Carved in Stone
16 November 2020
At 65, he has worked soapstone into crockery for half a century. It was at his father’s knee that he and his elder brother learned this fine art. That was a time when the roads into Baltistan were just barely passable, permitting only jeeps and pack animals and industrial produce of the low country could only reach Baltistan in tiny quantities. Consequently, down country metalware was hard to come by. Until then, Haider and his brother assisting their father found a ready market for all the kitchenware they could produce. It was a good life as hard work brought in reasonable income.
Every morning, Haider or his brother climbed a hill just outside the village, an hour out and an hour back, to quarry a lode of soapstone. The path was precipitous and unsuitable for pack animals and the brothers had to man haul the loads. Though there were other veins, this particular one was famous for the very fine quality stone with the right mix of talc, making it soft enough to be worked easily with hand tools. Cutting the blocks into manageable sized ones, the young men carted home loads of up to 30 kilograms each. The trips have gradually dwindled to once a week, says Haider, who now hauls back only 20 kilograms of stone.
Road improvement in the early 1960s ushered in lorries laden with all sorts of cargo into Baltistan. Soon the markets were flooded with cheap aluminium kitchenware at a fraction of the price of soapstone crockery. Demand for the ancient craft collapsed of a sudden. Now it was only the traditionalist in a family who preferred stoneware.
Today, he gets regular orders from passing officers and military suppliers and contractors. The larger animal figures take up to a month or more to produce but can fetch him Rs 20,000. Meanwhile, with the flow of Aga Khan Foundation employees coming into the area, Haider has found a small market for his traditional crockery as well. Nevertheless, with profound sadness in his voice, he says things could have been better if only this backwater of Baltistan had some tourist traffic.
According to Haider, he and his brother worked among elderly men some three decades ago. Today, none of them is alive. And Haider and his brother, 10 years his senior, are the last practitioners of the ancient craft. None of the brothers’ children are interested in learning the art and prefer instead to work outside Baltistan. And now, in the evening of his life, Haider knows that after him the art will be a thing of the past.
Labels: A Chorus for Craft, Crafts
posted by Salman Rashid @ 14:00,
4 Comments:
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At 16 November 2020 at 16:08,
said...
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Alas! our competent authorities are doing nothing but wait to become this ancient craft a thing of past. Soon we will have to see this and other crafts like this inside a box of glass in some museum. What kind of human we are!
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At 17 November 2020 at 07:16,
Brahmanyan said...
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Very informative article. We in South India still use soap stone cooking vessels for our cooking. Our vegetarian dishes require slow cooking. The taste of dishes cooked in soapstone ware is very different. Soap stone wares are still available in markets. But now the artisans use the help of machines. In Tamil it is called "Kal Chatti" ( stone pot).
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At 17 November 2020 at 09:51,
Salman Rashid said...
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Regarding taste, the maker in this story assured me that if I once ate from one of his crocks, I would not want to go back to other ware. In south India the craft is living, here in Baltistan it is on the way out.
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At 17 November 2020 at 14:18,
Brahmanyan said...
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The maker of soapstone ware may be correct. The taste is really different, We do not use the soapstone ware on daily basis, but only on special
occasions.
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