DHOFAR
Faces and traditions

Dhofar is one of the provinces of Oman. Like all other regions in Oman, it is governed by a minister of state. The governorate is divided into 9 wilayats: Salalah and then east of the capital along the coast, Taqa, Mirbat, Sadh, Shalim and the Halaniat Islands and to the west towards Yemen, Rakhyut and Dhalkut, inland in the Nejd, Thamrait and Muqshin to the north towards the border with Saudi Arabia, a beautiful oasis well known by the caravans that crossed the Rub Al Khali.
Frankincense has given Dhofar a special character and a wonderful historical background having put them in contact with the world's greatest civilisations. Besides the Omani have always been great adventurers and navigators. They were as familiar with the trading routes of the Indian Ocean, the monsoon winds as with the routes crossing the Rub Al Khali and the hidden mountain tracks.
For centuries Arabia, Africa and India met in Dhofar each leaving a little of itself in this country scented with the most expensive perfume in the world.

Hospitality, a perennial tradition

Those encounters have not changed the Dhofaris, they have retained their traditional kindness and reserve. Salalah is a much quieter city than Muscat. Dhofar's capital has just begun to achieve its economic potential and future possibilities with the inauguration of Port Salalah.
With the increased number of tourists in the summer, during the monsoon season and all year round, the interest they show for its climate, its exceptional landscapes, its archaeological heritage, its villages and deserts, Dhofar is beginning to understand that it has become a focus point. It has undertaken restoration work on the forts, on the old traditional Dhofari houses which are very original and can only be seen there, it is equipping the beaches along the beautifully wild coastline and organising circuits for tourists in the mountains or in the desert. Four or fivr star hotels are being built to comply wit! Dhofari traditional hospitality, because Oman has decided not use tourism as a simple economic factor but as an opening on the oldest of Arab traditions. This is definitely one of the charms of Oman. In Dhofar, one of the traditions is to offer every visitor a coconut, to quench his thirst with the milk.
Many tourists on arriving at Salalah do not know who they are going to meet or what they are going to see. Some are aware that Dhofar is the country of frankincense although they cannot even imagine what the tree looks like.

Velvet dresses and sequinned veils threaded with silver for the Dhofari ladies A very personal fashion, discreet yet remarkable by its originality

A trip to Dhofar becomes a true discovery, a meeting with people different from Muscat, Nizwa, Sohar and Sur. The Dhofaris have their own personality and character. Some tribes reveal in their dark features the proximity of Africa, the very close ties Oman had with Zanzibar.
The women's traditional dress is also quite original. The dark velvet dress has a square neckline and is threaded with silver and gold. It can have sequins and is longer at the back, trailing slightly on the floor as if to erase the traces of their steps. Under the dress they wear trousers (sirwaW that are wonderfully embroidered at the ankle. They wear a brightly coloured and patterned veil (lahaf), to match their dress.
For special celebrations the veil is covered in sequins, pearls and embroidery. Dhofari women hardly ever wear a mask in town; however in the Nejd and in the mountains many of the older women still wear the birka, a silk or cotton mask dyed gold or indigo making their eyes even darker and deeper. They often wear a nose ring set with a carnelian stone and a gold flower nose stud. It is the women who sell frankincense on the Salalah souq. They are the only women in Oman, together with the Bedouins from Sharquiyah who come to the Friday market to sell their goats, to do business in the souq. They have their own street in the Salalah souq where they settle mornings and evenings with their scales and their bags of crystallised gum. They are hard to bargain with and are sure of themselves.
The traditional dress of Omani women is one of the most beautiful, the most colourful and varied in the Gulf. It shows a lot of taste and originality. Omani women are naturally elegant.
It is essential to visit the Cultural Centre at Salalah, to see the traditional costumes from the different regions of Oman. You can discover the plain but magnificently embroidered dress of the Baluchi women, or the fuchsia, red or gold vividly coloured one of the Sur, or that of the Muscati women with its shorter and beautifully coloured and embroidered tunic.

