weapon but because ownership is restricted it's likely to remain on the shelf at a customer's [Music] so these days most guns pile up in the workshop waiting for the day demand returns [Music] but to really understand the downfall of this industry we have to look at the region's past both india and pakistan have claimed territory in kashmir since the 1940s the disputed border is a ceasefire line called the line of control that is guarded by each country's armed forces but over 90 of the younger generation in the muslim-majority region want to end india's military presence there according to a 2019 study violent clashes between indian and pakistani military forces started in the 40s and continue to this day but since the 1990s bloodshed has increased in the region as civilians continued to take up arms against indian soldiers as a result the indian government banned gun production and stopped issuing licenses in the region that ban was eventually repealed and the zorrows did all they could to keep up the business into the 21st century but sales haven't recovered the past few years have been especially bad in august 2019 india revoked kashmir's autonomy the military enforced a security lockdown and communications blackout hurting local businesses and bringing life to a standstill by the way [Music] and although owning a gun is legal kashmiri citizens rarely obtain the official paperwork on national security grounds [Music] the family is trying to work with local authorities to get the whole industry back on its feet boron suggests getting the local police force to become a customer limited license [Music] right now things can't get much worse for the business [Music] foreign say they'd rather keep busy at their 70 year old shop than just sitting at home [Music] [Music] [Music] this ancient tie-dying technique starts with tons of tiny nuts and it's part of a month-long process to make just one scarf indigenous mayan webers have been using these techniques for over 2000 years and in guatemala groups of women have banded together to preserve this part of their heritage after a decades-long civil war threatened their culture we visited san juan la laguna to see how these groups are still standing normally these weavers work in their own homes but they came together to show us each step of their process dominga isabel koche pan has been doing this since she was a little girl [Music] it all starts with the raw cotton that grows right here in san juan dominga picks out the seeds one by one then she flattens the cotton tengo que golpiarlo por cinco minutos para chiasi elilo sale muy pero muy fino dominga uses a stick called the malacate to pull the cotton into a thread it takes four days of spinning to make half a pound tengo que hirar natural dying is another ancient technique they practice here dominga is straining boiled banana plant stalks to give the threads a lilac color she dips them into the purple dye and then washes them out before letting them hang to dry all the dyes here come from nature the weavers say some shades are even affected by the phases of the moon luna yena next domingo measures and counts the threads in a process called warping it takes hours to layer all the strings onto the warp board dominga has to know exactly what she wants the final piece to look like so she can sort the strings accordingly this process is typically a woman's job weaving in general has been passed down from mother to daughter for centuries in indigenous communities dominga learned from her mother when she was just 12 years old mayan legend has it that women in ancient times learned to weave from the goddess icho who was often depicted with a backstrap loom it's the same one these weavers work with today and it's ideal for weavers like maria cristina garcia gonzalez who needs to work at home while taking care of the kids [Music] she can set it up almost anywhere and the shape of the loom makes it easy for women to weave while pregnant [Music] christina learned the craft from her mother-in-law right after getting married she uses her body weight to control the tension of the loom is she takes inspiration for her designs from nature and how she's feeling is woven textiles carry a deep symbolism for mayan people throughout guatemala but wearing this traditional clothing became dangerous during the 36-year civil war between government military forces and leftist rebel groups the conflict is now considered a genocide two hundred thousand guatemalans were killed and most of them were indigenous women were victims of sexual violence and lost their fathers and husbands in the fight the war ended in 1996 but many indigenous women still face discrimination today weaving became a way for them to show strength women across the country came together to form groups just like this one in san juan today it's rare to see younger men in traditional dress but women here wear it as a symbol of pride and to honor their ancestors it's not just women in the fight yonotan abinoel perez mendoza works with the weavers group too normal hombres [Music] an ancient technique only a handful of weavers in this group know how to do he starts by separating white threads into groups then he secures the strings between two pillars he needs about 10 feet of space for this part little by little he begins tying knots to form a design it's a lot like tie dyeing the threads underneath the knots will resist the dye while the exposed parts will absorb it today he's making guatemala's national bird spends up to five hours just time and that can be tough on the hands when the threads are dyed the tide parts stay completely white then other women in the group weave jonathan's dyed