On the island of the huge river in the province of Asam in India, the annual floods threaten local arts Arts and Culture star-news.press/wp

Bread, India Makon Kumar is covered with dried clay. She was flipping over wet dirt outside her single room home, and a pottery-gray bowl revolves around her palm-footed finger.

Inside the bowl there is a mass of newly purchased wet clay, slapped by Kumar, floundering and curves at the base of the bowl.

“My grandmother and her grandmother passed this practice to us. We are not farmers, and we do not have land, and this is our work,” said Macon, who is 60 years old as she pressed her fist in clay and carved the mouth of the bowl.

Makon belongs to the Kumar community, which includes about 540 people, where their women have been known for unique pottery since the sixteenth century. These women avoid the machines or the wheel of the cabinet, but they depend on their fingers to rotate a plate or a clay bowl.

Kumars lives on majuli, an island area between Subansiri and Brahmaputra Mighty in the northeastern state of India. Majuli includes approximately 200,000 people, which includes people from other ethnic groups, from 1300 square meters (502 square meters) to 483 square meters (186.5 square meters) in a century due to corrosion caused by annual seasonal winds.

During the seasonal wind season, which can extend from May to September, flood water can get more than 1.5 meters (5 feet), forcing Macon and other commer to either search for shelter on the highway adjacent to the village or stay trapped inside their homes.

Last week, ASDMA said that there are more than 72,000 people in 355 relief camp across the state due to floods, which also killed at least 24 people this year.

Refusal to Riverid Clay has been refused

During the floods, the pottery was stopped in Kumars, which led to the interruption of their main source of income. Moreover, the lack of efforts to prevent floods by the authorities has worsened.

((Our family) used to get clay from the banks of the Brahamabotra River, “Macon told Al -Jazeera.

Traditionally, the Kumar men dug from 18 to 21 meters (from 60 to 70 feet) on the river bank to extract a dark gray clay that is called the local residents Kumar “Maati” (soil).

The state, which is run by the state, which supervises the government’s response to floods and soil erosion, began building the dams in 2018, preventing the kumar from digging the river bank to clay.

A spokesman for the council said, “The Brahamabotra painting is respected in the depth of this traditional craft (to make pottery), so the extraction of clay directly from the banks of the open river causes severe erosion of the soil, which hinders the efforts of the council to protect the island of Magouli.”

The spokesperson said that the council presented a substitute for Kumar Potter by providing clay through the designated drilling or wells that can be accessed after filling the application form. The council, however, did not mention the number of applied Kumars.

Macon said that the dam on Brahamabuhtra forced her to buy clay from the mainland in the state of Asam, which increased its expenses for the company, which already lacks commercial value or organized marketing.

November is the best month when the flood water recedes and foreign and Indian tourists take 90 minutes from Jorhat, a city on the mainland in the province of Asam, to the village of Salura in Magouli, where the women of Kumar Al -Awinda were carved with their hands and feet. The tour brings additional money to my daughter, who is taught in a high school.

On other days, Kumars erase and sell utensils of various sizes to local sellers. Tekelis, the most popular and smaller pot used to store milk, is sold for only 10 rupees (0.12 dollars) for sellers, who are reselling them from 20 to 100 rupees ($ 0.23 -1.15 dollars) in stores via Majuli and Mainland Assam.

Salora has long and tight dirt roads, with rows of bamboo and concrete houses based on pillars. When the island is not overwhelmed, hundreds of dried tikilis accumulate on top of each other on a road on the village borders. Men bake and sell these utensils on the market.

“There is no money in that”

However, it is not just a form of pottery that is threatened in the majuli exposed to floods.

Nearly 18 km (11 miles) is located in Salemora in the Olaya Village, where the silence of nights is often interrupted by the youth and children who sing the hollow drums. They perform a four -hour theatrical production known as Bhaona, and was mostly a midnight performance. Local residents come to perform after the completion of dinner, sit on the ground, watch their neighbors, brothers or friends.

