Zorig Chusum
(Bhutan's 13 Traditional Arts)
Skilled artists who practice all of Bhutan's Thirteen Traditional Arts (or zorig chusum) will be presenting their skills on the National Mall during the 2008 Smithsonian Folklife Festival's Bhutan program—a rare opportunity outside of Bhutan to see all of these traditional arts and to meet their finest practitioners presented all together in one place.
The identification of Bhutan's zorig chusum dates from the 17th century, and includes woodworking, stone-carving, sculpture, painting, working in clay, casting and metalwork, wood-turning, metal-forging, jewelry making, bamboo basketry, paper-making, embroidery and weaving.
Because most objects are still created for their symbolic and functional value rather than for purely aesthetic reasons, the arts of zorig chusum also are closely tied to the traditional rhythms of life in Bhutan and the special relationship Bhutanese still cultivate with the land and other natural resources upon which they depend. Taken together, zorig chusum reflects the great Bhutanese wealth of traditional knowledge of artistic skills that have been passed from generation to generation for hundreds of years.
