Ladakh 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.
