p.s. — it almost got forgotten.
biocultural · est. 2020
born in a
born in a
pandemic kitchen.
In the farming households of Bhaktapur, chaku wasa: was once a winter staple — eaten after meals, fed to anyone unwell, handed mother to daughter. As Newa life moved toward allopathy, it almost left the kitchen entirely.
It began again in December 2020, when Shova Laxmi Gosai cooked a batch for a relative bedridden with Covid-19. A photo, a thank-you on Facebook — and a line of strangers asking for their own. The recipe is her mother’s. Only now, it is weighed and labelled.
chaku चाकु
hardened sugarcane molasses — the substance.
wasa: वास:
medicine, in the Newa tongue — the function.
sutkeri सुत्केरी
the 40-day postpartum period of recovery.
sankranti संक्रान्ति
mid-winter solstice; the day chaku is shared.
सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः · सर्वे सन्तु निरामयाः
