The Depository · Browse · Asia-Pacific
The Depository documents 96 techniques in India; by risk level: 38 critically endangered, 57 endangered, 1 vulnerable. Each record opens with a public summary; the full research record is free to view once registered.
The Lohe is the prestige warrior's shawl of the Angami Naga people of the Kohima district in Nagaland, and the most iconic textile in Naga culture — its central black body flanked by broad red borders, with a central embroidered panel of…
The Sütsüpfü is the most prestigious achievement shawl of the Ao Naga people of Mokokchung district, Nagaland.
Baluchari is a figured silk weaving tradition from Bishnupur and Murshidabad in West Bengal, distinguished by large-scale narrative pictorial panels woven in the pallu (end-piece) of the sari using supplementary silk weft.
Banarasi silk brocade is a luxury handwoven textile from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, defined by intricate supplementary weft patterns in gold and silver zari thread on a silk ground.
Chanderi is one of India's most celebrated luxury handwoven textiles, produced in the small walled town of Chanderi in Ashoknagar district, Madhya Pradesh.
Eri silk is a fully domesticated silk produced from the silkworm Samia ricini, which feeds on castor (Ricinus communis) and kesseru (Heteropanax fragrans) leaves and is reared in open containers in domestic settings across Assam,…
Jamdani is a supplementary weft figured muslin weaving tradition of extraordinary refinement, historically centered in Dhaka (now Bangladesh) and practiced in Nadia and Murshidabad districts of West Bengal, India.
Kanchipuram silk is the most celebrated silk weaving tradition of South India, produced in Kanchipuram (also Kancheepuram) city in Tamil Nadu by the Devangas and Mudaliar weaver communities.
Kani shawl weaving is an interlocked twill tapestry technique using small headless wooden bobbins called kani (or kaani) in place of a conventional shuttle.
Kinnauri weaving is the high-altitude wool textile tradition of Kinnaur district, Himachal Pradesh — one of the most remote and cold districts in India, bordering Tibet.
The Konyak Naga of Mon district are the last living community in the world where tattooed headhunters are still alive (in great old age, 80s–90s) — men who earned their facial tattoos and their most prestigious shawls through headhunting,…
Kullu shawls are handwoven wool textiles from the Kullu Valley of Himachal Pradesh, characterized by bold geometric patterns — typically temple border (mandir) motifs, diamond lattices, and stylized floral forms — worked in bright,…
Bandhani (from Sanskrit: bandha = tie) is the resist-dyeing tradition of Gujarat and Rajasthan in which tiny points of fabric are picked up and tightly bound with thread before dyeing, creating a pattern of undyed dots on the dyed ground.
Leheriya is a diagonal-stripe resist-dyeing technique unique to Rajasthan, in which fabric is tightly rolled around a pole on the diagonal before immersion in dye to produce chevron or wave patterns.
The Rongsu is the male prestige shawl of the Lotha Naga people of Wokha district, Nagaland.
Maheshwari is a handwoven silk-cotton textile from Maheshwar, a riverside temple town on the Narmada in Khargone district, Madhya Pradesh.
Mata ni Pachedi (Gujarati: 'cloth behind the mother goddess') is a hand-drawn and block-printed narrative textile tradition of the Vaghari community of Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
Moirangphee is the traditional handwoven shawl of the Meitei people of Manipur, woven on a body-tension loin-loom using locally grown cotton (originally) and mulberry silk.
Muga silk is the only naturally golden-colored wild silk in the world, produced exclusively in Assam from the semi-domesticated silkworm Antheraea assamensis, which feeds on Som (Machilus bombycina) and Sualu (Litsaea polyantha) trees.
Nagaland is home to 16 major tribes, each producing distinct handwoven shawls on body-tension loin-looms as markers of tribal identity, social status, and achievement.
Odisha Ikat — locally called Bandha (meaning 'tied') — is a resist-dyeing and weaving tradition of extraordinary complexity in which both warp and weft threads are resist-dyed in precise patterns before weaving, so that the pattern emerges…
Paithani is a tapestry-weave silk sari tradition from Maharashtra, named for the ancient city of Paithan (Pratisthana) on the Godavari river, now produced primarily in Yeola (Nashik district) and Paithan (Aurangabad district).
Pashmina weaving is the production of shawls and textiles from the extraordinarily fine undercoat of the Changthangi goat of Ladakh, hand-spun by the women of Kashmir and woven on traditional wooden looms in Srinagar's shawl workshops.
