The making of a mudha in new hampshire

Nikki and Vijay pose with the donated installation at BCNH’s office in Manchester

By Becky Fields

Cultural artforms are one of the many ways that immigrants contribute to the vitality of our communities. The Bhutanese community used bamboo in the Nepali refugee camps to make numerous useful and essential items, including sitting stools, tables, doors, musical instruments, trays and baskets. The Bhutanese brought these skills with them when they came to New Hampshire.

In 2014, shortly after photographer Becky Field started a long-term project to document the cultural diversity in New Hampshire, she started lookingfor examples of cultural artforms to include in her project. Her friends in the Bhutanese community agreed to work with her to show how the bamboo items were made. However, finding bamboo was a challenge - it’s rare in New Hampshire!

One friend suggested a source of “bamboo” on the shore in Massachusetts. With much anticipation, a small group of Bhutanese men, along with Becky and an interpreter traveled to the Parker River Natural Wildlife Refuge. Sadly, the plants turned out to be Japanese knotweed, an invasive, uselessbamboo-like plant. Nevertheless, the group spent time on the beach where the Bhutanese saw an ocean for the first time. In a Hindu tradition, they scooped up the water and put it to their mouths only to be startled by the salty taste.

A source of real bamboo was found in North Carolina. A heavy box arrived and the cylinders of bamboo were soon inspected by the men to limited butacceptable approval. The group then headed to the local Home Depot to get tools and supplies to make objects from the bamboo shipment. On a sunny afternoon in August 2014, one of the men started cutting the bamboo. He and his wife worked with the bamboo on the lawn of the housing complex where many of the Bhutanese lived. They started making on a mudha, a sitting stool used in the camps. Soon other Bhutanese came out from their homes, bringing household knives to join in shaping the bamboo cylinders. By the end of the day, the people had made a stool, a basket, a mouth-harp, a type of stringed instrument, and a tray. That Fall, their work was honored at the Concord Multicultural Festival.

The mudha made that day was given to Becky who was honored to have it in her living room for twelve years. In 2026 she donated it to Building Community in New Hampshire, an organization that gives essential support to the Bhutanese and other immigrant groups in New Hampshire.

This mudha represents one of many examples of the rich diversity in artforms contributed to New Hampshire communities by our immigrant friends and neighbors.

For more about Becky Field’s photo project, go to www.DifferentRootsNH.com