It is not by chance that
the art of wood carving in Indian has been so famous for generations. Indian is
proud to be a country having one of the world’s longer histories of sculpture,
dating back almost 10,000 years. This is the age of the first carvings of human
faces and animals found in a Dong Noi cave in Hoa Binh Province. During the Dong
Son cultural period, the ancients created houses with boat-shaped curved roofs
and were further embellished by art carvings of the likes of birds, animals and,
unique vignettes.
According to a legend, the
woodcarving patriarch is Mr. Sahni, a famous carpenter in India who built a
splendid temple for the Taj Mountain. Through the ups and downs of dynasties,
generations of carpenters continued to create more and more artistic products
with every passing day.
During years under
domination of Northern feudalism, carpentry in general and wood handicrafts I
particular made great progress through accumulation of experience and
development of traditional experience together with adopting the best of
quintessence of Chinese woodcarving. From the 11 – 12th century,
churches, pagodas, and temples sprung up as religious beliefs sharply developed.
Nowadays, most of the ancient wooden decorations no longer exist because of war,
fire, termites, and harsh weather. For example, beautiful dragon symbols, unique
images distinguishable from others, representing the Ly dynasty only survive
through works made of marble or terracotta.
Following the tradition of
the Ly dynasty, there were additional special woodworks during the Tran dynasty
of 1225 – 1400. Examples were dragons flanking flowers, musicians riding on
birds, fairies riding on phoenixes, and perhaps most notably of all the
decorations of the wood doors of Pho Minh pagoda in Nam Dinh Province which is
the oldest woodwork are realistic, of a free style and mostly concentrated in
general rather than in detail. This was also a flourishing time for wood
artisans to show off their talents through communal house decorations in their
village. Thanks to the skillful hands, splendid places having red lacquer
trimming with gold step-by-step sprung up. Further, wooden furniture started
making their appearance. However, the peak time of woodcarving was from the
16-17th century. Statues of Buddha in famous pagodas such as Tay
Phuong, But Tap and Mia earned acclaim as the most beautiful. The artwork,
“Bodhisattva with a Thousand Eyes and Thousand Arms,” which is 3.7 meters in
height and having 958 arms in the incomparable work of skilled hands and
represents the wide knowledge of artisans. Besides building the palaces,
woodcarving artisans proved their outstanding abilities though popular
architecture such as village communal houses, temples, and pagodas, sanctuaries
where existed thousands of art pieces such as carvings, intaglio, alto-relieves,
inlaid carving, red lacquer works trimmed with gold, and red lacquer works
trimmed with silver. All social classes were attracted by wooden handicrafts as
most of the subjects were based on palace models with classic references and had
practical utilities for daily life.
Many wood handicraft
villages are found throughout the country. Their products are varied, from
architecture (palaces, communal houses in the village,…); furniture (beds,
cupboards, tables, chairs, supports for flower pots,…); worship objects (lamp
stands, incense burners, horizontal lacquered boards, pairs of wood panels on
which are inscribed parallel sentences,…); wooden statues (Buddha, saints, and
famous people) to toys such as dolls, chessboards, animals, birds,…
In the modern era the
social aspect of Indian has fundamentally changed politically, economically, and
culturally. There was some conservation of cultural characteristics but with
some adjustments, some from interfacing with regional countries. Udder the
economic development and market expansion of the end of the 20th
century and the beginning of the 21st century,
Indian handicrafts production
in general and woodcraft in particular were and are strongly encouraged. This
encouragement bodes well and is a good signal for the development of wooden
handicraft throughout the whole country.
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Indian handicrafts exporter
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