In the past jewellery was made of silver Today it is made of gold but has kept the same designs and the same sources of inspiration

In Arab tradition, jewellery is magnificent: long silver necklaces, with old coins, thalers (Maria Theresa 1750-1950), Indian coins, discs engraved with extracts from the Koran, carnelian beads, amulets, Koran or kohl boxes. The old necklaces are threaded on plaited hemp. From these long chains hang engraved clips, moon crescents, other little chains, hands of Fatima which are always made of silver. The earrings are also heavy and made of large rings with cone shaped drops of carnelian or coral. The Bedouins even wear some made of leather.
The bracelets which are studded, set with stones or engraved are never worn singly, women can wear up to seven on each arm. The ones found in Dhofar are extremely elegant, made of silver and carnelian and beautifully worked. Ankle bracelets are much lighter, and those for children have small bells.
However they are hardly ever worn now and can mainly be found in museums. For celebrations, women tie pendants stuffed with perfumed cotton to the tip of the plaits, or they hold their veils on their forehead with little silver or gold tiaras set with coloured stones and chains. Two pieces of jewellery are typical of the Dhof.ir, the sils, triangular pieces with dangles, attached to the end of head scarves and thrown over the shoulder to secure the scarf, and the manjad a set of three chains connected by hearts, spades or clubs and worn over the shoulder and under the other arm with a matching one over the other shoulder. Today, gold has replaced silver as can be seen in the gold souq in Salalah. But little else has changed and it is the same bracelets, necklaces and head dresses as before.

Men have remained faithful to the disdasha On feast days, they wear their marvellous turbans and the silver belt to which they hook the magnificent khanjar

Men continue to wear the traditional Omani costume: white disdasha, patterned wool turban or the white tarbush with colourful embroidery called kumah. For official ceremonies and celebrations, they wear a wool belt matching their turban and the traditional silver khanjar hanging from a thin silver belt. They look proud in their magnificent gold embroidered black or cinnamon cloak, holding, quite often, the silver handle of their fine cane which was used to guide the camels.
The Jabalis, in the mountains, often wear a loincloth tied round their waist and carry a riffle or a stick. They use an old dialect, not Arabic, but always welcome you to their encampment with a cup of camel's milk which is supposed to be very rich and very much like mothers' milk. Their round and roomy huts are covered with branches. During the monsoon they shelter in the mountain caves where the frankincense harvest used to be stored.
In the Nejd, the Sultan had houses built for the nomads who wanted to settle down. The houses are large and comfortable, surrounded by high walls in true Arab tradition. But it takes time for women to get used to this new way of life. They can be seen in the courtyards, huddled around a fire, talking, working, dyeing their masks with indigo, weaving colourful belts or baskets, feeding their babies or drinking tea. The clothes are kept in large chests, just like they used to be in the tent. These women are more likely to wear the black abaya than the colourful dresses and scarves. In those villages the children go to school and the men work in the administration, for the army or the oil industry. The Toyota pick up truck has replaced the camel, but the elders still look after their herds in the desert visiting them daily. Camel races are still very popular.
Their faces burnished by the sun and wind and a hard life they are full of the pride and wisdom of that vast and empty desert.

The country of frankincense is also the country of perfumes An art, a science, a heritage which is passed on from mothers to daughters

The country's men and women have held on to the secrets and perfumes of old. They know the secrets of plants, their healing virtues, how to mix them and extract their fragrance. These traditions must be preserved. But it takes time to discover them and get to know Dhofar, it is also essential to listen, to look with discretion and respect and to be accepted. There are so many things to learn in this country.
It seems that in Dhofar perfumes are even more important than anywhere else in Oman. The secret of the bokhur which burns in every household is passed on from the mother to her daughter on her wedding day. The bokhur is made of a mixture of frankincense. musk, myrrh, attar, jawi (aromatic resin), dhufran (powdered snail opercula), flower petals and even shells. In Dhofar, they also add labdanum gum, grey amber picked up on the shores and oudh, a rich musty-fragranced wood from South East Asia especially on important occasions such as weddings, Eids, funerals and after childbirth. In Dhofar the bokhur is heavier, oilier and more pungent than in the North.
The incense burner is taken round the house, to all the rooms. It is normally put in the majlis to honour the guests. It is also often used to give fragrance to clothes by taking them out of the chests and putting them on some kind of wooden dummies over the incense burner. The men always put perfume on the tassels of their disdasha. Men from the Dhofar mountains used to wear long thongs of plaited leather wound round their heads at the end of which they attached a lump of perfume wrapped in cotton.
All Omani women know how to mix frankincense, rose water, basil, jasmine, zaaf to make their own scent. Rose water is in any case part of the traditional welcome as it is given to all visitors in the beautiful silver spray bottles. It is made from the rose petals picked at dawn on Jebel Akhdar still covered in dew. A few drops are also added to the finger bowls that are passed round at the end of meals.
As well as being a tradition, perfume is an art form in Oman, probably because of its resources in frankincense. The tradition is being carried on in the perfumes created by Amouage in collaboration with a French nose, Guy Robert. Amouage, the most expensive perfume in the world is a mixture of frankincense, myrrh, jasmine, roses, essence from Omani flowers, grey amber, civet and sandal wood, apricot, lily of the valley, lemon, peach, in all, about 120 different ingredients. It is sold in sumptuous crystal bottles in the shape of a khanjar or the dome of a mosque. Ubar which bears the name of Dhofar's mythical city, great explorers dreamt about, is evocative of desert dunes, their movement and the flowers that filled the city that wanted to rival paradise. Salalah, the latest addition in the Amouage range is an homage to Dhofar and its tradition of perfumes. The bottles of that perfume named after the capital are displayed in the traditional incense burners ofTaqa and Mirbat, the mejmars. they are still made of clay and hand painted in a clear green and red design. It is the women who make this traditional and elegant pottery using tools made of shell and porcupine spines.

