Thatta Kedona

We are pleased to announce the launch of the new website for our village handicrafts project, Thatta Kedona, https://thattakedona.net. This platform will serve as a window into our village, its people, their activities, and the various community welfare initiatives organized by the local NGO, Anjuman-e-Falah-Aama (AFA).

In addition to sharing information, the website also functions as an e-commerce platform, offering detailed descriptions—including photos, materials, sizes, and pricing—of our ethnic Pakistani dolls and other beautifully handcrafted items made by the talented girls and women of our village.

Thatta Kedona, the renowned Pak-German handicrafts initiative from the picturesque village of Thatta Ghulamka Dhiroka in District Okara, is a standout participant at the ongoing Punjab Industrial Expo. Known for empowering local artisan women and preserving traditional craftsmanship, Thatta Kedona is showcasing its iconic collection of ethnic Pakistani dolls and a wide range of beautifully handcrafted products that reflect the rich cultural heritage of Punjab.

The expo, which brings together over 200 skilled artisans from across the province, was inaugurated by Senior Provincial Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb at Global Village, Johar Town, Lahore. Running from April 22 to 27, the exhibition offers live demonstrations of traditional and industrial crafts, including calligraphy, linocut, sketching, handloom weaving, black stone carving, mehndi art, silver jewelry, and more.

With free entry for the public, the event is not just a marketplace but a vibrant cultural experience, featuring artisan showcases like Thatta Kedona, traditional Punjabi food stalls, and a variety of engaging recreational activities. Visitors are warmly invited to explore the unique handicrafts and stories behind each piece at the Thatta Kedona stall—a true celebration of creativity, culture, and community.

One of the most cherished Spring activity in the village Thatta Ghulamka Dhiroka is annual housing competition. This is an open competition and everyone in the village participates. Judges select the best mud house, best details and best exterior and cash prizes are given.

This annual competition keeps the Dolls Village spanking round the year in addition to keeping the cultural morals alive. This year Winner Bibi Bashiran was the winner once again. Professor Aamir Rafique gave the cash prize.

Compitition with aims of preservation of rural cultural, heritage and environment protection was supported by FPAC and SPARC in Lahore through students from Punjab University.

The students were so impressed, that they have collected additional money for the winners.

What has technology to do with culture? a question asked by many professional technology fans. A more exact consideration will however reveal, that culture is the larger dimension and technology is just a part of it. In different eras, some areas have been more influencial and in others less. This way of considering things in itself testifies to a technical way of looking at things. Technical way of thinking is characterized by representation in a manner, the roots of which are to be found in mathematical calculations. There, where abstract thought cannot be explained due to missing power of imagination, we make use of drawings in order to achieve clarity in understanding. It probably never happens that a development process runs as a straight line, rather it is more like a chaotic structure in which now and then a certain regularity becomes visible, which is lost once again after a certain period of time to once again appear as a logical pattern at a later time (see illustration below).

The most important factors for the current development were laid in the 19th century. The rejection of thinking and acting as a community meant for the technology an enormous increase in the industrial production because the division of work led to higher productivity and new professions and it appeared on the face of it to increase the standard of living in western cultures (for example the Taylorism as introduced in Ford automobile factories etc.)

Analysis of the society by political and economic thinkers led to development theories, which could not foresee the effects of these policies as evidenced today. The cardinal error by these theorists was the euro-centristic model, i.e. nobody took the happenings in other cultures into consideration.

THAAP – Trust for History, Art and Architecture Pakistan organized an Inaugural Talk for the 4th International THAAP Conference on “Cultural Roots of Art and Architecture of the Punjab” on April 13, 2013. THAAP - a forum for multidisciplinary scholars who work collectively for the promotion of research and education in Pakistan, has up till now organized 03 International conferences from 2010 to 2012 on various topics and look forward to organizing the 4th International THAAP conference in November this year. Dr. Gulzar Haider, Dean School of Architecture and Design at Beaconhouse National University, Lahore chaired the session and Mr. Mushtaq Soofi and Prof. Pervaiz Vandal were the speakers for the session.

