A jato is a type of rotary hand

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or grinder in the Himalayan region of

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

Sikkim Sikkim (; ) is a state in Northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Province No. 1 of Nepal in the west and West Bengal in the south. Sikkim is also close to the Siligur ...

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and

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...

. It is a traditional tool to grind grains. It consists of two round stones (disc) of which the bottom part is attached to the ground or the floor in the house. This attached disc or lower disc is immovable and has a big nail or a piece of wood (''mani'' or bell) in the centre to keep the top stone in place while grinding. The top part however has two holes in it, one in the middle to insert grains and the other on the side to place a wooden handle (''hato'') for grinding. The grains are ground using a circular motion with the help of the handle and the person has to be sitting down to do the task. Advantages of jato: # Easy to use. # Efficient flow of ground grains. # Reduces the force needed to grind. Disadvantages of jato: # Continuous use of Jato causes pain in the palm. # Not suitable for children. # # It is immovable and bulky. ## ## # # # # # #

References

* *{{cite journal, url=http://nopr.niscair.res.in/bitstream/123456789/6260/1/IJTK%208(4)%20569-576.pdf, date=7 September 2009, title=Indigenous Technology Knowledge in Nepal – A review, author=Subodh Sharma, Roshan Bajracharya and Bishal Sitaula, journal=Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge, volume=8, issue=4, pages=569–576, accessdate=2014-07-05 *Kumar's Photo Blog
Jato (Grinder Stone)
Jaato a traditional grinder machine used in Nepal https://kumar.anutreks.com/jaato/ Nepalese culture Food grinding tools