Andretta
The true image of a society is depicted through its culture — people, values, lifestyle, art and architecture. Andretta, a small town nestled in the pristine Kangra Valley, is not just home to slipware pottery in India, but also a cultural ensemble in itself along with Palampur — the Tea Capital of North India.
I attempted to capture the cultural essence of the place through a photobiography as a part of my design project in the spring of 2017.
About Palampur
Known as the “Tea capital of North India”, Palampur is a town lying in the lap of the Kangra valley, surrounded by tea gardens and pine forests which gradually merge with the Dhauladhar ranges. Located at an elevation of 1,472 m above sea level at the confluence of the Himalayas and plains, it enjoys the best of both but the horrors of neither, which makes it a huge attraction for tourists from India and abroad alike.
The town has derived its name from the local word ‘palum’, meaning lots of water, which is attributed to the numerous steams flowing across the valley. Besides being a treasure trove of scenic beauty, it has also been a hotbed of art and culture for a very long time, which provides something for people of all tastes. It also has many iconic temples and buildings constructed during the colonial period.
About Andretta slipware pottery
Being one of the oldest crafts, more than 10,000 years old, man has expressed his feelings and his aesthetics in clay, in toys, in primitive deities, and in various vessels for storage of water and grain. When he came to know the beauty of a pot thrown on a wheel and its decoration, pottery took on a new meaning for him. History came to be depicted on it.
The concept of pottery as an art form was introduced to India in 1952 by Padma Shri Sardar Gurcharan Singh, fondly known as ‘Daddyji” with the establishment of “Delhi Blue Pottery”. Slipware is pottery identified by its primary decorating process where slip is placed onto the leather-hard clay body surface before firing by dipping, painting or splashing. Slip is an aqueous suspension of a clay body, which is a mixture of clays and other minerals such as quartz, feldspar and mica.
As the wave of urbanisation swept over Delhi, with the repercussions of political unrest, the pottery was shifted to Andretta, a village 13 km from Palampur, in 1984. The responsibility had passed on to Daddyji’s son, Mansimran ‘Mini’ Singh, and his wife Mary Singh. Today, the place not only is the hub of slipware pottery but also serves as a training centre for people interested in learning the craft of studio pottery.
The Idea
We, a team of four people — Jasleen Rana , Faaiza Saeed , Niranjan Morkar , and I, had decided to study the life and rich culture of Palampur and document the studio pottery in Andretta. The idea was to bring out the essence of the place to the rest of the world through an academic project while identifying problem areas that can be intervened in.
The research study, spanning a little over a week, turned into a fun trip that involved studying pottery, interviewing people, clicking pictures, making new friends and romancing with Nature.
The Journey
We had set out from Bangalore and reached New Delhi via flight. Because of poor weather conditions, we had to avoid the bus route from Delhi. So, after a day's pit stop, that we used to catch up on our secondary research and refine our itinerary, we took a morning flight to Amritsar.
After a hearty breakfast comprising of Kulcha and Lassi, we rented a car and set out on a five-hour journey to Palampur via 235km of NH54 and NH154. We had luckily received permission to put up at the CSIR-IHBT guest house for the course of our research, which gave us the opportunity to meet some amazing people and learn about the ground-breaking research being conducted there using the Himalayan bio-resources.
Being a prime focus of our tour, we made sure that we captured the place in as much detail as possible. Our first stop was the residence cum gallery of Shobha Singh, a well-known contemporary painter from Indian Punjab, that has now been turned into an art museum, showcasing his life and works. We also visited a dance and music school, located nearby, where we got to hear about the local music and dance styles. We might also have picked up some Kangri dance moves from the instructor!
We then visited the residence and theatre of Norah Richards, an Irish-born actress who had settled in Andretta in 1924 and used to teach drama and playwriting to students. The place is now maintained by the Punjabi University at Patiala. It's no wonder the place of Andretta has always been deeply rooted in artistic and cultural treasures.
The visit to the pottery studio was quite an experience as we were heartily welcomed by the artists, the students and two canine residents of the place.