Prof. Pervaiz Vandal an architect, educationist and THAAP conference convener initiated the talk and gave a presentation on ‘Geography and Culture’. He elucidated how geography affects our culture and said, ‘Culture is essentially the art, custom, ideas and social behavior of a nation, people or group. Culture takes shape with ideas and an idea is born and develops through interaction among the people.'

by Norbert Pintsch, Ghayyor Obaid & Njini Victor Nkuh,

Institute for Planning + Consulting (IPC)

Housing and Development

Of course a lot of intelligent and interesting studies were carried out in the colonial period, which documented the most important aspects for consideration in the post-colonial period, an opportunity which was not taken or utilized. The reasons for this ignorance lie probably in the growth-oriented strategies and the blind euphoria about industrialization. This mistake later resulted in horrendous consequences. The situation is actually only comparable with the birth-control programs in the western nations. The western countries can hardly propogate a policy which led to stronger automobile sales while causing lower birth rates.

The current housing solutions are still based upon requirements of working parents with about two children and possibilities of living and sleeping as well as cooking and cleaning, while considering large spaces for using household appliances. This in times when productive work places are fast dissappearing due to higher machine efficiency. This development was followed in the urban areas through centralization of shopping centres. This development again was followed by many other growth oriented programmes. The infra-structure costs therefore became very high. Measures to finance the rising costs were taken by assuming that the rubnning costs would be financed through appropriate increase in the the taxation income.

The most important factors for the current development were laid in the 19th century. The rejection of thinking and acting as a community meant for the technology an enormous increase in the industrial production because the division of work led to higher productivity and new professions and it appeared on the face of it to increase the standard of living in western cultures (for example the Taylorism as introduced in Ford automobile factories etc.)

Analysis of the society by political and economic thinkers led to development theories, which could not foresee the effects of these policies as evidenced today. The cardinal error by these theorists was the euro-centristic model, i.e. nobody took the happenings in other cultures into consideration.

The culture, the traditional rural culture and the industrial city culture, the contents, the characteristics, changes are more or less the topics of discussion in various considerations on the subject. It may not be clear to many where the problem really is, or why the restlessness, why the discussion?

The term Culture is gladly used in these times. To be lacking in culture or be devoid of culture, no please! It does not surprise when one talks of eating, sleeping and drinking cultures. Educated people have the reading culture. Many are members of special cultures like leisure activities. One is sure to maintain high standard in body culture, which is by the way synonymous with the intensive use of perfumes. It underlines the positive image towards outside.

By Shaharezade Samiuddin

Familiarity can make us blind to the obvious. Veering treacherously to one side, dangerously overloaded and bustling along in all its dazzling finery, perhaps the most obvious thing that we fail to spot on our roads, except when one arm-wrestles past us, is the minibus. The other times you may pay more congenial attention to the phenomena is when you end up behind one and muse, and then amuse yourself with the heart wrenching emotions contained in the poetry on the back.

Boasting its own set of aesthetics, often featuring a cross between vibrantly speckled peacocks and outlandish Garuda birds, dramatic poetry, wise sayings, intricate filigree, and a child’s shoe (next time you’re close to a minibus look for this one, it’s there for good luck!), vehicle decoration, such as those we see on our roads today, has been entrenched in the local culture for centuries.

In the past traditional transport, such as horses and camels, has long been adorned partially because of a love for colour and splendour, partially in veneration of one’s vocation and partially to outshine the competition. The tradition transposed to buses, trucks and rickshaws when public transport came into the hands of the working classes. Thus the first buses that truly livened up our roads were those decorated by court painters who had migrated from Bhuj in Gujrat. This outstanding example of pop art, painstakingly created with repousse stainless steel, acrylic plastic and reflective tape (trucks and minibuses are fertile ground for artistic experimentation with continually evolving material) that swathes the regular minibus has just never garnered much attention.that is, from the right quarters. Rather ironic, considering that the décor of the over decorated ‘bride of the streets’ is blatantly begging for a second glance.

