Arts & Crafts in Leh
Ladakh
Here, a community of metal 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.
