Three kilometers from Udaipur city is a hillside, a wasteland in government records. In that stony, sand blown, treeless land, few could once imagine a living ethnographic museum, the Shilpgram.

Shilpgram or the Rural Arts and Crafts Village in Udaipur is one of the seven centers of the West Zone Cultural Center (WZCC), established by the government in 1986. Comprising the states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa, the WZCC is involved in the promotion and preservation of the art and culture of the western region of India.

REPRESENTATIVE HUTS

The crafts village contains representative huts from the member states, incorporating traditional architectural features of different ethnic groups residing within the Zone.

It is these rural huts of folk and tribal communities, household articles of everyday use, along with votive and decorative objects and lifestyle implements that are featured. The central idea is to present the enormous and extraordinary diversity of design and aesthetic sense in the folk and tribal arts, crafts and architecture.

What is significant is that each hut has been constructed painstakingly by the dwellers themselves with help from traditional artisans.

A TRANSLATION OF LIFE INTO FORMS

Representing the weaver community from Marwar, the desert region of western Rajasthan, are two wonderful structures named after their respective sand bound villages of Rama and Sam. The beauty of the two huts is that they are built entirely from natural materials of the Thar, whether it is stone, mud, wood or grass. The remarkable thing about these huts is that they remain cool in summer and warm in winter.

Also from Rajasthan is a potter�s hut from the village called Dhol, and two huts, which represent the tribal communities of Bhils and the Sehariayas. GUJARATI HUTS

There are seven representative huts from the state of Gujarat; a cluster of six huts from the Banni area and one from Bhujodi have been selected from the arid wastelands of Kutch.

The Banni cluster consists of two huts each of the Rabari Harijan and Muslim communities famous for their weaving, embroidery, bead and mirror work, and wood and rogan work.

Well-known for its votive horses, Lambdi village near Poshina in north Gujarat is represented with a potter�s hut at Shilpgram. Adjoining the potter�s workshop is the weaver�s hut from village Vasedi in Chhota Udaipur area in western Gujarat. Two huts represent the Dang and Rathwa tribal communities of southern Gujarat. In addition to these, there is an ornately carved wooden house from Pethapur near Gandhinagar, which serves as guest house for visiting artists.

HUTS OF MAHARASHTRA

Selected after an exhaustive survey of the Konkan coast of Maharashtra, the Koli hut is from seashore hamlets in Raigad district. Close to the Koli stands one from Kolhapur-representing the leather chhapal craftsmen from southern Maharashtra. From Thane district in northern Maharashtra is a Warili hut replete with its wall paintings. The tribal agriculturalist community of the Kunbis is also represented along with two huts of the Gond and Maria tribal communities, famous for their dokra work, from eastern Maharashtra.

THE HUTS FROM GOA

From the state of Goa, there are five representative huts. A potter�s hut from Bicholim stands in close proximity to what is technically termed as a Hindu mainstream hut made of local laterite stone. From the lush green taluka of Canancona is a typical hut of the Kulumbi tribal agriculturalist renowned for their grass and cane weaving work.

Stuck onto the undulating hillside of Shilpgram is a forty feet long fishermen�s boat and a three mile long fishing net depicting the fishing tradition of Goa.

OPEN GALLERY FOR CRAFTS

Besides the huts that exhibit the day-to-day living artifacts, there is also an open gallery and a museum facility specially designed to house the not so common works of folk and tribals arts and crafts. Huge terra-cotta items like the Kothis or grain storage containers, large dowry chests, the extraordinary variety of textiles and costumes, the exquisite embroidery and ornate wood and metal work objects are also put on display.

Evoking the rural ambience are folk shrines, tribals totems, and votive sanctuaries that dot the landscape. But nothing is more evocative of rural life than music dance and drama that are integral to folk and tribal existence. It is here visiting artists perform on a day-to-day basis or in an orchestrated manner during festivals.

SHILPGRAM UTSAV

Over the years, the Shilpgram Utsav has become an annual event when a 10-day festival is held from the first to tenth of December every year. Approximately 500 craftsmen and performing artistes from all over the country are invited to display and demonstrate their art and craft. It is during the Utsav that another feature of Shilpgram-the Amphitheater, with a seating capacity of 4000, is activated each evening with a programme of thematized performances that last well into the night.

Yet another feature of Shilpgram that draws the crowds is the crafts bazaar which is organized periodically on much the same lines as that of the traditional haat. During the Utsav, almost 200 craft stalls are arranged on both sides of the pathways where craftsmen from all over India come to exhibit, demonstrate and sell their products.