Ghurra Antique Butter Churn Nepal 19C Primitive Kitchen Craft Hindu

Description

Ghurra Antique Butter Churn Nepal 19C Primitive Kitchen Craft Hindu

The Ghurra is a torso that is tied to a wall on one side, and on the other, the side with the ring, a long handle is held in place so it can be turned to churn milk into butter. Decorative and functional, original from the 19th century. Made from hardwood, with designs carved into the wood. A rare and popular collector's item among antique lovers, especially collectors of primitive art.

For centuries the mountain people of Nepal use the ghurra (churning rod-holder) as a tool for churning milk into butter. Besides possessing an important functional side, ghurras give expression tot the age-old Hindu creation myth, the Samudra Manthana: the churning of the milk ocean by the gods and demons, which is also a story with a paradigmatic pattern, one of the endless struggle between the forces of good and evil.

By using the ghurra the churning process evokes a reality that is inherent to people. In this way, the space-time structure of the mountain people is measured in moments of everlasting holy time (darshan), a ritual action whose initial inner significance was laid down in centuries and centuries ago.

Inspired by their religious convictions and folk customs, Nepalese mountain people have transposed the original mythological churning rope used to rotate and support the churning-rod during churning into sublimely beautiful wooden sculptures full of religious meaning. Ghurras also emanate sublime symbolism through their particular schematic design. They consist of geometric elements that abstractly evoke the gods of the Hindu pantheon.

In his book "Divine Support", Paul de Smedt says that Ghurras can be interpreted as a symbolic stimulus for a great devotion to god so that in every object or attitude, in every action undertaken, a deep underlying sacred reality is recognised and given expression: Brahman.