Coats, radii, blankets, hand-knitted from sheep's wool are bought for Dasana Koseli.
It has been three months since they took a herd of 600 sheep from Puthauttarganga-11 Taksera in Rukum East to Musikot-7 Thulidah in Rukum West. Some of them who came here in the first week of August to avoid the cold in Lekali region in winter, some of them are engaged in taking care of sheep, while others are busy weaving clothes from wool.
While the men go to shepherds to graze the sheep, the women are spinning wool and making different clothes. ``We have woven clothes such as coat, raadi, blanket, dasana from the wool of the sheep,'' says Mankumari Budha of Taksera. They walked through Thwang in Rolpa and reached Thulidah in the first week of Pus through Nau-Bahini Lake. They are planning to return from here at the end of February. From here they go to Buki near Dhorpatan and stay there till August, then they return to their original home in October-October and celebrate the festival.
"Government has not paid much attention to the increase in income by making this profession of ours, which is doing loan banking, professional," says Kar Bahadur Budha. The government of Karnali province has been giving an annual shepherding allowance of Rs. He complains that there is no program targeting sheep farmers in Lumbini province.
He says that making clothes from sheep's wool is not easy. "If you calculate the time and labor, the income from this does not even cover the expenses," he says, "but on the one hand, the wool will be put to good use and on the other hand, we do this work only because we do not have to keep buying clothes to use ourselves."
Until a few years ago, the sale of clothes including wool ragipakhi was good, but now the situation is not the same. "When we started getting clothes at a cheap price in the market, we have reduced the number of people who buy woven clothes," she says, "Back then, we used to go to villages to sell clothes, and we made a profit." Now it doesn't sell much. Only one person is found who buys for Chino and Coseli with this desire.'
He says that clothes made from sheep's wool are very strong. Due to the harsh climate, shepherds living in the Himalayas and others have also been using woolen clothes from local sheep. Manakumari says that the cloth made in this way lasts for decades. "Only we know its importance, others don't even care about it, we haven't even been able to explain it," she says, "that's why our efforts are being wasted."
