We offer you a traditional, handmade bag for carrying and storing kaba/djura gaida instrument. This bag is an insubstitutable element of the professional Bulgarian bagpiper’s equipment for it preserves the gaida instrument in the best possible way. The bag is made of goat’s skin, processed and painted in a traditional method, with beautiful ornamentation in the typical Rhodopian style.
When carried in the bag, the gaida is to be folded in a roll-like manner. The bag can hold an additional chanter, too. The item we offer you has never been used and it was made just recently.
Bags like that don’t occur often these days, for their make involves great many efforts and requires a lot of specific skills as well as much of patience. There are only few people who can face the challenge of making gaida bags and can actually make ones of good quality. Our master is obviously one of them.
If you are a gaida player and would like to enjoy the privilege of preserving your gaida in the best possible way, don’t miss your chance to make yourself happy with this beautiful and useful item.

Details about the bag for carrying gaida instrument

According to the tradition, dating back to the appearance of gaida instrument itself, the gaida is to be carried in a bag especially made for that purpose. Thus, the instrument is preserved from outer influences that can affect it in negative way. Moreover, it is far much easier to carry the gaida in a bag.

The current looks of the bag is more than 100 years old, when bags with ornamentation like that started to be made for the very first time. The bag you see is typical for the Rhodope mountain area, which is the birth place of the unique and world-wide known kaba gaida instrument.

The images of a singing girl and a bird you can notice on the bag are specific for the Rhodope mountain region and for their make were employed a great number of beads. The girls is known as ‘the Rhodopian lady’, whereas the bird is defined as ‘the peacock”. In fact, the Rhodopian lady and the peacock are the most traditionally used images for the make of bags for carrying gaida. Apart from the bead-made motifs whose lacing involves a great amount of time and efforts, the bag has several fringes as an element of its beautiful ornamentation.

Also, at the upper part of the bag, above the Rhodopian lady motif, there can be noticed a cow’s bone with dot like decoration. This interesting detail is traditionally placed there and is believed to bring luck to the gaida player.

UNIQUE ITEM for collectors and Bulgarian culture admirers !!!
THE BAG COULD BE USED FOR BOTH DJURA and KABA GAIDA!!!
Additional information about the master of this bag

Christo Topchiev is one of the best gaida players and gaida instrument masters of the Rhodope mountain region. He has been making kaba gaidas for more than 30 years now.
Bai Christo makes gaidas in a traditional way that has been preserved throughout the years of gaida making by several generations of masters. The instruments he makes are absolutely authentic and traditional.
What is to note is that Christo Topchiev makes not only gaidas but also bags for gaida instruments. He uses a combination of old and modern motifs to decorate the bags, which as a result turn into a real piece of art. The beads are laced through for more than a month; the bone used for the bag’s plates is specially processed so that the plates don’t fall apart after pyrographical technique comes into play.