Thatta Kedona

Some people live for others. Three honorable German ladies have been living in Pakistan and working to make the life of others better. People of Pakistan passionately recognize the services of these honorable ladies.

Prof. Dr. Annemarie Schimmel (April 7, 1922 - January 26, 2003) was a well known and very influential German scholar who wrote over 500 books and left deep impression on the people of Pakistan.

Annemarie Schimmel received a doctorate in Islamic languages and civilization from the University of Berlin at the age of nineteen. At twenty-three, she became a professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Marburg (Germany), where she earned a second doctorate in the history of religions. A turning point in her life came in 1954 when she was appointed Professor of the History of Religion at the University of Ankara (Turkey). There she spent five years teaching in Turkish and immersing herself in the culture and mystical tradition of the country. She was a faculty member at Harvard University from 1967 to 1992 and became Professor Emeritus upon her retirement. She was also an honorary professor at the University of Bonn. She published more than 50 books on Islamic literature, mysticism and culture, and translated Persian, Urdu, Arabic, Sindhi and Turkish poetry and literature into English and German.


For her work on Islam, sufism or mysticism and Allama Muhammad Iqbal, the government of Pakistan honored her with Hilal-e-Imtiaz. She was showered with many other awards from many countries of the world, including the prestigious Peace Prize of the German book trade.

Similarly, Dr. Ruth Katherina Martha Pfau (1929- 2017), commonly known in Pakistan as Leprosy Lady is the founder of the Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre Karachi and leprosy adviser to federal government. She has spent more than half of her life helping the leprosy patients in Pakistan, a country that is now her own.

“The intensity with which she has worked towards the alleviation of suffering in the northern areas of Pakistan has not changed since the day it began. Subsequently, she moved her efforts to the northern areas of Pakistan, basing herself in Muzaffarabad. Since the Oct 8 earthquake, she has been focusing all her efforts on providing for those still suffering from the disaster,” reads a citation.

The government of Pakistan has conferred Sitari-e-Quaid-i-Azam upon Dr. Ruth Pfau to recognize her selfless work for people in our country.

Annemarie Schimmel had been working in Pakistan in the field of Literature, Dr Ruth Pfau works in Medicine and the third German lady Dr. Senta Maria Anna Siller is working in rural areas of Pakistan to create additional income through self help projects.

Dr. Senta Maria Anna Siller (89 years) studied Graphic Design at the School of Art in Berlin. She did her MA in Archaeology, Philosophy and Education and received a degree of doctorate in History of Arts from the Technical University of Berlin. She served as lecturer and later as Deputy Head of an Art School in Berlin.

Earlier, she earned her first money with silhouettes and illustrations, which along with design became her passion for life. Besides bringing up four children, she continued various activities as a designer (for exhibitions and fairs, children’s cloths, toys and book illustrations) and ran a textile company before she came to Pakistan for the first time in 1965.

After having left civil service and design consultancy, Dr. Senta Siller became honorary manager of self help project in rural Pakistan in 1993 [also in Cameroon (in 1998) and in Colombia (in 1999)]. Main country of her activities is Pakistan from where she is networking with other projects in different countries.

Dr. Senta Siller has organized over five hundred exhibitions, shows and events for income generation for women in rural areas. The focus of her work is “Income generation as a tool of help for self help, poverty alleviation on grass root’s level by ethnic applied arts, the future is in the rural areas and how income generation is necessary there, production of internationally marketable unique and thematic handicraft, eco technology for the independence from central solutions, and the use of communication and information solutions giving chances and opportunities to the people in the rural areas and promotion of rich traditional culture of Pakistan.”

Civil servant appointed for life, Dr. Senta Siller has been conferred different awards like “Floriade” (the Netherlands), “Gestaltetes Spielgut” (Creative Toys-German Toy Industry), “Bundesverdienstkreuz” (highest civil order of merit of the Federal Republic of Germany) to name a few. Pakistan recognizes her relentless and untiring work in the field of income generation for rural women through self help projects.

Making difference in lives of others is a great accomplishment. I am returning back a part of what life has bestowed upon me,” says Dr. Senta Siller.

The cluster of mud and brick houses in the plains of Punjab, Thatta Ghulamka Dheroka (TGD) looks like a typical Pakistani village about 80 kilometres away from Lahore and 40 kilometres from Indus civilization ruins in Harappa. There is no gas or telephone in the village. No asphalt roads lead to it. Yet it is different, the beautiful dolls and other handicrafts made by the village folks are collectors' delight all over the world. Influencers from Indus civilization from nearby Harappa and modern techniques brought by the German volunteers can be seen in the village together.

