Liangmai technology 'Tadui Pen' that shells rice sans man
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, April 22 2011: As the world advances in the field of science and technology, people all over the world are using electronic or fuel propelled rice mills to shell rice and other food grains, people of Tanulong Lanka, a remote village of Senapati district along the IT road is still using their age old automated shelling machine Tadui Pen that works sans man.

Tadui Pen the husking machine of Lanka village is run by the uninterrupted waters that flow from gorge pools in their hilly region.

The most extraordinary feature of the machine is that it does not need a man to perform the shelling.

Lanka villagers have been using Tadui Pen since centuries.

The term Tadui Pen is coined by combining two Liangmai words Tadui and Pen.

Tadui means water and Pen means mortar and pestle (Shumbal and Shuk).

The unavailability of electric power and fossil fuel are the main reason for them to continue using the age old technology.

A regular supply of water and a large log is all they need to make a Tadui Pen.

The log with a spoon like pit on one end and a rod like shape facing downward on the other end is kept in such a position that the end with the rod is heavier than the other end.

A pit is place under the rod with rice in it.

When water flows into the spoon shaped pit, it gets heavier and goes down once it becomes full.

As soon as water pours out of the pit due to its downward declination, the side with the rod becomes heavier and it hits the rice in the pit as it comes to its original position.

According to a villager, Tadui Pen can shell around seven to eight tins of rice a day during the rainy season.

As the water flow is large and quick, the sheller can husk much more.

However, in the dry season, it takes a whole day to shell a tin of rice.

The village has 15 Tadui Pen which do all the shelling of rice for the whole village, he said.

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