hospi threads into shawls like this one which sell for 500 quetzales or 65 each tourists are their main customers but many are looking for a bargain so it's hard for weavers to get a fair price for their work and sometimes they have to sell it for cheap to locals who resell it estamos buscando como vender nostro productos si [Music] that's why they partnered with drama textiles in 2016. the organization buys products from over 400 weavers across guatemala and sells them online to people around the world [Music] and the weavers can name their price instead of selling a scarf for ten dollars to middlemen they can get 16 from drama but the organization is still hurting from the pandemic and sales have been low drama can't buy any more products from cristina's group until it sells off its current stock and christina says it's been three months without a sale to make ends meet she's been working as a housekeeper [Applause] still christina is determined to make a name for the weavers of san juan [Music] terminal crafting an artisanal bagpipe takes steady hands attention to detail and sharp tools [Music] the bagpipes history spans around three millennia with roots in early civilizations and it's been a key part of scottish heritage for well over 600 years but there's only one workshop left in the country's capital that still makes these instruments by hand we went to edinburgh to see how the city's last traditional bagpipe makers are still standing [Music] at kilbury bagpipes dave wardle and his apprentice rory black take about four days to craft a single instrument they make many different kinds of traditional pipes but the most famous of all is the scottish great highland bagpipe [Music] this style consists of five pipes connected to a bag the blowpipe is the smallest the player blows air into it to inflate the bag which flows over the reeds inside the pipes to make music the three pipes on top are called drones the two tenors play just one note and the larger bass is the same note an octave lower [Music] these give the bagpipe its distinctive continuous tone and then the chanter has holes that the player uses for the melody like a recorder [Music] dave always sharpens his tools he does this around once every hour to keep them in good shape during the intense process i've actually got nerve damage in my left arm which is probably due to the manufacturing the bagpipes when you're working constantly with your hands you're on your feet all day and that wood's very very hard you're sharpening chisels gouges he uses african black wood to make the pipes there's a very very dense grain and gives a better tonal quality it's also very very long-lasting very very hardwood it's popular for high-quality woodwinds like clarinets ancient craftsmen used to use local hardwoods to make their instruments but dave gets his supply all the way from mozambique he drills a hole in a block of wood to form the air tunnel of each pipe before the mechanical lathe artisans had to carve every hole and shape every pipe completely by hand but now most bagpipes are mass manufactured by machines rather than by hand like at kilbury as the apprentice one of rory's tasks is to roughly shape the wood into a cylinder as the lathe turns the block he uses a sharp chisel to round off the edges evenly the main motive was the way the pipes were made and everything's hand done start to finish there's no cnc machines it's all hands-on being taught how it was done in the most traditional ways it was installed dave takes on the more intricate decoration work called beating and combing this is a delicate process that gives each pipe its traditional pattern combs are the small bands of grooves cut into the wood and the beads are the smooth sections between them then dave makes the projecting mounts he drills these pieces out of wax and puts them on each drone between sections they help the pipes move when tuning and hold them in place once the pitch is perfect dave applies a coat of varnish to the wood sections and mounts then he hammers on the decorative metal ferrules he buys these from a silversmith for added flair to set kilbury pipes apart from standard ones he covers fine wool string with resin to wrap around the fittings this resin is very sticky so what that does it creates a bond with the wood so it doesn't slip this is a process called hemping the pipes hemping makes the connection air tight and it has to be done carefully so the pieces hold together but can still move just enough to tune [Music] dave inserts a single reed into the bottom of each drone and a double reed into the chanter like all woodwinds the reeds vibrate and produce sound when air passes through now the pipes are ready to go into the bag dave seals them into a gore-tex bag with a zipper and rubber gaskets traditionally the airbag was made from animal hides and dave still receives some custom orders with this request but many players say synthetic bags like this have better moisture control and are easier to maintain finally he gives the finished pipe its last decorations the cover and cords the protective cover is often made of velvet or tartan and the cord keeps all the pipes in place okay and that's a bag pipe fully assembled and ready to be tested before it goes to the customer rory tests the pipes by checking tuning quality and playability [Music] before he packages them up to be shipped off to kilbury's customers all over the world now with the internet it's it's opened up worldwide i mean you'd be amazed at some of the places we we've sold bagpipes to it's just quite incredible really or why somebody from kazakhstan would want to play a great highland bagpipe i have no idea scottish highland soldiers