The dolls made in the village are on display in international doll museum in Iceland, prestigious galleries and showrooms in Pakistan and abroad. TGD village doll project was one of the 767 worldwide projects presented in the "Themepark" at expo 2000 in Hannover (Germany) as an example of thinking of twenty first century. Earlier, the dolls from Pakistan participated in international toy fair in Nuremberg. These dolls show how culture goes beyond simple work of art and becomes collaboration among applied and natural sciences as well as other forces that affect our lives.

A tribute by Amjad Ali to Dr Senta Siller on the eve of her birthday

There are some people you encounter in life who do not wait for things to happen. They just make things happen.

Dr. Senta Siller is one such person in my life.

My first recollection of Dr. Siller is from the days I spent at the Lette Verein in the German capital, Berlin, some 33 years ago. I had secured admission at Lette Verein in 1984 and it was there that I first met her.

Thankfully, it was not the last time.

Needless to say that Lette Verein is one of prestigious German organisations for Applied Arts. It was founded by Dr. Wilhelm Adolf Lette way back in 1866.

My three-year diploma course in Graphic Design was completed by 1987 but my formal association, which subsequently transformed into cherished friendship, with my teachers and mentors Dr. Siller and her spouse Dr. Norbert Pintsch remains intact till date. I do hope and believe that our friendship will survive until we are present in this world in a physical form.

Some people live for others. Three honorable German ladies have been living in Pakistan and working to make the life of others better. People of Pakistan passionately recognize the services of these honorable ladies.

 

Prof. Dr. Annemarie Schimmel (April 7, 1922 - January 26, 2003) was a well known and very influential German scholar who wrote over 500 books and left deep impression on the people of Pakistan.

What started in 1991 when DGFK produced the movie titled "Amjads Village" in the small Pakistan village Thatta Ghulamka Dheroka (called Dolls Village located 80 Kilometers from Lahore) became a great project famous all over the world. Thanks to the volunteers who kept coming in the village and kept training the local girls and boys in skills to preserve the unique rural culture as and at the same time, generate additional income for the participants. In the meanwhile, dolls and toys produced by the villagers traveled in the boxes of foreigners and diplomats everywhere.

The huge numbers of volunteers who have been associated with the project are now a very closely knit community. They meet together and update each other whenever there is a possibility (or when they can create a possibility). On 26 June 2017, some volunteers had an informal meeting in the old and new centre of Berlin, and had a blast from the past.

Dr Senta Siller who has become a household name in the Village because she has taught handicrafts to almost every girl in the Village. Not only that, she has practically lived in the Village for almost three decades. Also, Dr. Farida Khawaja who assisted her with translation and local consulting. Dr Senta Siller established Women Art Centre (WAC) in the Village in 1993 that is working research, design and management consultation centre. Dr Leila Masson, who was in the Dolls Village for 18 months during 1991 and 1993, and who laid foundation of the Basic Health Unit (BHU) in the Village and served as a medical doctor there during her stay?

Prof Norbert Pintsch - a researcher, architect and engineer – who set up Technology Transfer and Training Centre (TTTC) in TGD in since 1996 TGD and is working as project and Consultant ever since.

A guest lady Nadine Kessler also attended the meeting. 

Thanks to active participants of local NGO Anjuman-e-Falah-e-Aama, the Village has changed overtime. During the years, large number of foreigners and locals traveled to Thatta Ghulamka Dheroka, electricity came to the village, fruit and flower trees are in each home, water pond and drainage systems are working, and now the solar power has changed the way people live in the Village.

Young Aslam displays his art work (bedspreads sheets, table cloth, wall hangings, a melee of colour and an extravaganza of design) in Thatta Kedona show room at Lahore under the approving gaze of Dr. Senta Siller. Aslam needs no coaxing to display the finished pieces. As quickly as he spreads his art pieces, he rattles off the names. Persian 1, Persian 11, Masjid Wazir Khan, the palm tree, peacock palm, dancing parrots, the elephant tram and six peacocks, also naming the prestigious places where these designs are in use at the moment.

Aslam represents fourth generation of the family carrying forward the art of block printing that is at the verge on extinction. Block printing represents an age when mastery over art was the struggle of a life time of hard labour and Aslam does not seem to forget this philosophy even thought he has ambitious to innovate and diversify the art of his forefathers in a big way.

Jhando, the master craftsman exported hand painted and printed cottons and silks and velvets to agencies in London and New York. An international nomenclature some seventy years ago and now Calico Prints in Lahore is representing the family name and craft which once enjoyed international repute. Aslam is carrying the tradition further.

