enjoy the journey…
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Reading a tin of Kashmir saffron before you open it
By Porter Lang Treat saffron like any gear: check the spec first. The spec is short. A colour number, a grade, a place name and a harvest year. The rest is packaging. Why October matters Saffron is the dried stigma of a crocus. Wikipedia says each flower has a three-pronged style, each prong ending in…
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A town of red clay panels, built where there was no stone
By Ines Keane Bengal has plenty of mud and very little rock. Bishnupur’s builders worked with that. Their temples are brick and laterite, covered with fired clay, and the clay is carved like a picture book. Where it is Bishnupur is a city and municipality in Bankura district, West Bengal, according to Wikipedia. Curly Tales,…
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Weighing a sheer cloth
By Rafe Calder Chanderi is a cloth known for being light. That is the claim every source makes first, and the sources disagree about almost everything after it: how old the weave is, who brought it, what the warp is made of, and when it received its geographical indication. Where and what Chanderi is a…
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Pen or block? Read the label before the pattern
By Porter Lang Start with a question you can put to any seller: was this painted or printed? Kalamkari covers both. The word itself means “work done with a pen”, Sahapedia says, and refers to painted and block-printed cotton and silk from the Coromandel Coast. Wikipedia describes two styles, one in Srikalahasti and one in…
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Embroidered on the wrong side
By Ines Keane The embroiderer of a phulkari works from the back of the cloth. She cannot see the pattern she is making. That one fact, stated in Wikipedia’s article on phulkari and repeated by a coaching-site explainer, explains most of what follows: the long and short stitches, the shadowy sheen on the front, and…
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Classes under the trees, and a fair after the harvest
By Isla Quinn December in Santiniketan is cool, dry and bright. UNESCO’s description of the place begins with a school that held its lessons in the open air. That image still holds the town together. Trees first. Buildings second. Where it is According to Wikipedia, Santiniketan is a neighbourhood of Bolpur town in Birbhum district,…
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Zardozi: the word is settled, the history is not
By Rafe Calder The word is the easy part. Wikipedia says zardozi comes from Classical Persian, combining zar or zarin, gold, with dozi, sewing. A research site on Indian handicrafts, Gaatha, derives it from the Urdu zar and doz, gold and handwork. Either way it means gold embroidery. After that, the sources part company. Four…
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Fifteen centimetres or twenty? Taking a kangri apart
By Porter Lang Check the diameter first, because the sources do not agree. Wikipedia’s article on the kanger gives about 6 inches (15 cm). Garland Magazine says about six inches, or 150 mm. A travel guide on a Kashmir tourism blog says about 20 cm. If you are ever sizing one against a coat, treat…
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Six months, or three years: how long a patola takes depends on who you ask
By Ines Keane Start with the time. A museum run by a Patan weaving family says one sari takes four to six months if two people work five days a week. A travel blog from 2016 says a complete silk sari takes three years. A shop’s blog says six months to a year. None of…
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A shadow that moves one millimetre a second
By Isla Quinn Stand beside the largest instrument at the Jantar Mantar in Jaipur and wait. According to Wikipedia, the shadow on the great sundial moves visibly at about 1 mm per second, roughly a hand’s breadth every minute. Slow. Exact. Cut in stone. The city around it Wikipedia’s article on Jaipur says the city…
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