Garland ✿ The Stans 🇰🇿 🇺🇿 🇰🇬 🇹🇯 🇹🇲 🇵🇰 🇦🇫

To meet makers from distant lands forum coming up 29 October.

Lessons learned from a duck herder’s gamelan 🎵 Rosie Cook goes in search of the rare Bundengan musical instrument from Indonesia and discovers a melodious revival.
When nomads come to town: Sustaining weaving traditions on the Ladakhi Changthang Plateau Catherine Allie traces the journeys of nomad weavers in remote north-western India, famous for their tsug dul blanket
Dekh Magar Pyaar Say: Meanderings into the sublime Sahr Bashir reflects on the dazzling ride through Lahore by auto-rickshaw
Shyrdak: A sunny day in Kyrgyzstan Dinara Chochunbaeva takes us to Kyrgyzstan on a sunny spring afternoon when the shyrdak felt rugs are on display.
Quarterly Essay ✿ The long and winding Silk Road Christina Sumner goes in search of Central Asian treasures to show the outside world.

Five fingers full of skill: Four artisans from Tajikistan

Ikromi Nigina profiles for Tajik artisans specialising in block-printing, kundal (wall-painting), toy-making and weaving.

By Ikromi Nigina

“Forty hunar are not enough”: Craft and community in Uzbekistan

Learn how Uzbek measure their worth in skills.

By Kevin Murray

Uzbekistan and the promise of apple trees

The glass artist Layla Walter anticipates her travel to Uzbekistan, evoking memories of a childhood garden

By Layla Walter

Finding the spirit of clay in Rajasthan

Serena Rosevear, an exponent of minimal porcelain, encounters the maximal culture of India, thanks to the Crosshatched tour of Sandra Bowkett.

By Serena Rosevear

See a full list of contents here.

Stay in the Loop with recent news

Helen Ganalmirriwuy ✿ The magnificent gunga mat - Our November laurel is bestowed on Helen Ganalmirriwuy, who has produced a magnificent mat from gunga (pandanus). She shares the excitement of seeing this work grow over the month of weaving.

Jumaadi ✿ You’re invited to a snakes’ wedding - The Sydney-based Indonesian artist Jumaadi uses the snake as a symbol of a dualistic universe. His intricate painting on buffalo hide imagines a cloud-like form created from two snakes entwining.

Kamunez ✿ How the kiekie girdles Moana - Mele Tonga Tamanilo celebrates the traditional Tongan waist adornment known as kiekie by inventing new designs and introducing new eye-catching materials.

Ancient again in China: Chengdu heritage festival draws huge crowds - The 7th Chengdu international intangible cultural heritage festival attracted a total of 5.7 million people, with an online population of 190 million people.

A world in cork: How China refined the Xmas card - The cork picture is a national intangible cultural heritage of Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, China. Its origins reflect an interesting translation of Western culture into the Chinese aesthetic.

Nikau Hindin ✿ A star compass that makes history - Ngāpuhi and Te Rarawa artist Nikau Hindin created an installation Kāpehu Whetū, Star Compass at Auckland's Maritime Museum. This work uniquely draws on traditions of navigation across Moana with unfinished business from first encounters with European colonists.

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