Grazia Pakistan will take you through our country, one step at a time. Our first stop was Hala, and Halakashigar took us around the beautiful village and we were lucky enough to see their beautiful artisans creating magic!
The last time I had visited Hala was over a decade ago, and oh boy, things sure have changed — in a very positive way. The drive to our final destination was smooth, not as bumpy as the streets of Karachi! Lyari Express Way sure has made life easy, you are able to cover long distances in shorter period of time, unlike before.
We decided to leave Karachi as early as we could in the morning, so around 9am our journey began. With just one pit stop in the middle, we entered the beautiful gateway to Sindh — the village of Hala at 1pm.
The first thing we did was to go and pay our respects at the Dargah Mausoleum of Makhdoom Nooh. The shrine of Makhdoom Nooh was built in the year 1790. It is beautifully decorated with bricks and coloured tiles, the colours that Sindh is known for. Makhdoom Nooh was the first to translate Quran into Persian language and died in the year1590. He was initially buried in Halakandi, however, after destruction of Halakandi, he was moved to Old Hala and then subsequently to New Hala in 1779.
Makhdoom Nooh was a great saint and scholar of his time and large numbers of followers visit his shrine every single day to pay homage to the great sufi saint. The descendants line up to its 18th Sajda Nasheen (Late) Makhdoom Muhammad Amin Fahim.
After paying our respects at the dargah, we took a stroll around the famous Hala market to shop for some local handicrafts.
I had been wanting to buy the famous rulli chaadar for years and finally got my hands on one. The eye for details and colour combinations that the the artisans of Hala have is honestly mind blowing. Hala is the home of the Kashi artisans, who have been practing their art since the ancient times. I feel they play with colours of nature — you tend to see a lot of earthy tones, a lot of blues and a hint of green in most of the work they do – be it pottery or embrodiery.
After some shopping we took a short lunch break since we did not want to waste too much day light, we went straight to the workshop of Halakashigar. Amongst Hala’s most popular handicrafts is pottery. Its glazed ceramic terra cotta pieces are quite popular in Pakistan and world over. Hala is famous for the hand-painted designs imprinted on them. The most popular colours are cobalt blue, turquoise, purple, mustard, white, and earthy brown.
Halakashigar team took us around their workshop and showed us how each piece comes together. Every single piece goes through a long process, which involves many steps. In most cases, one person does all the work. However, the entire karkhana (workshop) had a team of about eight to ten kashigars. The interesting part is that everything in this karkhana is handcrafted. It is a long and difficult process but one that ensures each and every piece is truly unique. The whole process begins while piles of earth begin to be sifted, and mixed and we got to see it all happen right in front of our eyes. One of the most interesting sites you will come upon is the wood-fuelled furnaces. This is where the shaped pottery pieces are heated for about 20 to 24 hours before the painting process begins.
After spending a few hours with the uber talent kashigars we decided to go around the fields and see all that was being harvested. Wheat, bananas and rice plantations could be seen everywhere. One side of the land was golden brown (indicating wheat harvests) and the other side was lush green (banana trees). The sight was honestly out of a movie, so clean so beautiful!
It was so impressive to see that most of the people that we met during our time in Hala, knew the improtance of education. Men and women most who could afford it, opted to go to school and work alongside. The artisans that we met, the shopkeepers that we dealt with mostly interacted in Sindhi but they understood Urdu and to my surprise they also undertood English. It was so refreshing to see this spark in everyone.
I had been wanting to buy the famous rulli chaadar for years and finally got my hands on one. The eye for details and colour combinations that the the artisans of Hala have is honestly mind blowing. Hala is the home of the Kashi artisans, who have been practing their art since the ancient times. I feel they play with colours of nature — you tend to see a lot of earthy tones, a lot of blues and a hint of green in most of the work they do – be it pottery or embrodiery.
After some shopping we took a short lunch break since we did not want to waste too much day light, we went straight to the workshop of Halakashigar. Amongst Hala’s most popular handicrafts is pottery. Its glazed ceramic terra cotta pieces are quite popular in Pakistan and world over. Hala is famous for the hand-painted designs imprinted on them. The most popular colours are cobalt blue, turquoise, purple, mustard, white, and earthy brown.
Halakashigar team took us around their workshop and showed us how each piece comes together. Every single piece goes through a long process, which involves many steps. In most cases, one person does all the work. However, the entire karkhana (workshop) had a team of about eight to ten kashigars. The interesting part is that everything in this karkhana is handcrafted. It is a long and difficult process but one that ensures each and every piece is truly unique. The whole process begins while piles of earth begin to be sifted, and mixed and we got to see it all happen right in front of our eyes. One of the most interesting sites you will come upon is the wood-fuelled furnaces. This is where the shaped pottery pieces are heated for about 20 to 24 hours before the painting process begins.
After spending a few hours with the uber talent kashigars we decided to go around the fields and see all that was being harvested. Wheat, bananas and rice plantations could be seen everywhere. One side of the land was golden brown (indicating wheat harvests) and the other side was lush green (banana trees). The sight was honestly out of a movie, so clean so beautiful!
It was so impressive to see that most of the people that we met during our time in Hala, knew the improtance of education. Men and women most who could afford it, opted to go to school and work alongside. The artisans that we met, the shopkeepers that we dealt with mostly interacted in Sindhi but they understood Urdu and to my surprise they also undertood English. It was so refreshing to see this spark in everyone.
