Most Famous Type of Assam Traditional Jewellery

by krishna kant sharma SEO

When it comes to jewellery, many of us often go with the most famous and common jewellery trends. We like to experiment but only with the tried and tested pieces. While jewelleries like Kundan, Polki, meenakari are always hyped, many traditional types of jewellery available in our country are not given their due importance and among these is Assam traditional jewellery.

Awesome Assam! Yes, Assam is really awesome with rich natural resources, wildlife, archaeological sites and tea plantations, they are surely blessed in abundance by nature and as a dedication to this, and everything there including music, dance forms, attire and jewellery has an inspiration drawn from nature. Assam Jewellery especially has intricate patterns of its flora, fauna and musical instruments and they were mainly made up of gold as gold dust was abundantly found in the sands of different rivers of the state. With gold they also contain silver or lac as their base metal. This jewellery along with the Assam traditional dress is worn on most of the festivities, celebrations and religious ceremonies. Most of the traditional jewelleries are made by hand by artisans who are locally called “sonari”. Some of the Assam traditional jewellery includes:

Jethi Pota:

This is a nature-inspired jewellery piece consisting of a chain of coloured embellishments. It has a wide band of cloth placed as a row of medallions, with a central pendant along with it there is also an earring resembling the kopou phool or the Assamese orchid.

Japi:

The name Japi in Assamese means hat, that is traditional and circular conical in shape. This Assam jewellery is inspired by that traditional hat. It has a long chain with a pendant in the shape of japi along with it there is a pair of earring also in the same shape.

Thuriya:

These are traditional Assamese gold earrings with a clove-shaped design worn by older women. They look similar to studs and have a front that looks like a flower.

Gam-Kharu:

Gam Kharu is a traditional broad bracelet made with gold and silver with a clasp which is used to adjust the size so that it can easily fit anyone. This unique gold ornament has floral pattern inscribed in it and is mainly worn Assamese woman along with Assam traditional dress on marriages and festivals.

Pepa:

Traditional Assamese jewellery is also inspired by musical instruments and Pepa is one example of it. It is a hornpipe musical instrument made with the horn of buffalo. This is a very pretty and elegant handmade jewellery with silver base and gold plated on top.

Dholbiri:

One of the oldest traditional Assamese jewellery, dhol biri is designed in the shape of a dhol, a musical instrument. It also has a pair of earring in the same shape with intricate patterns which highlights its beauty.

Kerumoni:

Kerumoni is an exotic and a popular round ornament worn in ear by women. These are intricately crafted using gold and silver along. Earlier used only for ears, now it is also used as a pendant with a strand made of pearls.

Loka Paro:

Loka paro is Assamese traditional bridal jewellery. The word paro in Assamese means pigeon and hence its pendant has two identical pigeons placed back to back and the earring is also in the shape of the pigeon. Made with gold and rubies, these are enamelled jewellery made famous by dignitaries of Ahom dynasty.

These were some of the unique traditional jewellery pieces which are locally very popular but we need to make them more popular outside the state. Which of these designs did you like the most?

Go flaunt them and grab some attention!