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Houseboatsby hand

Bamboo, cane and wood models of Kerala's backwater boats, made in Alappuzha.

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WhereAlappuzha, Kerala

Made fromBamboo, cane and wood

OrderingOn WhatsApp, from the shop

Made in Alappuzha

A plank boat on a Kerala beach, its planks stitched together along every seam Bambusa Krafty makes boats you can hold, shaped by hand from bamboo, cane and wood.

The old boats were stitched together plank by plank with coir rope, without a single nail. We build ours the same patient way: the curved roof of the houseboat, the long low hull of the snake boat, the plain lines of the country boat, at a size that fits a shelf.

Two women twisting coconut fibre into coir rope beside the backwaters
Coir rope, twisted from coconut fibre, is what tied the old boats together.
A houseboat crossing Vembanad Lake in the evening, a line of coconut palms on the far shore

Three boats of the backwaters

A kettuvallam houseboat with a woven palm and bamboo roof on the backwaters, coconut palms behind

Kettuvallam

"Kettu" means tied. These barges were built from planks lashed together with coir rope and once carried rice and spices across Vembanad Lake. Today they are houseboats, roofed with woven bamboo and palm.

See houseboat models
A snake boat rowed by about a hundred oarsmen in white at the Nehru Trophy race on Punnamada Lake

Chundan vallam

The snake boat runs over 30 metres long with its stern raised high like a hood. About a hundred oarsmen row it in time to song at the Nehru Trophy race on Punnamada Lake each August.

See snake boat models
Three people paddling a wooden country boat across open backwater, houseboats on the horizon

Vallam

The everyday boat of Kuttanad, below sea level, where canals are the roads. Paddled or poled, it carries fish, coconuts, schoolchildren and the morning's shopping.

See country boat models

  1. First, pick a model.

    Browse the shop and add what you like to your cart.

  2. Then send it on WhatsApp.

    Your order arrives with us as a ready-written message.

  3. We confirm, you pay.

    We check the model is ready, then you pay by UPI or bank transfer.

  4. It ships across India.

    Packed in a crate, sent by courier.

Talk to us

Ask about a model, a custom size, or a gift for someone far from Kerala.

A canal in Alappuzha in 1990, its water covered in hyacinth between green banks

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Alappuzha, Kerala.