Arts & Crafts
There
is little tradition of artistic craftsmanship in Ladakh, most luxury articles
inthe past having been obtained through imports. The exception isthe village
of Chiling, about 19km up the Zanskar river from Nima. Here, a community ofmetal
workers, said to be the descendants of artisans brought from Nepal inthe mid
-17th century to build one of the gigantic Buddha -images at Shey, cary on
their hereditary vocation. Working in silver, brass and copper, they produce
exquisite items for domestic and religious use : tea and chang pots, teacup
- stands and lids, hookkah-bases, ladles and bowls and, occasionally, silver
chorten for installa-tion in temples and domestic shrines.
Those who cannot afford the expensive ware of the Chiling craftsmen, are
supplied by local blacksmitsh (gara), witht the bowls and cooking pots they
need for everyday use, as well as with agricultural implements. The gara
also make the large and ornate iron stoves seen in kitchens of the richer
Ladakhi homes. In general, craftsmanship has not developed beyond and production
of everyday item for personal and domestic use. Pattu, the rough, warm,
woolen material used for clothing is made from locally produced wool, spun
by women on drop-spindles, and woven by semi-professional weavers on portable
looms set up in the winter sunshine, or under the shade of a tree in summer.
Baskets, for the transport of any kind of burden - manure for the fields,
fresh vegetables, even babies -are woven out of willow twigs, or a particular
variety of grass. Wood work is confined largely to the production of pillars
and carved lintels for the houses, and the low carved tables that are a
feature of every Ladakhi living-room.
Many
such items, together with others recently introduced as part of the development
process, are available in the District Handicrafts Centre at Leh, which exists
to train local people as well as to market their products. There you can find,
in addition to traditional objects, a few special items like pashmina shawls-
rough compared withthose produced in Srinagar, but soft and warm as only pure
pashmina can be ; and carpets in designs and techniques borrowed from Tibet.
Similar carpets are also to be had at the Tibetan Refugee Centre at Choglamsar.
The Handicrafts Centre also has a department of Thangka painting. These
icons on cloth are executed in accordance with strict guidelines handed
down from past generations. In the same tradition are the mural paintings
in the gompas, where semi-professional , both monks and laymen,, labour
tokeep the walls decorated with images symbolizing the various aspects of
the Buddhist Way. The skill of building religious statues is also not extinct.
The gigantic representation of Maitreya, was installed in Thikse Gompa as
recently as the early 1980s.
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