Q Life Magazine Q Magazine (US) May 2016 | Page 44
| Issue 2
Pearl Diving:
A Celebration of
Traditional Culture
Every year in May, dhow boats appear just off the coast of Qatar, bobbing peacefully
on the calm, blue-green Gulf water. The boats carry pearl divers, who intermittently
descend to the seabed and rise with loads of pearl producing clams.
T
hese divers are part of the
annual Senyar competition,
which commemorates Qatar’s
prominent pearl diving past.
The team that collects the most
clams wins the competition and a
$100,000 prize, but they don’t open
the clams—preserving the pearls and
the local ecosystem. predators known to attack humans,
and more. Divers tied weights to
their feet to reach the seabed quickly
and ropes to their waists to return to
the surface. The most adept divers
could stay under water for over two
minutes, and to this day pearl divers
continue to free dive, often unaided
by advanced equipment.
Prior to the discovery of oil in Qatar,
pearl diving was one of the country’s
main sources of income, and
demand for pearls around the world
kept the industry bustling. But overcoming the challenges
paid off—the sought-after pearls
supported a large segment of the
country’s economy for many years,
selling across the globe, from India to
Europe and everywhere in between.
Opening Qatar to the World
The job was not always safe, as
divers faced myriad challenges:
trips at sea that sometimes lasted
six months, lack of fresh water,
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artificial pearls in the 1930s, the
industry lost its profitability.
However, the tradition of pearl
diving remains an important part
of Qatari history. Many families
depended on it for decades,
and—with many Qataris born and
living near the coast—the sea has
remained a prominent fixture in
daily life. Thus, the annual Senyar
was established to keep this vital
aspect of Qatar’s cultural
history alive.
When you visit Qatar today, you
may not see too many dhow boats
trolling the sea for pearls, but you
Honoring a Maritime Tradition
will experience a rich, vibrant
With the discovery of oil, the country culture—one that thrived for many
years thanks to the hard work of
grew less dependent on pearl diving.
pearl divers.
And with the advent of Japanese