Indeed today Aslam with his skill of colour and stroke work, epitomizes an art technique which Jhando had carried to the pinnacle of perfection. Jhando -- the legendary great grandfather of Aslam -- was of course a figure of epic stature so to say. It was he who left to the family a collection of over twenty two thousand blocks drawn from diverse cultures like Muslim, Mughal and Punjabi cultures and Hindu mythology. The grandfather was illustrious too to be sure with his collection of awards and accolades kept zealously safe even today in velveteen cases.

Block printing is a very fine art that has matured over time. So intricate are the patterns that a single motif may need anything from two to twelve blocks to complete the details. Different block motifs cater to different colours in the same pattern. All this requires dexterity of hand to prevent them from running the other. The grand finale of course is the intricate brush work. Fashioned from local needs these indigenous brushes with all their quaintness high light of the motifs.

It goes without saying that Aslam’s exotic collection that I saw at Thatta Kedona is a treat for eye. Ironically, block printing is a cultural heritage reduced to penury under the influence of a mechanized industrial society and bulk production phenomenon. Yet one has to see it to believe the richness of this art from which even in its quaintness excels the grandeur of modern printing.

Preservation of the craft is a very noble passion but there is a difference in the preservation methodologies and objectives. “It is different to preserve the ancient cultural heritage for the sack of its perpetuation as an art and to do it for commercial purposes,” says Dr. Norbert Pintsch. Thatta Kedona is trying to patronize in order to preserve this (and many more) arts for the sack of those arts in their own original contexts.

Dolls of the World from different projects are creating waves in Germany these days. Dolls were displayed for a six weeks in an exhibition held in Cooperative Loan Bank in Potsdam, Germany.

The Exhibition offered an opportunities for city government to get some real good ideas, Questions and Answers sessions enables people with special interest (perhaps coming volunteers) to know about the projects from far and wide of the world and best of all, the exhibition was a meeting point for old and new volunteers. Dr. Senta Siller, Gertrud Baier, Dr. Karola Groch, Renate Perner, Sabine Piltz were seen among those who visited the exposition. Some glimpses from a week long activity:

Thatta Kedona: The Toy Village of Pakistan documentary was released in in the movie theatre situated in the Centre of Berlin, Germany. All the active volunteers from 2004 were present to see the three hours documentary.

Joachim Polzer writes, "Dolls and tin toys reflecting regional cultures of Pakistan are products which generate cash income for the farming families through the local cooperative-like NGO. Volunteers from Western countries are also having fun by working creatively in a remote village of Islamic society with strong overlays by the traditional culture of Indus Valley (Harappa 3.000 B.C.), the Mogul period, influences from the colonial British-India period and the Punjab country culture. Hence the playfulness of a "toy village" is on both sides: for the villagers by manufacturing hand-craft toys for cash in a not-yet industrialized region avoiding rural exodus to the big cites (poverty slums that are generated in cities by migration). And on the other side one can notice the joy of Western volunteers being confronted at work by their own history framework but in present time and with a very foreign and sometimes strange context."

Dr. Senta Siller – mother of dolls and moving spirit soul of Thatta Kedona – did not come to the village this year. Friends of the project and readers here were wondering where is Dr. Senta Siller?

Dr. Senta Siller is doing a lot. She has been winding up Pakistan House Potsdam that was founded by her in 2001. She Pakistan House is closing down and Gross Behnitz - another international project is starting.

Along with winding up of Pakistan House, Dr. Senta Siller has been training a group of women in handicrafts and making clothing for Gross Behnitz project. Dr. Senta Siller will start the next training course from Gross Behnitz. During this period, she with other volunteers has also managed 30 bazaar days in ethnological museums in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Stay tuned, more will come on Pakistan House and Gross Behnitz project?

Bazaars always bring together volunteers, artists and so many others who are interested in cultural arts and there preservation and also help disseminate information. Lately, one bazaar was held in the City of Stuttgart on October 2-6, 2013. Dr Senta Siller, Monika Kuppler (volunteer from Women Centre Unit in TGD village), Marlis Bartkiewicz (volunteer from Basic Health Unit in TGD village) and Dr Norbert Pintsch participated and gave information about the NGO (Anjuman-e-Falah-e-Aama (NGO) in Thatta Ghulamka Dhiroka) and its activities.

 

 

In addition to the famous Thatta Kedona dolls, samples from Mr Waseem’s Lacquer Work, Mr Aslam’s Block Printing,Mr Naqqash’s Camel Skin Painting and Mr Haq Nawaz’s stationary as well as some dolls from NGO (CAT) in Bamenda and Mr Basil’s Brass casting were also displayed.
 

AeFeA - Anjuman-e-Falah-e-Aama, NGO that started in small Punjab village TGD is now working in cooperation with other NGOs in the country at different levels. Women from other villages and towns (Village Wan, Village Drie, Village Chak 31, Gogera and Okara) are also coming for training in Vocational Training Center being run by AeFeA.