used bagpipes as an instrument of war as far back as the 14th century originally known as war pipes soldiers played them to inspire troops into battle against their english invaders and to strike fear into the enemy their high-pitched tones travel for miles around making them perfect for the battlefield they were even used as recently as world war ii nowadays bagpipes were mainly used in ceremonial settings as well as highly competitive and prestigious piping vans one of which dave used to play in you're supposed to enjoy the instrument i took it to a different level i mean at one point i was probably practicing three four hours every night every day of the week obviously striving to be the best i could and at the age of 15 yeah i was playing in grade one bands and competing seoul and all that sort of stuff yeah but there comes a time you have to pull back a bit from it it's just a bit too intense at times you know so instead of playing the pipes dave focused his passion into making them mass manufacturing in the 20th century has decimated the traditional craft flooding the market with lower quality pipes that can be made on a larger scale for less money machine made pipes can cost as little as a hundred dollars whereas a set of kilbury bagpipes usually costs around 1500 a few years ago dave thought he'd have to close the workshop for good due to lack of demand but he got a lifeline from an unlikely place gordon nicholson is a traditional kiltmaker who just happens to have a shop right next door back in 2018 the for sale sign went out outside kawari bagpipes and dave had agreed a redundancy package with the owner so i had gone back home and spoke with my wife and said we're going to lose the last artisan bagpipe maker in edinburgh and her reply was you know what to do then he also runs a kiltmaker's academy focused on carrying that tradition forward as well together both shops take advantage of edinburgh's bustling tourist trade offering tours and demonstrations another way of keeping these crafts alive promoting musical heritage rory balances his apprenticeship building bagpipes with his passion for playing them he's been a piper since childhood and now he plays with ireland's premier pipe band every saturday he flies to dublin and back just to practice with them yeah it's a big commitment he ended up getting home quite late at night so this devotion is heartening for dave and it gives him hope that the craft he's dedicated his life to will continue ruri again i think it's very like me when i was younger is he's dedicated to his piping 100 it is important to to keep the traditional way going traditional way of bagpipes will always keep going it's taught in the schools in scotland now and it's very important to me but it's kids love it [Music] noble and cooley makes its signature snare drums from a single piece of wood it's been doing it this way since 1854 making it the oldest drum factory in the united states the quality of the wood is what determines the drum's unique sound the company has survived two fires economic crises and growing competition from mass manufacturers but adapting century-old techniques and machines is what helped keep the business afloat we went to massachusetts to see how seven generations of one family have kept this factory still standing [Music] father and son jay and nick jones work on all stages of production alongside a handful of employees there's about about 37 38 steps to build a snare drum from start to finish you can mess up at every single step and i have it all starts with good wood [Music] jay debarks logs by hand then he trims it into strips that are 5 8 of an inch thick he gets a few passes in then turns the log over for more cuts by rotating the log again and again and again we're trying to get the the prettiest straightest grain that's going to bend this is walnut one of the nine wood species noble and cooley uses in its shells [Music] next jay brings the planks to the planer which shaves and smooths it to the right thickness at this point they start to sort for quality by eye yeah i mean that's going to be tough to make a drum out of only the best planks will become drum shells we're not even going to play with it over the years we know what's going to bend well but it's not going to bend well and what's worth taking a chance on because of the beautiful grain [Music] i'm gonna start by taking down the pressure j steams the wood for exactly three hours in this cast iron steam oven that's about 150 years old he takes out a plank feeds it into the bending machine presses the pedal and what was once a long rectangle is now a perfect circle he stuffs it into a wooden form rolls it over to nick who hammers in a center support jay and nick have to be precise with their timing to bend each shell into a form before it cools off steam bending is what sets a noble and coulee snare drum apart from many drums on the market mass manufactured ones are often made with multiple layers of wood and glue instead of a single plank you can see the paste that we normally do it at the shell sit and forms for about three and a half weeks before it's time to glue the edges and support hoops this is one of lu scalzo's tasks [Music] the shell stays like this for 24 hours but when it's out it starts to resemble a drum lou uses a lathe to smooth out the surface he goes over the shell twice once manually and the second on auto this is also when nick and jay have to make a big decision on the drums future if something is absolutely stunningly gorgeous we're gonna set that aside to oil it to have it be as minimal finish and natural as possible if there's you know the grain is a little bland or whatever then