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From: "Architexturez." <admin-in@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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Date: Sun, 04 Dec 2005 15:07:30 +0530
Beypore boats sail into oblivion
The boat yard in Beypore, once famous for supplying hand-crafted boats
to the Gulf, has now fallen silent, thanks to its inability to keep step
with changing market demands, says M. A. Siraj.
....
After nearly 1,500 years of activity, the hammers have fallen silent at
Beypore. The tiny town on the Arabian coast in Kerala had been supplying
large-sized, sea-worthy boats to Arabs for all these years. But no
longer so. Now orders come only from those Arabs who would like the
traditional dhows to be preserved in museums. Earlier sea-faring boats
made at Beypore used to carry cargo and passengers across to the Gulf
nations. With the decline in demand, the famous artisans of Beypore are
without work. At one time, they churned out the best of these floating
handicrafts, large enough to carry as much as 2,000 tons of merchandise
or 150 people. Crafted out of the best teakwood, these dhows, shambooks
or bareeds, (all Arabic names for a variety of ships and boats) or
simply urus for the locals, they were large pieces of wooden architecture.
cont'd...
http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/dec42005/finearts1022362005123.asp