In the mountains as in the desert, people still know the secrets of plants, of their flowers and leaves, how they make women more beautiful and how they heal most ailments

Omani women have also their secrets to remain beautiful. Although the city women and the younger generation use modern cosmetics, sold in most countries, the women of Dhofar and the desert have not forgotten recipes handed down through generations.
They have always used kohl to make their eyes up, which is also known for its medicinal qualities. It was sometimes made of antimony, but mainly of frankincense or one of its substitutes, the roots of the arvea jevanica. Women used to have silver kohl boxes (makhal). On the lid there was a small chain with a stick (marwat), used to put the kohl on. In the mountains as in the desert, kohl is still applied with simple little wood sticks.
To keep their skin soft, Omani women mix ground prunus mahled seeds to the yellow pigment of the carthamus tinctorius flower. In Dhofar, they rub their skin with pounded indigo and wash it off with the crushed leaves of becium dhofarm^. The combination of the indigo dye with that imparted by the leaves clears and smoothes the skin, making it glow with a delicate bluish tinge that sets off their indigo coloured dresses and shawls. They also use pointed sticks dipped in indigo to paint lines or patterns on their faces for public occasions and celebrations.
They rub their hair with an oil extracted from shoo seeds to make it shine better and stop it from going grey. They make their own shampoo with sidr, ipomoea nil or myrtus communis leaves. Henna is still widely used to draw patterns on hands and feet and also for hair and nail treatments.
As well as being used for making perfumes and cosmetics, the frankincense is used for medicinal purposes. Nothing is lost! The leaves and flowers are used to feed the herd, the buds and fruit make astringent mouthfuls for borders and their families. The bark was used to dye the cotton clothes of the mountain people and give leather a beautiful mahogany tinge. It was also given to pregnant women against morning sickness, and crushed into a paste was often applied on burns, scratches, stiff or broken limbs and aching teeth. It was also inhaled to cure colds. The Bedouins and the people of the mountain drop some frankincense crystals in their water to purify it. It was also a tradition in the mountain to burn frankincense at night to ward off the evil spirits or dangerous animals.
The most beautiful frankincense beads were kept for special occasions. One of those occasions was when the children who studied in Koranic schools had to recite long passages by heart. To improve their memory and give them heart before the test, they were given water in which a few beads and some iron had soaked overnight. The Cultural Centre of Salalah is the keeper of the memory of these traditions. It has wonderful exhibitions of costumes, jewellery, weapons, pottery, various coins discovered on archaeological sites, and Dhofari art and craft (weaving, incense burners, clay boats and copper bowls). They are an excellent initiation to the history and traditions of Dhofar. There is a festival in the autumn with many special exhibitions, conferences and cultural events. Salalah holds many concerts and dance festivals.

Dhofar is a lover of music, and unique instruments beat the rhythm of dances (trumpets, straight pipes, lute, drums, raftafca, marwa, mahjar, tambourines, horns)