we're gonna set that aside for something that's gonna get painted nick lightly sands the shell then applies boiled linseed oil with a rag depending on the wood nick will do this four to seven more times before the final wax layer but the shell must rest for a few hours between each coat of oil i love the contrast in that green that varied color pattern and try to center it in the drums to the best of our ability if the wood doesn't pass nick and jay standards it goes to lou for painting for this drum he's adding a sparkle coat he brings the drum over to these rollers to dry it evenly without drips [Music] but no matter if it's been oiled or painted every drum needs hardware the fabrication of all the brass pieces is all done in-house like these parts of the throw-off that jay designed himself and our drum designer said he needed a throw off mechanism that was quiet and solid and this is what i came up with nick takes each drum shell and drills out the holes this is one of the hardest parts because if you drill even one hole in the wrong spot the entire drum is ruined he's even given himself a no drill friday's rule every drum i've catastrophically ruined has been from drilling something wrong on a friday afternoon so i just don't do it anymore then he checks that the top and bottom edges are perfectly level so as you can see there's light coming through underneath here which means that the shell is not sitting perfectly flat so we need to square and level that edge and then cut it to a point before we can finish it and put it together [Music] it's just that attention to detail to make sure it is perfect before the heads go on to put it all together nick lays out all the hardware and screws each piece in by hand one of his final touches here is to stamp the noble and cooley logo on the inside and write in the serial number he logs this in a notebook along with all the details like the size and finish the company has kept a record of all the drums it's made this way we have all those notebooks kept in a safe that we're able to pull out and reference to see you know when they're built and where they went [Music] finally the drums are ready to play and you'd think that jay and nick would be expert drummers my brother is the drummer we grew up playing bands together and you don't need two drummers my famous line is i play the radio and i'm pretty good at it so general manager luke garrow who is a drummer will often give him a play test this is our 14-inch piccolo maple it's one of our most popular models of the solid shell classic drummers like phil collins or matt chamberlain have used this on recordings since most noble and [ __ ] drums are made to order pieces can vary from about 700 for a single drum to several thousand for a whole kit or highly customized pieces we decided right at the forefront that the world did not need another mediocre product and if we're going to do this we're going to do it top shelf we're going to go after the best quality of sound and find the best way to achieve that but they didn't start out making drums for musicians back in 1853 silas noble made toy drums as christmas gifts in his kitchen [Music] then in january he and james p cooley j nick's ancestor decided it would make a good business that first year they made about 600 during the civil war they made their first real drums for the union army which used them to communicate orders across battlefields at least one of these drums survives today in their museum after a soldier picked it up at gettysburg production ramped up quickly and by 1873 noble and cooley was producing 80 000 drums a year most of them toys in fact musical toys were noble and cooley's staple business throughout most of their history the factory suffered two fires but the business has been on the same plot of land since 1889. jay started the music division in the 1980s around the same time most american toy manufacturing started shifting overseas throughout its history noble and cooley has been affected by major economic events but not always in an expected way the great depression was not a bad time for this company a toy drum is number one inexpensive and number two is large it looked like a lot under the christmas tree so come christmas time we were very busy the pandemic also gave it a boost people are at home they're looking to expand their kits that they already have or pick up a new snare drum replace something our backorder log is bigger than it's been in my 15 years here good afternoon noble and cooley even with this recent uptick in business nick j still aren't looking to go up against the big guys in the drum industry if it means sacrificing quality every drum that i'm putting in a box at the end of the day i know the customer who it's going to or at least the shop it's shipping to i like that you know having having that ability to know who you're building a drum for makes you care that much more about the drum you're making and i don't want to lose that being able to come to work with my son every day it was just absolutely fabulous i couldn't think of a better partner and i hope he feels the same yep for sure for sure i'm just gonna do my best to take it over and run with it this is where chocolate comes from so this is cacao for isaiah's mendoza the sacred plant is a connection to his mayan heritage cacao has been a spiritual symbol for indigenous people across central america for millennia but as the modern chocolate industry grew the plant's ritual use was nearly forgotten today people like isaias are breathing new life into the tradition of drinking pure cacao we visited guatemala to see how the ancient use of chocolate is still standing cacao was once a drink used