Versatile plant with high aesthetic value
Bamboo, a sustainable wood and renewable resource, is being used more and more in everyday life, as it is very versatile, durable, practical and adaptable to work with. This is what makes it so fashionable and hip. Additionally, bamboo is environmentally friendly, easily renewable, and fits into our lives to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle.
BAMBOO is a unique plant that looks like a tree but belongs to the grass family Poaceae. The scientific name of bamboo is Bambusa. This evergreen plant has a variety of species of different sizes and heights and can largely be found in tropical and subtropical areas of Asia. Different types of bamboo can be found in many parts of the world.
It is a fast-growing plant that can multiply quite quickly. Bamboo is commonly found wild in the jungles, and some types are planted at households in urban areas or as decorative plants in parks.
Versatile plant
Bamboo is an extremely versatile material with more than a thousand uses. From building materials to household items, food containers, basketry, mats, art and handicrafts to decorative items.
In the olden days, it was not uncommon to see village houses of the native tribes with their roofs, walls, doors and windows, as well as floors and ladders of stilted houses made of bamboo.
Although nowadays, modern materials are being used for the same purpose in many villages in Sarawak, we can still find some of the bamboo houses in the rural settlements. Others are using bamboo merely as decoration rather than out of necessity, as in the case of bamboo houses at the homestays at Libiki Bamboo Resort in Bau Sarawak and Bamboo Homestay M2 at Semporna, Sabah and among others.
The Bidayuhs in Sarawak are renowned for cooking chicken meat in bamboo tubes known as “Ayam Pansuh” which has a distinctive flavour that is said to be unrivalled by cooking with metal cooking utensils.
In Kuching City, there is a newly opened restaurant named Kampung Grandma Bamboo Cuisine, located at Panovel
Commercial Centre, Jalan Simpang Tiga, which uses bamboo in part of the decoration on the walls and the counter table.
Bamboo tubes are used uniquely as food trays, soup bowls and containers for some food items at the dining table.
Bicycle frames from bamboo tubes
Bamboo tubes, which are lighter but twice as strong as steel of the same size, have been used to make bicycle frames, and many countries have adopted the use, including the United States, Europe, Ghana, Thailand, Burma, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
When I was in Lembang, a town in Bandung Regency, West Java, Indonesia, I came across a restaurant by the name of Balibu, which served Sundanese cuisine. The restaurant uses a lot of bamboo for its decoration, from the wall that displays the signboard to the entrance, the ceiling, lamp shades, chairs, walls in the restaurants, partitions, the handrails of the staircase and a hut outside the restaurants.
In Eco Park Curugtilu at Bandung, I also came across a wall decorated with the crossed bamboo tubes which were painted in multiple colours that brightened up the wall.
There are other decorative items made from bamboo tubes, including bamboo bridges and a bamboo walkway.
All these decorations blend well with the natural surroundings and add aesthetic value to the park.