The entire male actors group plays the Hindu epic, Ramayana.

“The training has been trained in the past three weeks,” said actor Gytoti Bhawian, who plays a king in drama. “Even in the most hot months, we are able to perform.”

The history of Bhaona dates back to the sixteenth century and is implemented in Namghars, and the unique open prayer homes of Sam. The island has more than 384 Namghars, according to a spokesman for the Majuli Province Office.

“I have been doing this since I was a young boy,” said Karonaf Phawian, a representative of Ponta and a political science professor at the island. “What is not changing is that anyone from any background can come and watch us while performing.”

Bhaona representatives wear special masks, made of bamboo and a mixture of clay and cow. Mantle masks are usually wide eyes in the form of almonds. The eyebrows are thick, curly. The mouth boasts a full set of teeth or bright red lips. Acute and angle facial features, associated with contrasting eye colors and hair, are often displayed inside the homes of the majuli population.

“Initially, no one wanted to make masks because there was no money in it,” said 67 -year -old Hem Chandra Goswami for the island.

Goswami, who lives in the village of Samaguri in Majuli, began making smaller and easy masks, and has taught art for high school students since 2012. He received the Padma Shri Award, the fourth largest civil honor in India, in 2023 to promote the artistic shape.

Traditionally, men only made masks and use them in Bhaona. But this changes.

Brishti Hazarika, a 25 -year -old theater student, is learning to make a mask at Majuli University of Culture, a institution dedicated to preserving local art forms. “Whether we get financial assistance from the government or not, it does not prevent us from submitting performances or enjoying our festivals,” Hazarica said.

The most famous tourist attractions on the island are the Satras-Cultural and Religious Centers where the celibate male monks, covered with a white cotton cloth.

Known as bhakats, these monks join Satras during adolescence and spend their lives in the worship of Lord Krishna, unlike polytheon polytheism of many deities in the prevailing Hinduism.

But the annual floods and land erosion have reduced Satras from more than 65 to 35 in the past decades, according to the spokesperson for the Majuli County Office. Worse, not every satra is properly preserved.

Unlike Makon, Samaguri Satra is located away from the Brahmaputra River, and thus the destruction caused by the annual floods has been saved. This explains why Pradip Goswami, another local mask artist and cousin HEM Chandra, wishes to be more opportunities to produce masks commercially.

He said: “The way to continue the mask to spread is the presence of a bridge over the river to connect us to the main righteousness.”

“This is all we know.”

In 2022, the Aam State government announced the construction of a bridge of 8 km (5 miles) linking Magouli to its voices. However, the $ 70 million project was suspended in September last year after the state of Upsbcl, UPSBCL, an entity run by the country in charge of building the bridge, withdrew from the project to payment disputes, according to local media reports.

The island contacted Upsbcl to respond to these speculation, but it did not receive any response.

In May this year, the Asam government said it is looking for a new bridge contractor. But the residents of Majuli say that the government was indifferent to their lives and their livelihoods affected by the floods.

The MAJULI (MCLMA), which was created in 2006 to oversee the development of the island and protect its cultural heritage, has not held a meeting for more than a decade, as Sanjib Borkakoti claims at Mclma. Even the office that he used to attend meetings twice a year no longer exists, he says.

“There is no (governmental) supervision,” Burkuti told Al -Jazeera Island. He said that the Indian government tried at least twice – to no avail – in order to put the UNESCO World Heritage site for Majuli, a sign that would have brought “international attention and prompted the local government to protect the remainder.”

Al -Jazeera contacted a government spokesman and local officials in Magouli to respond to Burkuti’s allegations, but they did not get any response.

Meanwhile, for the residents of majuli like Makon, art exceeds the mere preservation of cultural identity. It is rooted in survival.

“We don’t just know if we have a house tomorrow,” says Macon giving a shape to the clay bowl, using a wooden racket. It revolves around the bowl the last time to check any bumps and says: “That’s all we know.”

This story was funded by the reports fellowship grant from the Journalists Association in South Asia.