Butter churning in Nepal

A setup for churning butter

Butter churning is an important part of Nepalese livlihood. Not only a part of day to day activity, it is a component of traditional culture and identity of Nepalese society. It involves the separation of butter from curd by the action of centrifugation using a series of traditional devices.

Devices used in churning butter

Theki (Nepali: ठेकी)

Theki is the biggest of all devices used in churning butter, and is the basic foundational device used. Cylindrical in shape at the body, it has a narrow neck while the mouth is a spreading fan like structure. It is most commonly made up of darigitho (Nepali:दारीगिठो) wood, so commonly called as Daar ko theki in rural areas.Rhododendron (गुराँस) is also used. It is used to hold the curd during the process and is where the Madaani is inserted.

Madaani (Nepali:मदानी)

Also known as Ghupa, It is the most important and major functional device used in churning process.^[1] It is a tool made with the combination following parts:

1. Saro (Nepali:सरो) It is a long, solid, cylindrical structure made up of Falat' (Nepali:फलाँट) or Katus (Nepali:कटुस) wood. It is connected to 'Pora' at the end and is where 'Neti' is wounded around.
2. Pora (Nepali:पोरा)-It is the fan like structure at the base of Madaani, made of same wood as Saro.^[2] It has 4 blunt blade like structures used for whirling of the curd. It can be considered as a centrifuging machine in technical words.
3. Neti (Nepali:नेती)-It is the rope wounded over Saro, with two free ends made up of small cyindrical woods tied on the rope called Koila, for holding by a person to move it to and fro. It can be made up nylon or paddy straw.

Torso or taro (Nepali:तोर्सो/तरो)

It is a flat structure consisting of hole at one end to let the Saro of Madaani in and thereby holding it in place while tied with a rope at the other end to hold it on a supporting structure. It can be made up of any wood but Falat' (Nepali:फलाँट) and Katus (Nepali:कटुस) are considered the best.

Dhungro (Nepali:ढुंग्रो)

It is a hollow, cylindrical structure made up of Bamboo( Nepali:बाँस) used for holding the churned milk at the end of the churning process.

Process of churning

The curd accumulated over a period of few days is brought and collected in the Theki. Then, Madaani held onto the Torso is inserted inside the Theki. Then Neti is moved to and fro until butter separates from the curd. Addition of hot water at the middle of the process can fasten the process but care should be given to the period and amount of water to be added. Addition of more water at the latter stages of the process can significantly decrease the butter content. The completion of the process is detected by moving the Pora around the surface of the churned liquid where butter separates from rest of the liquid and accumulate into a mould. It takes about 20 minutes.^[3] Then, butter is taken out and collected, while churned milk (Nepali:मोही) is collected in Dhungro.

Gallery

• 
  Addition of hot water at the middle of the process can speed up the process
• 
  Madaani, the upper fan like structure is called Pora while the lower cylindrical one wounded with Neti is called Saro.
• 
  Dhungro (ढुंग्रो)- two at the sides, the middle one is small Theki
• 
  Torso (तोर्सो)
• 
  The whole rope set up is Neti (Nepali:नेती), the small wooden blocks tied at the end are called Koila.
• 
  A woman extracting butter at the end of the process

See also

• Nepalese cuisine

External links

References

1. "A Butter Churn Handle (Ghupa) Nepal (early twentieth century) A Butter Churn Handle (Ghupa) Nep". www.the-saleroom.com (in French). Retrieved 2015-11-13.
2. Egli, Werner M. (2014-11-27). The Sunuwar of Nepal and their Sense of Communication: A Study in the Culture, Psychology and Shamanism of a Himalayan People. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 138. ISBN 9783643801890.
3. "Making Butter - Alan Stock Photography". Alan Stock Photography. Retrieved 2015-11-13.