Patan Patola is the third and most technically demanding double-ikat tradition documented in the CRAFT database (alongside Odisha Bandha, CRAFT-0064, and Pochampally Ikat, CRAFT-0084).
Pochampally Ikat is a double-ikat weaving tradition from Pochampally (Bhoodan Pochampally) village in Yadadri Bhuvanagiri district, Telangana.
Puanchei is the most prestigious traditional handwoven textile of the Mizo people of Mizoram, worn by women as a bridal garment and at major festivals.
The repair of holes, tears and worn areas in fine cloth so that the damage disappears: the darner matches the weave, rebuilds the warp with a needle and then weaves the weft back in, so the mend reads as plain cloth.
The Süvepfü is the warrior's prestige shawl of the Sumi Naga people of Zunheboto district, Nagaland.
Risa and Rignai are the sacred traditional handwoven textiles of the Tripuri (Borok) people, the principal indigenous community of Tripura.
The Aranmula Kannadi is a front-surface metal alloy mirror produced exclusively in Aranmula village, Kerala, using a secret alloy composition known only to a small number of Vishwakarma craftsman families.
Bastar Dokra is the lost-wax (cire perdue) bronze casting tradition of the Ghadwa community of Bastar, Chhattisgarh — one of two major Indian Dokra traditions, the other being the West Bengal/Odisha variant (CRAFT-0060).
Bastar iron craft is the traditional blacksmithing and decorative metalwork tradition of the Lohar (blacksmith) community of Bastar division, Chhattisgarh, practiced in the dense forested region historically governed by the Bastar kingdom.
Bidri is a distinctive metal inlay craft from Bidar, Karnataka, in which pure silver (or occasionally gold) wire and sheet are inlaid into a zinc-copper alloy body that is subsequently blackened with a specific soil paste, creating a…
The Aurangabad tradition of Bidri ware is a Maharashtra variant of the Bidar metalwork tradition (Karnataka, CRAFT-0077) that developed at the Mughal court of Aurangabad under Aurangzeb's patronage in the 17th century.
Gujarat Dhokra is the lost-wax casting tradition practiced by the Dhokra Damar tribal community in Kutch and Banaskantha districts of Gujarat — the westernmost expression of the Dhokra tradition already documented in West Bengal…
Dokra is a non-ferrous metal casting tradition using the lost-wax (cire perdue) process, practiced by the Dhokra Damar tribal communities across West Bengal (particularly Bankura, Purulia, Dariapur), Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand.
Koftgari is a technique of inlaying gold and silver wire into crosshatched steel to produce intricate decorative patterns on blades, armor, and metalwork.
Meenakari is the art of applying vitreous colored enamel to gold (and sometimes silver) through a laborious multi-stage process of engraving, filling, and firing.
Shankha is the traditional Bengali Hindu art of carving, cutting, and shaping sacred conch shells (Turbinella pyrum) into ritual bangles, figurines, and decorative objects.
The Swamimalai bronze casting tradition of Tamil Nadu is the living continuation of the Chola-period lost-wax casting that produced the greatest sculptural bronzes in world art history — the dancing Shiva (Nataraja), the walking Vishnu,…
Tamta copper craft is the traditional coppersmith tradition of the Tamta community — the hereditary coppersmith caste of the Kumaon hills — producing utensils, ritual vessels, and decorative objects entirely from sheet copper using…
Tarakasi is the silver filigree tradition of Cuttack, Odisha — one of the most refined wire-working traditions in Indian metalsmithing.
The hand-forging of copper, brass, and kansa (a bronze-like copper-zinc-tin alloy) utensils by the Thathera community of Jandiala Guru, Punjab, in which cooled metal cakes are flattened into thin plates, hammered into curved vessel forms…
Thewa is a technique unique to Pratapgarh, Rajasthan, in which an intricate filigree design is wrought in 24-carat gold sheet, fused directly onto colored Belgian or Bohemian glass, and set in a gold frame.
Aipan is a ritual floor and wall painting tradition of the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand, executed by women using red clay (geru) ground and white rice paste (bisvar) applied by finger to create geometric and figurative designs at…
Gond painting is a living visual tradition of the Gond tribal people — one of India's largest Adivasi (indigenous) communities, centered in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Maharashtra.
Kangra miniature painting is the most refined school of Pahari (hill) miniature painting, developed under the patronage of the Kangra Rajas in the 18th century — particularly under Sansar Chand (r.
Kerala mural painting is a classical tradition of large-scale narrative painting on the interior walls of Kerala temples and palaces, executed in the fresco-secco technique on lime-plastered surfaces using natural mineral pigments.