in rituals like weddings and human sacrifices but today is incorporating it into his mayan fire ceremony he and his wife isabel lead prayers and set up an altar around a cacao tree with offerings like flowers and candles for the mind spirits we're going to call the spirit of cacao the spirit of this land mostly foreigners come to his ceremonies isaiah says many guatemalans today stay away from mind spirituality the churches or the religions it's so big here it's so big they disempower the indigenous beliefs the plant contains theobromine a compound that stimulates the heart and can make people feel euphoric when taken in high doses cacao will help to open the heart and people are afraid of that because the only love that exists for them is jesus is the religion isaias faced resistance from his christian family when he and isabel left home to become shamans his mother was against it she taught i was going to the darkness i have like failed to my family but he went on to build a business around his heritage today he employs around 20 people to process and sell cacao through his company called lava love based in san marcos some of them are indigenous women like maria mendoza she picks through the beans that come already fermented from different farms across the guatemalan coasts any cracked or moldy beans are not up to standard she toasts them by hand in small batches burnt cacao tastes too similar to coffee but toasting it just the right amount brings out the flavor and makes it easier to peel just up the road workers at lavalov's factory inspect the beans again and remove any remaining shells from there the beans go to a facility where machines grind them into a paste workers scoop one pound of cacao into each mold isaiah says they produce and sell an average of about 185 blocks per month three times more than when they first opened once the liquid solidifies workers package up the blocks they sell these across the world through local ambassadors so people can make their own cacao drink at home some of the beans are reserved for demonstrations at lava love store workers like ilda sankoy sakac show visitors the traditional methods of their ancestors [Music] before machines sped up this process women were in charge of grinding cacao by hand [Music] entonces is here they crush the beans with the 30 pound stone for 15 minutes straight until it becomes a paste especially then ilda prepares the ceremonial dose she mixes hot water with 42 grams of cacao the recipe takes no sugar at all instead she adds cardamom and cinnamon before beating it all together the ritual of drinking chocolate can be traced back to at least 1100 bc in mesoamerica it likely originated with the first civilization there the olmecs and became a high-end beverage for the maya and the aztecs cacao was one of the most important commodities in the region for centuries at one point people exchanged beans as currency the plant had medicinal uses too the spanish took a cow to europe while colonizing the americas in the 16th century its popularity exploded among european elites they set up plantations across latin america eventually giving rise to the modern chocolate industry and pushing indigenous tradition to the side wow mira today is owns a small plantation that he uses for tours he shows people how the plant grows and how it tastes the taste it is a sweet slimy it looks like an ice cream isa yes is after a rare ancient kind of cacao called kriyoyo it has a more mild taste and isaiah says it's better for his ceremonies we want the properties of the cacao that helps people to open their consciousness and open the heart because it's more powerful that way drinking pure cacao can help boost energy but the spiritual element is what many are interested in including foreigners keith wilson was one of the first people to open a cacao business here in san marcos after leaving the united states in 2003 and the beans look like this now he's well known here for his cacao ceremonies which have moved from his porch to his computer during the pandemic ladies and gentlemen if you have one of these if you have yourself a cup of cacao i don't do indigenous ceremonies i am assisting this medicine to come out of the rain forest and connect to the people that i connect to western people to open their hearts and re-establish the balance after spending three years visiting plantations and learning from indigenous people he shared his knowledge with others around town isaias first learned how to process cacao through keith but to become a shaman isaias received training from mayan elders when he was 23. keith hasn't received the same kind of training but some people call him the chocolate shaman that term chocolate shaman just happened because a a shaman is a teacher an energy worker now if somebody wants to say that's not shamanism if you aren't trained by a culture well okay i don't have an argument with that close your eyes today keith and isaiah's ceremonies look pretty different fill with that inner smile into a radiance from all of us to all of us his work is more like new age stuff there's not nothing that is right or wrong there's just different you know but it's all sacred it's all connected cacao's popularity exploded here just a few years after keith started selling it and holding ceremonies i mean it reached the place where in this town it became cacao and cacao and yoga cacao and meditation cacao became a thing with everything we have approximately 50 international competitors most of whom have come to this porch and learned right here the cacao craze has spread beyond guatemala with ceremonies popping up in cities across the u.s and europe some critics argue that the