THE LOST ART
The daily star news
Once celebrated around the world for their creations, the artisans of Dhaka are now forgotten and neglected. This week the Star tries to find out how these artisans are still struggling to survive with their age-old profession.
Nowadays very few connoisseurs exist who appreciate Shabuj's intricate wood carvings. Photo: Prabir Das
When Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, a French gem merchant arrived in Dhaka some 400 years ago he was astounded by Dhaka's splendour. According to him, it was a city of skilful artisans and art loving aristocrats. The city's booming industry of exotic artefacts like muslin, furniture of delicate design, exotic perfumes and jewellery in intricate patterns could not be found anywhere else on earth.
The heydays witnessed by Tavernier have come to an end centuries ago. Now in this city of plastics and pollution, searching for such works of art is an arduous task. Most of the artefacts like muslin are now forever lost.
However, in the gloomiest part of the city signs of it's rich past still glimmer.
In an isolated corner of the local souk of the old part of Dhaka's Sutrapur area, a handful of potters can be seen throwing clay at their traditional potter's wheel. In the dirty alley of old Dhaka's Shankhari Bazaar only three to four artisans still carry on the trade of their ancestors. They made and decorate shankha, a ritual bangle curved out of conch shell. But some of the artisans like rattan weavers and traditional carpenters have no such fixed address. They have become floating workers moving from one workshop to another in search of a living. In this time of automated industry they have become strangers in their own land.
When we reach Tapan's place in the remotest part of Sutrapur bazaar, we notice the worried faces of Tapan and his family members. It is something frightening they are whispering about. A neighbour of Tapan's workshop-cum-home informs us that local goons who 'control' the Sutrapur Bazaar have threatened Tapan with dire consequences an hour earlier as he has not paid his monthly "donation" yet. They have threatened to evict him from the bazaar if he fails to pay them the money that they have demanded. It takes a lot of time to make Tapan believe that we are not another party of extortionists.
Tapan's workshop, where he and his family members live, is made up of two ramshackle huts which are probably some of the last remnants of its kind in Dhaka. In one of the sheds, the potter's wheel which Tapan inherited from his ancestors is placed. Tapan says, "We belong to the Paal community of the Hindus. Pottery and making earthen statues is our traditional and religious profession. But nowadays it's hard to maintain this profession." Sign of his hardship is quite evident all over his place.
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