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Arts & Crafts
There
is little tradition of artistic craftsmanship in Ladakh, most luxury
articles in the past having been obtained through imports. The exception is
the village of Chiling, about 19km up the Zanskar river from Nima. Here, a
community of metal workers, said to be the descendants of artisans brought
from Nepal in the 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 installation in temples and
domestic shrines.
Those who cannot afford the expensive ware of
the Chiling craftsmen, are supplied by local blacksmiths (gara), with 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 with those
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 to keep 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 1980's.