trend is a form of cultural appropriations [Music] is happy to share cacao with foreigners as long as they remember its origins we gotta watch people that are singing with cacao and doing this and doing that that's fine but still go to to the ceremonies and learn from the indigenous today his family embraces his work and he hopes to share his practice with as many people as possible i feel that we are called to teach people to hold the sacredness of cacao instead of just partying with cacao this is one of the last sword making shops in toledo spain the city has been known for the craft for over 2 500 years conquerors and kings have used toledo steel weapons in battle throughout history today it's mostly an art form for tourists film productions and collectors but the pandemic has threatened the already fragile business we visited the last traditional forges to see how these bladesmiths are still standing jose ramon moreno starts heating a piece of steel in a furnace to around a thousand degrees celsius ancient toledo blacksmiths spent centuries developing the perfect recipe for the steel they use but jose won't share it originally they made blades with a strip of pure iron enveloped with regular steel to make it stronger then they figured out a perfect formula that allows them to make the swords with pure steel but just as strong this is what made their swords famous throughout history jose learned the craft from his father when he was 16 years old but it's taken him a lifetime to make a sword using just his eyes and ears [Music] with the help of this machine jose stretches and shapes the hot metal to the right size and thickness it's one of the two mechanical parts of the whole process then he dunks the hot blade in a cask full of oil quenching is a key step for blacksmiths to control the steel's hardening process then jose puts the steel back in the furnace this time at a much lower temperature around 200 degrees celsius this technique is called tempering it reduces the brittleness of the steel while still keeping it hard the blade is ready once the metal turns bluish before modern temperature gauges this color change was the only way for a smith to know they had done it correctly templars while it's still warm jose hammers the blade by hand against the anvil to straighten and balance it these strikes leave marks that set an authentic handmade sword apart from a machine made one then he cools it down again this time in water jose polishes and refines the edges with a grinder the only other mechanical step but he doesn't sharpen it too much most blades are meant more for decoration than fighting nowadays finally he assembles the hilt and attaches it to make a complete and balanced sword different styles of these weapons have been popular throughout history hannibal and the carthaginian army crossed the alps to fight the romans with toledo forge falcara in 218 bc legend has it charlemagne united most of europe under a sword that he got during his iberian campaign [Music] and even fictional swordsmen the three musketeers wielded rapiers developed by toledo smiths but his firearms became the weapon of choice for the world's armies fewer people needed quality swords for fighting in the 1980s there were a few hundred bladesmiths in the greater toledo area but almost 40 years later the last forges are struggling to stay open carbon negro and the past year has been especially tough tourists are the main clientele for the city's sword shops but the pandemic kept people away in summer 2020 we visited the last workshop still in the heart of toledo's historic city center mariano zemmerano ran the sword factory that had been in his family for five generations [Music] foreign competition was also a big concern mariano only sold hand-forged swords which can cost up to 400 euros depending on complexity mass-produced ones that come mainly from china can be found all over toledo souvenir shops for half the price but for those looking for an authentic toledo sword there was no doubt about paying top dollar when you see you know the work that goes into it i think it's definitely a fair price yeah this demanding work even cost mariano two of his fingers as a young man [Music] but at 69 years old the conditions in the workshop were wearing on him [Music] so late in 2020 he decided to retire he sold the zemmerano sword factory to one of his employees santiancinas but in march 2021 santi had to close the workshop and find a new location to keep the soul of toledo's traditional industry a light [Music] cleaning the dead is a rare dia de los muertos tradition in mexico many say the village of pomoch is one of the only places in the whole country that still does it they believe it's a way to care for their relatives in the afterlife for don pichu it's also a way to make some extra cash each october he's hired to take hundreds of corpses out of their tombs for their annual cleaning but since the pandemic fewer people have been visiting the cemetery and his work is dwindled we went to mexico to see how the tradition of cleaning skeletons is still standing most people know jose alfonzo hernandez ake as don pichu and he'll admit that dealing with corpses isn't for everyone but after 15 years of building graves and cleaning bones it's become second nature to him come on today he's cleaning the skeleton of juan cavitavan he passed away 16 years ago and his family has been doing this ritual ever since content but the pandemic forced the cemetery to close last year and some people are still hesitant together [Music] some families ask don pichu to clean the bones in a specific order [Music] the origin of this bone cleaning ritual is unknown but most people say