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Traditional, hand-woven fabrics
A girl displaying `Dhaka pachora' at the exhibition. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy
DRAPED BY the Himalayas and dotted with pagodas, stupas and stone sculptures... the neighbouring country of Nepal is known as much for its scenic beauty as its arts and culture.
The monster-eyed masks and prayer wheels are anyway quite attractive to tourists.
But Bangaloreans also got a peek into the lesser-known handicrafts of the country through a Nepal handicrafts exhibition, which concluded in the city recently. The highlight of the exhibition was that most of the items on display, mostly the different fabrics and weaves, had been traditionally made by women in their homes.
The exhibition has been brought to the city by a non-government organisation, Heirloom Crafts, which works mostly with women weavers and tries to get them a market.
According to Pandey of the Heirloom Crafts, these women in Kathmandu and some other rural areas mostly work on traditional handlooms to weave various fabrics.
These included the internationally well-known ``Dhaka weave" (it has nothing to do with Bangladesh's capital), which are fashioned as drapes or can be worn as ``dupattas". "The shawls are called ``pachoras'' and are draped around the body during ceremonies. It is compulsory to gift the bridegroom clothes made of ``Dhaka weave" during a wedding," she said. Other fabrics on display were Pashmina shawls, also hand woven traditionally, silk, chiffon and georgette saris with sequin work and embroidery, woollen and cotton stoles and scarves and embroidered bed linen. However, the flimsy saris seem to have had fewer takers, though the response was good for other items. Of course, the most fascinating of all the crafts were the intricate and beautiful ``Thangka'' paintings that caught most of the people's attention.
By S.C.
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Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
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