 Did you know that Tom Brady became one of only four quarterbacks in NFL history to beat every NFL team? I still hate him. You can't hate Tom Brady. No, I do. Why? He's the greatest quarterback of all time. That's true. So why do you hate him? Because of that. Josh! Informational video. This is how bone carvers in India keep a prehistoric art alive. Bone carvers. Bone carvers. Funny enough, your mom carved my bone. Great. Sounds like a great band. Ladies and gentlemen, the bone carvers! Well, I'm sure this is going to be great because like the last one was perfume. Oh, that was so great. As was the one we watched a long time ago that had those particular machine spun, um, yeah, um, sardis. Yeah. Yeah, they were beautiful. So hopefully this one's just as good. Here we go. Bone carving can be traced back to prehistoric times. In India, artisans have been turning buffalo bones into works of art since at least the 16th century, when royals would commission works like this in ivory. But more recently, a scarcity of materials and legal restraints have pushed people away from the craft. Good, we don't want that. We visited Lucknow, India to see how one group of bone carvers is still standing. So this is all buffalo bones. Jalaluddin Uffar stores bones out on the roof of his home. He has enough stock to last him six months. These were once widely available when traders sold them out of giant warehouses. But now Jalaluddin has to get them from butchers instead. Down in the workshop, Jalaluddin cuts the bones into small pieces. He learned the art from his uncle in 1980. It's been in his family for over 50 years. And in his lifetime, he's seen the industry change. Jalaluddin chops down the bone to make it straight. He sells any excess fragments for 13 cents a pound to factories that grind them up and sell them as producer. Then he shaves down the bone pieces with an electric sander. Electricity is expensive and sometimes unreliable in this part of India. So not all bone carvers can afford to run tools like these. The Akhtar family says that's part of the reason many have left the craft. These pieces will later be glued together to form a lampshade. But first Jalaluddin needs to boil them with baking soda. They cook for three hours. He files down the edges so that they align when he glues them together. In the past, there were workers who specialized in this step. But now Jalaluddin has to do all the processes himself. Once the glue is dry, he drills tiny holes to create a piece called the net. He used to do this by hand. But the drill press has made the process much more efficient. Then he submerges the bones in hydrogen peroxide to clean them. Normally the pieces lay out in the sun to whiten. But when it's rainy, Jalaluddin uses a light bulb instead. He polishes each piece with this puffing machine. And then puts all the parts together to create the shape of a lamp. Designs call for different tools, like this one. The artisans hand make it themselves. Akel is one of Jalaluddin's three sons. He's hand carving holes with the help of wooden anvil. The block keeps the piece in place while workers carve. They used to fix the wooden blocks into the ground. But over time, they started using a stone to weigh down the log instead. Akel learned the craft at 14 years old and won a state award at 18. But he wasn't always excited about the job. Now, he sees potential in it. Akel and his father work with just one or two other artisans who have different expertise. Salahubin's big specialty is engraving. Many bone carving designs resemble architecture from the Mughal Empire. 18th century buildings still stand from when the Muslim dynasty ruled India. Back then, royals commissioned artisans to carve ivory to their liking. But when the ivory trade was banned in the 1990s, carving bones from camels or buffaloes became a legal and cheaper alternative. The Akkar family says their business peaked during the early 2000s, with support from the government. Jalaluddin won a national award in 2012. And a couple years later, the government sent him to Brazil to show off his work. But soon after, the Akkar said with a new administration, funding shrunk. And business hasn't been the same ever since. Then in 2017, the government put restrictions on slaughterhouses and forced many of them to shut their doors, cutting off artist's bone supply. The raw materials became too expensive for such a small market. Some artisans went abroad for better work, and others didn't pass on the craft within their families. Today, the Akkar family teaches workshops to people in the community. It's part of the government's initiative to save the art. It pays for the students to attend the classes, and for the Akkaris to teach them. And while the pandemic has slowed down classes and regular business, it's also given the Akkaris time to develop new designs, like this lamp. It sells for around 12,000 Indian Rupees, or 200 dollars. They export most of their products to foreign customers. This is one of their most rare and expensive pieces. It's a perfume holder made from camel bone. They crafted it 30 years ago, and just recently sold it for 1200 dollars to an art collector. And the order was a bit less, and that's why a lot of people stopped doing it. Akkail is hoping to start selling her work through social media. And the Akkaris don't play on stopping anytime soon. That's super awesome and sad that there were so many, and now there's your shocking. Also, you kind of understand, obviously, we definitely don't want them to be doing anything on ivory. That is a plague that is still haunting our world. Yes, sadly. But for butchers and to use old ox or cow bone or camel, which is a very, especially in the Middle East, camel is a very popular food. I don't know if they can use goat bones, maybe too small and brittle. Or human, way too many of those. To use all of that and let the fragrance use its fertilizer, that's the way it should be done. It should be used for that. I remember when I was on Safari in Africa, one of the things we saw was this, the remains of a dead giraffe, long, long, gone. It was just the bones. And he said this giraffe died of natural causes. Just old giraffe laid down, died. The hyenas came, chewed off the meat. When they were done, the vultures came, picked off what was left. When they were done, the bugs came, picked up what was left. And what's left is going to just slowly become the fertilizer for the soil and will be very lush for the animal diet. So that taking these things that are happening as part of the natural process and creating beautiful works of art for it, I really hope this is, you share it, share it, share it, because there's people who have the money and the wherewithal in the West, especially to support them. I promise you, if those things were being made and sold here, $200 is, I don't even know how you could get away with selling that for $200 US dollars. Because that should go for literally thousands. Yeah, the rarity of that, if that was sold here and someone was selling it in Los Angeles, that lamp would have easily been $800, easily been an 800. And that perfume case would have been $567, $8,000 at least. At minimum. I mean, it's 30 years old. So it probably would have been more on the 15,000. Yeah, you can find the best people for it. So I think it's smart of them to start using social media. Absolutely. Because if you get some of your stuff to go viral, you get more people interested in getting some unique pieces. Yeah, that was cool. Yeah, that was really cool. These informational videos, sir. So good. So good. Let us know more videos like this and other informational videos. We always enjoy these ones down below.