We were shown around the place by Shubham, the young and vibrant potter and manager of the studio. We took a tour of the studio, the museum and the store. We also interviewed Mansimran Singh, which helped us strategize the rest of the research. In the days to come, we documented the birth of a vase from throwing to glazing, interviewed other potters and the students who had come to the place for training.
Our next stop was The Mirage. Even though we had reached unannounced, the hosts were kind enough to invite us to lunch. The beautiful place, equipped with a meditation centre, provided a much needed escape to people from the bustle of the city life from across the country and the world. We had the opportunity to interview Navjot, one of the hosts, who was a theatre artist and poet herself. She gave us an idea of the cultural richness of the region and how it was dwindling. She also gave us a tour of the artists' residency she was working on.
It was afternoon by the time we reached the estate on our way back to IHBT campus. The place derives its name from 'Wah' in Pakistan — the first owner was the Nawab of Wah. In 1953, the estate was taken over by the 'Chaiwala Family'. Wah has passed hands within the family and is now looked after by Deepak and Surya, who gave us an elaborate tour of the estate and the tea processing units. Oh, we did some tea tasting too!
Believed to have been built by the Pandavas, Ashapuri Mata Temple is an important religious destination located on the top of the hill. The drive to the place and watching the sunset from the hill was an experience in itself.
We had kept an entire day to go around the city of Palampur to visit some popular spots and observe the people and life in the Kangra valley. On our way, we did encounter a herd of the Gaddi tribe.
We headed for the Tashi Jong village, the Tibetan settlement, that houses a monastery that is one of the schools of Drugpa Kagyu tradition of Buddhism.
We were quite famished by the time we left Tashi Jong. Upon the suggestion of our cabbie, combined with our excitement to dine at a palace hotel, we headed towards the Taragarh Palace. The palace stands majestically at a height of 1,000 meters, amidst 15 acres of lush forests and tea gardens in the Kangra Valley. The palace was built as a summer resort and was acquired by the Royal Family of Jammu & Kashmir in 1951. Developed as a Heritage Hotel in 1971, Taragarh Palace hotel offers splendid views of the snow-clad ranges of the Dhauladhar Mountains.
After lunch, we decided to head towards the famous 13th century temple of Baijnath, dedicated to Lord Shiva as Vaidyanath — the Lord of the Physicians. Even though the place was crowded with devotees, we got a chance to get a peek inside the temple. A flight of steps from the temple leads down to the banks of the Kheerganga that flows through Baijnath.
On the final day of our Palampur tour, we decided to conclude with some experience of adventure. Hence, we headed towards Bir-Billing, the best spot for paragliding aero-sport in India and the 2nd best in the world! For a flight spanning 15-25 minutes, we engaged in a tandem paragliding experience from Billing to Bir. The take-off point is located at Billing, 16 km uphill from Bir, at a height of 2438.4 meters above sea-level. The landing site in Bir is a plain field at about 1310.6 meters above sea-level. It indeed is an amazing experience to fly!
The Photostory
My output of the project is the photostory that attempts to paint a picture of the place as seen by me. All the photographs contained in the book have been taken with my Nikon D5200 using a 18-105mm lens, which were edited using Google Nik Collection on Adobe Photoshop and then compiled into the story using Adobe Illustrator.
You can navigate through the digital album shown below by manually turning the pages at the curl using the mouse or using the ← and → keys. To peek into a section of a page click on the section to zoom in and out of it. You can also zoom out of a view using the Esc key.
The high-resolution images may take a while to load upon zoom, depending upon your internet speed.
Even though the place has a rich natural and cultural heritage, a lot is at stake as modernisation attempts to disrupt the natural order of life over there. One such case is the threat to mud houses — built in the traditional style which suits the ecosystem, that face a threat of extinction as concrete structures are on the rise. The project aims to bring into focus such areas that can benefit from design interventions — be it better signage systems for residents and tourists alike, well-planned urban design that does not encroach upon the natural ecosystem or preservation of the artistic and cultural heritage of the place and inviting people to be a part and contribute to it.