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. More read... Indian handicrafts exporter
