By Our correspondent
Lok Virsa — National Institute of Folk & Traditional Heritage — has documented and preserved almost all Pakistani architectural and building crafts at its Heritage Museum — Pakistan National Museum of Ethnology — located at Shakarparian. A spacious segment in the name of ‘Hall of Architecture’ has been dedicated to these dying arts.
Giving further details about the craft categories displayed in the hall, Executive Director Lok Virsa Khalid Javaid said the important fields include ‘Diwaar Naqqashi’ (fresco work) — patterns that are transferred onto a flat white lime plaster surface and colours are applied to them; ‘Kashi Kari’ (enamelled tile work) — thin slabs of glazed or unglazed kiln-fired clay used to decorate buildings, stone ware or earthen ware; ‘Parchin Kashi Kari’ (enamelled tile mosaic) — thin enamelled burnt clay tiles in vivid colours cut and fitted on a surface to create floral, geometric, figural or calligraphic shapes; ‘Mulamma Sazi’ (gilding) — applying gold leaves to surfaces of stone, metal, wood or stucco plaster is an ancient Pakistani art, which was lavishly used in Gandharan sculptures and illuminated manuscripts of the Muslim period; ‘Pietra Dura’ — inlaying semi-precious stones on a marble surface to create exquisite floral patterns is a gift of the Mughal period; ‘Manbat Kari’ (stucco tracery) - fine plaster work either in three-dimensional ornamentation or on a flat paintable surface for fresco; ‘Multani Jali’ or ‘Mashrabia’ (Multani lattice in wood) - wooden slates of equal size are joined to form a square or oblong opening in a checkerboard pattern; ‘Ghalib Kari’ (stalactite work) — a technique for architectural reinforcement and decoration of arched niches, vaults and capitals of columns, found mostly as wood intrados of mosque arches; ‘Arabesque’ — a general term for an ornamental style originally employed by Arab artisans in which flowers, foliage, fruit calligraphy and sometimes animals or figural outlines were used to produce an intricate pattern of interlaced lines; ‘Pucca Qalai’ (white lime glazed plaster) — plaster coated with white lime cream to create a glazed and polished surface, which is durable and weatherproof; ‘Chal Ka Khishti Farsh’ (cut brick flooring) — well burnt small bricks are cut, dressed and laid on edge to form precise polygonal patterns, which are outlined by either black stone, slate or black brick; ‘Tarseem Bandi’ (ceiling work in wooden panels) — small wooden pieces are joined on the ceiling to yield geometrical, floral or calligraphic shapes, which may also be painted; and ‘Fulz Kari’ (metal work) — a tradition of more than a thousand years, the art of chiselling metal was perfected during Muslim rule in Pakistan.
Most of these crafts are now vanishing due to less consumption in the wake of modernity and Lok Virsa is trying to preserve them by documenting in a three-dimensional creative way along with visual displays and giving incentives to the craftspeople involved in these traditional skills, the executive director said. The incentives include opportunity to the artisans to display and sell their products at national and international markets through craft exhibitions and festivals, and giving recognition to the deserving artisans by conferring civil awards - so far, over 20 artisans have been granted the ‘Pride of Performance’ award by the government on the recommendations of Lok Virsa — and to explore possibilities for maximum utility of the architectural crafts in people’s daily life.
The Islamic architecture of Pakistan is one of the greatest manifestations of the art of building, evolved and practiced throughout the world of Islam since at least the last one thousand years. In the context of the subcontinent, the manifestation has been a characteristic phenomenon of adaptation and assimilation of some of the divergent but very rich traditions of local Hindu-Buddhist architecture and those of the Arabs, the Central Asians and the Mughals. The process took its initiation in the early decades of the 8th century through military intruders and immigrants, who came from those distant lands and settled here to introduce a new religio-political and socio-cultural way of life.
While the Arabs gave to the ancient Pakistan a new pattern of town planning including the peristyle mosque, the Central Asians introduced grand and majestic tombs and mausoleums, the cultured and enthusiastic Mughal princes and princesses and their resourceful grandees created delicate, almost feminine structures in the shape of pleasure gardens on the pattern of charbaghs, places and pavilions, forts and fortifications, highway and bridges serais and bowlis. Almost all these religious and secular buildings were ornamented with traditional faience and faience mosaics, cut and dressed bricks, fresco, carved wood, intarsia, pietra dura and tessellation in stone and marble of various hues and colours. This Mughal architecture was the climax of the development of Islamic architecture, later followed by and adapted in the domestic architectural traditions in Sindh, Balochistan and the Northern Areas including Swat, Gilgit, Chitral, Hunza, Waziristan and elsewhere.