Pakistan is blessed with such artisans whose works are in demand the world over

The art of crafting out toys from wood is fading away in Peshawar – a city that was once renowned for its masterly crafted wooden toys.

The advancement in technology has profoundly changed the way children look at and play with their toys across the world. Over the years, they have smoothly transitioned from dolls to battery-operated toys to smart gadgets and sophisticated video games now.

As a result of technology, the ancient tradition of making wood toys has almost diminished or restricted it to the decoration pieces in homes.

Gul Nawaz Khan, along with his 12-year-old daughter Khanam Jan had to roam around from one shop to another at a local market located in the Nishtarabad area in the city in search of well-crafted wooden toys but eventually had to return home empty handed. He regretted that the city, which was once home to handcrafted wooden toys, is now fading away in Peshawar.

While commenting on the effects of advancement in technology, he said the children these days are not even interested in conventional toys like dolls and cars anymore, let alone toys made out of clay or wood. Sharing his purpose of buying wooden toys for his children he said that I want to buy wooden toys for my children to give them a feel of our traditions and rituals, and also to pass on the message to our generations.

Furthermore, he expressed that in the past, parents would gladly buy toys made out of clay and wood for their children, but now with the market shelves flooding with modern playthings, both parents and children are least interested in spending money on buying the traditional toys.

The Peshawar city was previously known as Purushapura (The City of Flowers). It is probably the oldest and the most culturally fertile city of South Asia. The walled city once offered some 50 shops that produced well-crafted wooden toys, but now only four workshops of the kind remain operative in the city left where only few artisans craft traditional wooden toys. There are craftsmen, who still continue to make a living through this art, keeping the profession of their ancestors alive. Shah Hussain, who runs a wooden toys shop at the outskirts of Peshawar is the third generation, who is engaged in this profession of making traditional toys.

While talking to Bol News he said the art of wood carving can be traced back to the early Buddhists’ period under the Kushan rulers especially in the areas of Swat, Punjab and Kashmir as one can still see glimpses of the Graeco-Buddhist style in the finished wooden works.

Apprising about the wood types used in the craft he said, the use of high-quality wood including alpine, cedar, and walnut are ensured to yield desired results. The artisans skillfully carve the wood into different toys like charghay, lattu and madhani, etc.

He also apprised that the woods used in crafting goods are firstly dried and later on cut down to the desired size to make toys and decoration pieces that mostly reflect the culture and tradition of Pakistan.

Furthermore, the artisan apprised that a single toy can take up to one month for its completion, and once it is finished, it is hard to tell whether the masterpieces are carved by hand or machines.

He regretted that the future of the exquisite art appears to be gloomy due to the skyrocketing prices of the material needed for preparation of goods; making it simply out of the reach of buyers.

He also regretted the scarcity of skillful workers to keep the art alive. He said that apart from a few art enthusiasts and owners of such businesses, people are not investing in the profession and even the young generation is not keen to learn the skills of their ancestors. Responding to a query about the prices of the crafted pieces he said the cost of wooden toys mostly depends on the size and quality of the wood used in its craft.

The wooden toys seller concluded with the comment that during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, prices of processed wood products, such as softwood lumber and plywood, nearly quadrupled. With Pakistan representing an old Indus civilization with rich history of handicrafts including wooden, metal, marble, hand-made embroidered clothes and ceramics, the country comes at the bottom of the list of developing countries with an annual handicraft’s exports of $300 million only.  The artisans have demand government’s financial support and also provision of opportunities for displaying the traditional art in exhibitions at home as well as abroad.

Mah Gul, who is associated with the handicrafts business for the last six years and sells her own brand online from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has said that Pakistan has inherited a rich cultural heritage from its history which is around 7000-9000 years old. She opined that the handicrafts are the most striking expressions of the individuality of Pakistan’s regional identities, like the color, the shape or style of the crafted items.

Talking about the export of such handicrafts to other countries, she said that the country’s handicraft manufacturers and exporters have repeatedly reported an exponential decline in the overall trade volume of the industry.  She explained that the artisan economy is troubled because of non-legislation for production and marketing handicraft products; nonexistent international networking assistance; lack of design and skill enhancement facilities and the absence of credit facilities from the banks and development financial institutions.

Criticizing the authorities, she said that many handicrafts exporter countries have devised national acts as well as the state councils of artisans, while in Pakistan the federal as well as the provincial governments have not formulated any effective measures in this regard.  Talking about the problems faced by the artisans here she said most of the handicrafts’ exporters are based in Karachi and consequently, small-scale handicrafts in different regions are unable to draw attention towards their works. Commenting on the solution, she suggested that the exporting hubs should be uniformly distributed at regional locations that will help them to promote and facilitate localized artisans.

She said that Pakistan is blessed with such artisans whose works are in demand the world over, but the only thing needed is to ensure that production is done in a systematic and cost-effective way to yield desired results.