Today I take a look at the bamboo, one of the most fast growing species on earth. It is used in construction as well as Asian art such as drawings and paintings made with ink.
Origin: Mostly warm, tropical regions, especially East Asia
Type: Woody evergreen grass
Height: Up to 30 m
Edible: Yes
Medical: Yes
Merchandise: Yes
Technical: Yes
Apart from rice, no other plant has played such a big role in the history of China and the East as bamboo. You can eat the young shoots, it has been used in almost all areas of life, as well as in paintings, writing and other cultural forms. It is found in Japanese paintings and it was these paintings that inspired Claude Monet in his impressionistic art form.
There are about 1.400 species of bamboo in the world. They are used to different conditions, mountains to plains, but hardly grow on limestone soils, dry deserts or swamps. As far back as 2.000 years ago bamboo played an important role in all areas of Chinese culture. The Chinese carved narrow strips of bamboo, called jian and used it for writing. It preserves so well the writing that today's researchers still can read and interpret early history.
Buddists monks were not allowed to eat anything from animals and could eat the young shoots. There is even a book written by a monk, Zan Ning (919-1001), Handbook for the use of bamboo shots, Sun Pu, where he in detail gives the reader 98 different recipes on how to cook the shots. Maybe something to take up today, by those who like to eat vegan and vegetarian food. I must try to see if the book somehow is available. Would be interesting to try out. I love bamboo shots in the Chinese kitchen.
It was used producing musical instruments; an important part in the tea ceremony; kitchen utensils were made by bamboo (just as it is becoming popular again); Konfucius said: (my translation from Swedish) "People become lean without meat. But without bamboo, they become uneducated." A list of how bamboo can be used will necessarily be very long. Here just a few uses; windmills, lemons, arrows, baskets, fuel, scaffolding, materials for making batteries, weighing schools, filaments for lamps, coffins, bicycles, paper, food, carpets, asthma medicine, hair and skin ointment, furniture, toys, tents, hives, beer, etc.
It seems you can use it for almost everything that you need. It is a highly sustainable plant, which is good at a time when so many plants live a dangerous life these days.
Comments
Post a Comment