it comes from indigenous culture ancient mayans would treasure their dead by adorning corpses with jewelry or burying them under the floor of their homes they believed that the soul lives on in another realm after death that's why families clean their dead throughout october they want the tombs to be ready by dia de los muertos or day of the dead when people believe the souls come to visit families wait three years after death to open the tombs and it's against tradition for them to do the first clean that's where don pichu comes in even after that some people still prefer to hire someone else to do it working with corpses never bothered don pichu he used to help his family clean bones as a kid okay in years past don pichu would clean up to 50 graves on a good day but now he spends most of his time at the cemetery waiting for someone to show up on this day he only got 6 jobs for about 30 pesos each or a little over a dollar most of his income comes from his full-time job of grave building and maintaining the cemetery for visitors when families do come they always bring a fresh blanket to replace the old one they say it's like changing the dead's clothes a few people in town specialize in embroidering these like rosa maria she's been making blankets for 60 years and takes pride in her intricate designs rosa sells them for up to 150 pesos or seven dollars a piece but she's not in it for the money she sees her work as an offering for the souls in exchange for protection [Music] a today only catholics carry on the ritual in pomoch even though in most parts of the world christians don't believe in unburying their dead but more and more of the younger generation here are leaving the catholic church don pichu's children and grandchildren are jehovah's witnesses and reject the custom that's why he goes by himself to clean his uncle's grave this job takes a lot of strength even though he's been doing this for decades he still needs to wind down after a long day of tending to the dead again my swat carving is an ancient art that goes back 2 000 years in modern-day pakistan it can take up to seven wood carvers and 25 days to complete a large piece a small mistake could ruin it all the unique gendara style features a blend of buddhist and greco-roman influences at one point this form of wood carving was a thriving industry in swat valley a region near the afghanistan border but many artisans including the mustang family fled after taliban forces took control of swat in 2007. now in its third location the shop continues to face challenges we visited their traditional workshop to see how it's still standing the mustan's workshop is called zarshal it sits in lahore about 300 miles away from their original home but they still keep many of the same traditions runs it with his two oldest sons [Music] workers start by cutting the wood into smaller pieces they use both electric saws and hand saws a small mistake could ruin the planned design they sand the wood down and then they plane it making the surface smooth clean and flat next comes the most difficult part carving workers need to sharpen their tools until they can cut like razor blades 18 some craftsmen don't have to plan out a design instead they work freehand without following a sketch it can take up to five years just to learn the basics easter before the finishing touches zarchel sends the car pieces to a shop in islamabad for painting workers assemble and finalize them here once they return they treat the wood with potassium this solution gives off a bright red hue when first applied the color will turn brown as it dries giving it an antique look then they apply furniture polish finally they coat each piece with a sealant before sending it off to customers a large item like this dining table can cost up to a hundred and fifty thousand pakistani rupees or eight hundred sixty dollars the intricate and tight patterns are what set swat carving apart from others [Music] originates from the buddhist civilization that spread through the region in the third century bc swat valley the birthplace of this carving style was once a part of it to this day the buddhist influence is evident in swati carving's grid-like order which gives a sense of harmony and balance even as borders and cultures changed over hundreds of years the art survived abdul established his first shop in the kwazakela area of swat valley in 1996 after he retired from the pakistani army but the taliban occupied the region in 2007 and shut down many forms of arts and entertainment the shop started receiving threats abdul himself was a target as a retired soldier he was considered an enemy of the taliban foreign the pakistani army drove out the taliban in 2009 but abdul still worries now that the extremist group has regained control of afghanistan still these aren't the only hurdles for the family raw materials are scarce and expensive and the pandemic has slowed down business forcing some shops to close abdul says most of his customers today are wealthy locals and fewer artisans are learning the trade because sales are scarce and the pay is so low abdul even discouraged his youngest son from joining the business like some workers in pakistan the employees at zarshal all live eat and work together at the shop [Music] that's why it's common for them to work long hours air conditions are risky too sawdust fills the air despite it all seowdeen plans on teaching the skill to people in the surrounding areas so that his love of the craft can continue foreign [Music] you

Channel: Business Insider

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Length: 128min 31sec (7711 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 03 2021