Aqsa Nizamani BS iii Feature (English)

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Handicrafts Of Hala

Aqsa Nizamani

2K16/MC/13  

Located by the left bank of River Indus in Sindh province of Pakistan, there is this quaint town of Sindh and Taluqa of Matiari Hala, the Hala was given the owner of Taluqa in 1848 by revenue record, home to ancient artisanal Kashi artists called ‘Kashigars’.

Amongst many handicrafts that Hala is popular for, glazed ceramic, earthenware and terracotta seem to be most popular in Pakistan.

These pots and tiles available in various shapes and sizes are famous for their exquisite hand painting. The artists draw beautiful flowers, geometric patterns and motifs, and Quranic Verses in calligraphy that are then painted in vivid colors. Using only signature colors that include cobalt blue, turquoise, mustard, purple, brown and white; this form of art is known as ‘Kashi Kari’. It takes more than twenty stages to manually produce each piece of art. For over a century, generation after generation of ‘Kashigars’ have been molding, shaping, painting and making fire glazed tiles and earthenware. These tiles are mostly used in the construction of Shrines to decorate them so that they may look beautiful to people who visits them. The Hala tiles and earthenware are massively exported to Middle East and Europe.

We had an exciting day hanging out at these workshops, which I would rather refer to as ‘‘pottery yards’’ since these are not of those well-designed factories or pottery studios. These are organic, earthy and natural layouts in big open yards surrounded by bricks . The reason behind this is the lack of financial resources.

The yards are partially apportioned to stack and store drying products while the rest is used for the painting process. The actual process of sand and clay mixing, molding, shaping, baking and glazing happens in the open courtyard. There are four to five such yards in a small village that has nothing but narrow dusty lanes, lined with simple brick houses adjacent to the pottery workshops.

There are more than twenty stages that the material goes through before it develops in to a piece of artwork; all of which are carried out manually. The courtyard has heaps of natural materials being sifted, refined and mixed. The artisans have never been to any art school, and have neither gone through any formal art education. They have this talent by their birth, their parents just polish it and make them into their traditional and family work.

The most interesting part in the handmade is the wood fuelled furnace, where the shaped pottery is fired for at least fifteen to twenty hours before it is ready for painting.

Muhammad Bakhsh, one of the artist who taught people how to mould a flower vase on a potter’s wheel. Talking to Haji a potter based in Hala, acquired that for centuries his family, one generation after another have been Kashigars. Even the younger generation never thinks of any other profession but to learn the ancient art that their forefathers have been practicing. He was especially proud of his work on an array of minarets, dooms columns an pillars. Besides floral patterns, geometric patterns and motifs, these master pieces also contain calligraphic work.

Despite being so talented and producing exquisite artwork, these families remain poor. Baksh said that he is bonded to a middleman and sells all his products to him at half the market price; leaving him with a meager profit margin.

The craftsman mentioned that their production can be better if there have steady power supply and they replace their manual pottery wheels with electricity powered wheels. They should also be financially supported by the government as their work is for culture, so ministry of heritage and culture should take care of them so that their work can be appreciated.

The famous Hala bazzar is a long way street where people walk to find their needy things. Mostly, all the shops of this bazzar are decorated with art and craft, visitors can see in every shop unique kind of items, and the most incredible thing in Hala is fabrics such as Sindhi, Silk, Khaddi and other fabrics, every piece of items are original. Therefore, Hala bazzar has around uncounted other features for the visitors to be look after that, like famous Shrine of Makhdum Nooh Pir, who died  in 1592. Hala became a leading centre of the Suhrawardi sect of Sufism from the sixteenth century onwards, parks, food courts, handicraft shops, jewellary shops etc are also the reason of tourism.

The Famous piece of fabric and cloth, the Ajrak, which is famous all over the world as a part of Sindhi Culture and tradition, is widely made and found in Hala. The Sindhi people purchase this beautiful token of gift and appreciation from Hala. They make and design ajrak in many sizes and designs. The women of sindh also wear ajrak design dresses to show their love for ajrak. Not only this, but the women wear famous ‘took work’ clothes are also famous of Hala city.

The other household things like sofas, beds, bed sheets, and the most famous Rillis which are found in almost every home of sindh are beautifully made by Hala’s women.

The common bed and resting piece of sindhi people Known as ‘Khat’ are made in Hala, and the ‘Sindhi jhoola’ commonly known as ‘Peengho’ are the master pieces of Hala handicrafts. The workers made these beautiful pieces by their own hands with so much care and sincerity.

People all over Pakistan specifically from Sindh visit Hala for buying these beautiful crafts. The sindhi women use ‘garhi khat’ in the occasion of wedding, used to buy from Hala, are famous and real.

Despite of working so hard and making crafts with their hands and natural materials, they are exported with very low prices, they are even not paid with the reasonable prices, which is not fair, due to which the people are lacking interest in this traditional work. They should be paid as sincerely as they work. We have to save our traditional work and handicrafts.