by Mason

Walking up stone steps through terraced fields, we make our way to the Kami hamlet.  Kamis are a specific group in Nepal that work with metal.  They are part of the caste known as the Dalits or untouchables.  This means that they are not allowed to enter a higher caste person’s home and are discriminated against.  

When my dad and I arrived, Santa Bahadur was working on a special knife called a khukuri, which was made famous by Nepal’s Gurkha soldiers. Gurkhas fight in the British Army and are known for their ferociousness and their knives. Santa Bahadur was sitting on a little wooden stool in an open-air bamboo shack, hammering the glowing red metal. At 62 years-old, he has been working with metal for 50 years, having learned from his dad.

The first day we went up, my dad and I got a chance to try hammering the metal, which turned out to be way easier said than done. The next day we came back to work on my dad’s hasia. A hasia is a small sickle-type farming tool. Since we already had the curved form of it, we started shaping the blade. After this, Santa Bahadur shaped the metal part of the handle and burned it into a piece of wood. Then he used his grinder to polish the metal, sharpen the blade, and form the handle. One of the most interesting parts was when he put the hasia back in the fire and then poured water on it. To attach the metal to the wooden handle, he smashed a lighter, poured the small shards into the handle, and melted them with the hot metal to use as glue. This is one of the coolest crafts I’ve ever seen, and I hope to do it again someday.