It was certainly more than just a second take that Pakistani truck and bus art garnered when it landed on a tram in Australia just in time for the Festival Melbourne 2006, the cultural festival of the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games. Coordinated by Wajid Ali Arain, a visual artist and graduate of Karachi University’s Department of Visual Studies and executed by four chamak patti wala vehicle decorators Nusrat Iqbal, Muhammad Arshad, Muhammad Nadeem, and Safdar Ali from Allahwali who decorate the most adorned buses that ply Karachi’s longest route, the W11. The W11: Karachi to Melbourne project struck a chord with the Aussies from the word go.

Featuring a Melbourne tram plastered painstakingly with chamak patti and lighting by Iqbal and his team (who were flown to Australia for the project), this desi-style pop-art on wheels ran the streets of Melbourne to the beat of Noor Jehan’s Punjabi songs with the words, ‘Love is Life,’ candidly adorning its sides. The chamak patti tram carried more than 80,000 passengers over 12 days and won more hearts than any official drive — boasting tame fashion shows — to fashion a soft image for the country. Proclaiming its message of Love is Life, the tram traversed Melbourne’s City Circle route 120 times. On popular demand the tram continued to run once a week.

The desi-style pop-art on wheels ran the streets of Melbourne to the beat of Noor Jehan’s Punjabi songs with the words, ‘Love is Life,’ candidly adorning its sides. At the VM Art Gallery scenes from the project were displayed in the exhibition titled, ‘The W11: Karachi to Melbourne’.

At the VM Art Gallery scenes from the project are displayed in the The W11: Karachi to Melbourne exhibition. The video footage and the display of photographs taken by Wajid Ali and Kirsten Trist, a lecturer at the RMIT University in Melbourne keenly capture the capturing of Australian hearts. Scenes of exuberance and flamboyant dancing that celebrate this art on wheels have been frozen on film and mounted, befittingly with intricate chamak patti trim. Of the two films running at the exhibition one depicts the laborious making of the ‘chamak patti’ tram and the opening of the project while the other captures passenger reactions interspersed with traditional bus-style quirky verses inscribed on fate cards. By providing a vehicle (literally) to bridge barriers, reassess stereotypes at both ends and to have some fun in the process, the W11 Karachi to Melbourne tackled a host of diverse goals with one throw. That was the obvious outcome of the venture.

Less obvious was the revelation that seldom has a relationship building exercise, artistic or otherwise, had such a buoyant and cheery impact. Little about Pakistan, (including fashion shows) is associated with buoyancy and cheeriness. Indeed seldom has a more honest face of the country, gone into building its image. As it glowed with energy while plying the tracks of Melbourne, Karachi’s W11 grabbed goodwill by the tramload, not only because it radiated its message of love and peace, but also because it calmly asserted that we are like this only.

The most important factors for the current development were laid in the 19th century. The rejection of thinking and acting as a community meant for the technology an enormous increase in the industrial production because the division of work led to higher productivity and new professions and it appeared on the face of it to increase the standard of living in western cultures (for example the Taylorism as introduced in Ford automobile factories)

Analysis of the society by political and economic thinkers led to development theories, which could not foresee the effects of these policies as evidenced today. The cardinal error by these theorists was the euro-centristic model, i.e. nobody took the happenings in other cultures into consideration.

In Smith's economic system, the free market functioned globally, as long as global meant regionally and maximum on a national level.

In Marx's political system the democracy functions internationally, as long as the power base is centrally located. This concept is also found in antique Greek city-state models on a local basis.

In both cases, there appears to be consensus on one point, i.e. that "multiple behavioral models (Artenvielfalt)" are not acceptable in these theories. But this is probably precisely the decisive error.

With this sketch, we would now like to analyze the present situation.

It is the market factors in a democratically functioning society, which determines the general welfare of the people.

Since the market -in the traditional sense- neither takes into consideration the environment nor the traditional cultures, which are present in rural areas and production of goods leads to certain uniformity because of cost-reduction methods. Every effort must be undertaken, so that the (B.E.P.) does not fall short of targets under any circumstances. The multi-national concerns attempt by adding more products to their production programs to offer a variety of models: since all parties participating in the market work in similar way, but the demand in the market is relatively fixed and not able to be increased arbitrarily, it is clear where the wastage of resources is taking place.

