Emirates Heritage Village: Helping the young relive traditions

Abu Dhabi: There is a place, removed from the tumultuous streets of the capital, where one can step back in time and experience a simpler way of life. A sanctuary of culture and tradition, the Emirates Heritage Village sits on the Abu Dhabi breakwater with the backdrop of the capital's towering skyline in stark contrast.

The visible disparity between the UAE of seafaring and Bedouin days and the country's current distinctive urban feel is nowhere more omnipresent than on the 1,600-sq m stretch of land, where scenes from traditional daily life in the Emirates can be relived.

One of the 10 departments that make up the Emirates Heritage Club, the Emirates Heritage Village was set up to keep the traditions and values of the UAE alive. "The aim of the village is to let new generations know about their traditions and values," says Atiq Qanoun Al Falasi, an official at the development bureau for the heritage and village affairs.

"Young people are now born into technology and forget about their traditions and heritage. So we've listened to the words of the late Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan when he said he who doesn't have a past doesn't have a present. Now, we have everything buildings, technology, what everyone else in the world has. But this man was born in the desert, the sea and took off from there, and he was the man who built the UAE."

Open to the public every day of the week, the Emirates Heritage Village attracts close to 1,000 visitors a week according to Al Falasi, especially during the milder winter and spring months.

Visitors at the Emirates Heritage Village can journey into the past in three different sections: the sea, the desert, and agriculture. Each section showcases the customary ways of life of the UAE, where people can see wool tents (bait al sha'ar), seamen's houses designed especially to shield them from the often harsh environment, and irrigation systems manned by an ox.

"I don't believe in our heritage as just the past, but about embodying it and making it real," says Al Falasi. "Visitors need to see it, see women cooking traditional food, people making handicrafts and just the way life used to be in the UAE."

The desert section rests on red sand brought in from oases and camels, horses and falcons are in plain view. The Emirates Heritage Village offers falcon training courses to those who are interested, while visitors can take a breather in the hadhira, or a makeshift tented coffee shop where Bedouin used to meet.

Palm carpets, rice bags and rope lie nearby, while a clothes shop and an herb and spice shop are open to those looking to buy a little piece of tradition. The area designed to showcase life by the sea holds a beach house erected on white sand. A big wooden door welcomes you into the quaint house, where the barjil, or a wide and open tower set up on top of the house, evenly distributes cool air from the sea.

The house is covered with palm tree leaves, demonstrating how seamen designed their houses depending on environmental conditions to protect them from the heat and scorching sun.

The agricultural section gives visitors a chance to see an irrigating system of yore, whereby an ox goes up and down a decline to retrieve water from the sweet water well in order to form water channels to irrigate crops nearby.

The Emirates Heritage Village also houses a souq, or popular market, where men make leather, glass, copper and wood products. Ladies weave and spin wool and use palm tree leaves to make traditional household items used in the past. The village museum is built like a traditional fort on a 500-sq m stretch, and holds traditional tools for cultivating land, old arms, diving tools used in pearl fishing, traditional Arabic coffee pots (dallah), folkloric and traditional garments, jewellery, old manuscripts and photos, as well as pieces of old currency.

Activities: Harking back to nature

The Emirates Heritage Village (EHV) was established in 1993 under the instructions of the late Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan. In 1997, the EHV was made an independent authority belonging to the government and was headed by Shaikh Sultan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The EHV carries out various activities through various departments.