Dhofari traditional dances, as well as the accompanying instruments are part of the cultural heritage. One of the better known and most impressive is undoubtedly the Al Habout, a men's dance. It is a sight to behold when they arrive in close ranks with the elders in the lead, running briskly and carrying their sword or rifle which they brandish, reciting an epic poem specially written for the occasion. The Al Bar'aa is performed by two dancers each holding a dagger in their right hand and their disdasha in their left. The accompanying music is played on the qasaba, a form of reed pipe, two or more marwas (small drums), two or more mahjars drums and one small bell tambourine. Al Bar'aa is a dance very popular with young people and is often seen performed on Friday nights in villages. Al Shark is another very graceful dance accompanied by lovely songs and the beat of the small and large drums, the marwas and the mahjars. Al Rabouba, Raqs Al Zanuj and Al Shobania are dances performed by both men and women which is very rare in Oman and can only be seen at great celebrations (National Day) in Dhofar. They are very traditional tunes about the return of sailors (Raqs Al Zanuj), others have religious connotations, the Madar which is performed on religious occasions such as the Eid Al Fitr or the Eid Al Adha, during the annual pilgrimage to Mecca or to welcome important visitors, the Ahmed Al Kebir dance, an allusion to Al Sayed Ahmed Al Badawi, a holy man with disciples throughout the Islamic world who is buried in Egypt. Salalah's own version of this dance is performed on two very special days, the second day of Eid Al Adha and on National Day. Some of the participants carry incense burner, waiting the fragrant clouds around them.
Raqs Al Nisaa is a fitting end to the delightful shows that reveal the wealth of the Dhofari cultural heritage. It is one of the most well known of the ceremonial dances. The women of the troupe sit down alongside their tabla or tambourine drummers, men or women, with their principal solo performer. The soloist sings and the others respond in chorus while the dancers move amongst the seated participants, decked in gold dancing in pairs in subtle measured steps. Each dancer holds in one hand a corner of the veil which covers her head while making small movements with her feet. Oman, like the rest of Arabia, is very fond of tales and they know how to tell them. In Dhofar, when the children are afraid or are crying, their fathers tell them and sing the Al Lawlau, a musical rendering.

In Dhofar, pottery is a hundred year old family tradition

Wicker work and pottery are the main crafts in Dhofar. Basket weaving is mainly done in the mountains and in the desert using fibres from the desert palm tree (Nannorrhops ritchieana). The Dhofaris know how to use plants and all kinds of natural fibres and leaves given to them by nature. It is essential for women of Taqa and Mirbat at the foot of the mountains to know how to use the clay to make all kind of domestic pots for water, milk, buttermilk, spices, coffee. Some pots were used to store the season's harvest, mainly cowpeas and sorghum, which were mixed with a little ash to prevent insect infestation. Meat cut up into long slithers and sun dried was also stored in clay pots, as well as the precious ma'jin. The mejmars, the incense burners have a very special shape reminiscent of the terraced Dhofari roofs. It is amazing to see the skill of the Dhofari women who work without a potter's wheel, just using strange tools made of shell and porcupine quills. Now that plastic pots have often replaced the earthenware ones, they mainly make them for tourists (incense burners, small Dhofari boats, coffee pots, mountain huts...).

Dhofari homes must regain their former splendour

If we have left Dhofari architecture till the end of this chapter, it is to better celebrate it, as the Dhofari houses are the flagships of the national heritage. Their shape is extremely original as well as the decoration of the windows and doors. They should be listed and protected for future generations. These houses are very different from other Omani houses. These elegant and simple mud houses are square and covered in stucco. But contrary to traditional Arab homes centred round an inner courtyard, these are open to the outside with many beautifully decorated windows all different from one another. The mashrabiyas are made of two or four carved swivelling panels and the balconies are as delicately carved also. We can see a touch of Africa, the Zanzibar and the Moguls in the colours and patterns. The carved doors are also unique and are painted in red, yellow and green, colours which are very popular in Dhofar and Oman. There are many of these houses in Salalah and Mirbat, however they are often in a dilapidated state. Thankfully a whole programme of restoration was started recently as too many, occupied at very low rent by Indian lodgers, were disintegrating slowly, their windows and doors broken, without being given the attention needed.
Old Dhofari families who own some of these houses in Mirbat, for example, are now restoring them and using them for the weekend.
It is a real labour of love to restore those traditional houses: the mud and the stucco, pierced a thousand times, arched windows with carved panels, terraced roofs reminiscent of the incense burners, where on summer days one can listen to the wind and make the most of the coolness of the air.
Carpenters, wood carvers and builders have not lost their skills. Under their hands and tools, the Dhofari homes are coming back to life, the old doors are swinging on their hinges, the windows' carved shutters are once again opening onto the blue ocean to glimpse the incoming ships. Like the forts or the foundations of Sumhuran or Al Balid, they tell us the history of Dhofar.
It is our turn now to go on their discovery in their natural surround, in those silent villages that are slowly waking up to take their rightful place in the magnificent Dhofari landscape.