The winner is the one, who has the largest potential of human resources as long as these can be controlled politically.

The intentions and the wishes of so-called democratic countries are understandable, if they exert all possible pressure on others to accept their form of governance.

If this effort does not succeed, their system -let us call it "western system"- would collapse together with all parties involved in it.

There are incredible factors, which remain unconsidered by the members of the City-Culture, they being the innovators and carriers of the enormous misunderstandings and the cardinal errors:

a) There are very different cultures

b) These cultures have developed over a long period of time in inter-action with the climate and the environment.

c) Each culture has its own set of rights and should be the subject of research to shed light on this enormous richness.

Of course much of the matter has been lost due to the way of thinking and the actions undertaken up till now, but exactly this is the task before us; to track down these materials.

Misuse of environment and resources are hardly a subject of discussion in economic appraisals. Similarly, the richness of traditional cultures, which still exist at least in part in the rural areas, which are typically described as "under-developed" is not mentioned in these appraisals. There is no code or value allocated to them. Only when the value has been destroyed, the damage becomes visible. The extent of destroyed traditional cultures is quite evident in the number of museums, i.e. as soon as the traditional cultures began to be considered as money making measures for the institutions, they received recognition as a valid market factor, but in effect became still more unstable.

As the international flow of money is not directed towards local industry and national states, there is a trend towards uniformity through optimization and standardization. This uniformity can be concealed through various designs and requires increased consumption of goods. In order to increase the consumption, the consumers (all consumers of the world unite!!) require financial means, which are actually not available to the majority of population.

A special sort of market is created at the place where traditional cultures are promoted. Members of the community have a chance to participate, if they consider it a possibility to maintain their basic requirements, i.e. a form of satisfaction of most basic material needs must remain intact.

Author Prof Dr Norbert Pintsch, Voluntary Director, TTTC TGD can be approached here: pdp33@hotmail.com

Tags: Kalash, Culture, Chitral, Visit Pakistan Year

Lok Virsa [National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage] was set up to promote research, collection, documentation, preservation and dissemination of folklore, oral traditions and regional cultures, raising the awareness of cultural legacy via the above means. Legends, romance, songs, games, rhymes, festivals, rituals, sufi and saintly sayings are systematically collected and preserved in a national archive, which features a separate section for Chitrali culture.

The orchestra of folk singers and dancers is led by Hazratuddin Wafa and the folk musicians directed by the renowned reed instrumentalist from Chitral, Ustad Hameed Khan from Sonoghoor village in upper Chitral. Their festival repertoire includes old, classical songs that convey messages of love and friendship. These folksongs have been passed down from generation-to-generation for over two thousand years. Aside from providing entertainment and pleasure, they also impart a rich reflection of the culture of Chitral.

Chitral’s pavilion features a pictorial backdrop of the red tinged mountains of Reshun village where the legendary Baba Syar claimed to have taken ‘the color from the red lips of his beloved’. The large-format banner also promotes Chitral as an attractive destination for visitors and it has become popular with tourists who relish posing for photographs with the picture in the background.

The Chitrali artists, who perform several times a day and in the evening, are seated on traditional Chitral carpets placed on a small wooden platform. The artisans, meanwhile, busy themselves at their stalls, where visitors can see displays of traditional Chitrali chugha, pakol and waistcoats being made and displayed.

Mr. Farman Panah, the famous sitar maker from the village of Bang and Muhammad Khan, the traditional Chitrali carpet weaver, are also participating in the festival and have received many visitors. The people, artists and artisans from Chitral district are most grateful and would like to thank the Ministry of Culture and management of Lok Virsa in Islamabad for enabling them to participate at the 2006 Lok Mela. Not only does the festival offer the occasion to promote the talents of folk artists and artisans, but it also provides an opportunity to showcase our culture to those living in cities.

Lok Mela 2006 will go a long way in translating into reality the vision of 2007 as “Visit Pakistan Year,” besides promoting harmony and friendship among different cultures.(report by Shams Uddin, Project Manager CAMAT and Liaison Officer, Chitral Cultural Group).