Madhubani (literally 'forest of honey') painting is a pictorial tradition from the Mithila region of northern Bihar practiced by women of the Brahmin, Kayastha, and Dusadh communities.
Pattachitra (from Sanskrit: patta = cloth/leaf; chitra = picture) is a classical painting tradition of Odisha practiced primarily in Raghurajpur village (Puri district) by the Chitrakara community.
Paitkar (also Jadu Patua) is the oldest known scroll painting tradition in India, practiced by the Chitrakar (painter) caste among the Santali and Ho tribal communities of Jharkhand and West Bengal border districts.
Patua is a community of itinerant scroll painters and singer-storytellers from West Bengal (principally Medinipur, Birbhum, Murshidabad districts) who create narrative painted scrolls (pata) that are unfurled sequentially as the artist…
Rogan is a textile and surface painting technique practiced exclusively in Nirona village, Kutch, Gujarat, by the Khatri family — now reduced to a single family of two brothers, Abdul Gafur Khatri and his brother.
Ittalan is the sacred mural painting tradition of the Saura (Sora) tribal community of Rayagada, Gajapati, and Koraput districts in southern Odisha.
Thangka painting is a sacred Tibetan Buddhist scroll painting tradition practiced in Sikkim, Ladakh, and the Tibetan Buddhist communities of Arunachal Pradesh and Darjeeling.
Sohrai and Kohbar are two distinct but related ritual wall-painting traditions of the Jharkhand tribal communities (Kurmi, Munda, Oraon) of Hazaribagh district, both executed by women on mud-plastered house walls using fingers and natural…
Tanjore painting is a classical South Indian panel painting tradition from Thanjavur (Tanjore), Tamil Nadu, distinguished by its rich surface ornamentation: gold foil applied over raised gesso relief forms the jewelry, crowns, and…
Warli painting is the ritual mural tradition of the Warli tribe of the Palghar and Nashik districts of Maharashtra, painted on the interior walls of homes for wedding and harvest ceremonies using white rice paste on a red-brown mud plaster…
Chamba Rumal is a double-satin-stitch embroidery tradition from Chamba district, Himachal Pradesh, producing square or rectangular cloths (rumal = handkerchief/cloth) embroidered with scenes from Hindu and Pahari mythology — Krishna Lila,…
Chikankari is a delicate hand embroidery tradition originating in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, worked primarily in white thread on fine white or pastel fabric — traditionally muslin, now also georgette and chiffon.
Kantha is one of India's most ancient embroidery traditions, practiced across Bengal (West Bengal and Bangladesh) and Bihar.
Kasuti is the traditional embroidery of Karnataka, practiced by women of the Lingayat community of northern Karnataka (Dharwad, Hubli, Gadag districts) on silk or cotton fabric, using a counted thread technique with fine cotton or silk…
Kutch embroidery is not a single tradition but a constellation of at least twelve distinct embroidery styles practiced by different pastoral and tribal communities across the Kutch district of Gujarat, each with its own stitch vocabulary,…
Phulkari — literally 'flower work' — is a counted thread embroidery tradition from Punjab worked predominantly on khaddar (coarse handspun cotton cloth) using silk floss in a darn stitch from the reverse of the fabric.
Heer embroidery is the densely worked silk thread embroidery tradition of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, practiced by women of the Kathiawari Brahmin, Koli, and Mer communities.
Sujni is a quilted embroidery tradition from the Bhusura and Mirzapur clusters of Muzaffarpur and Sitamarhi districts in Bihar, practiced by women of the Dalit community.
Toda embroidery is the sacred textile tradition of the Toda people, a small pastoral tribal community of the Nilgiri Hills (Blue Mountains) in Tamil Nadu.
Zardozi is a metallic thread embroidery tradition using real gold and silver wire (zar = gold, dozi = embroidery in Persian) worked onto velvet, silk, or satin ground fabric using a hooked needle (aari) or hand-stitching technique.
Zardozi is a raised metallic embroidery technique using gold and silver wire, threads, and decorative elements to build dense, sculptural surface enrichment on silk and velvet.
Ajrakh is a multi-step resist and mordant block-printing tradition practiced in Dhamadka and Ajrakhpur villages of Kutch, Gujarat, by the Khatri community (Muslim), producing deeply geometric indigo-and-madder printed cloth of great visual…
Dyeing handloom cloth with extracts of Ayurvedic medicinal plants, so that the dye bath is also, in the makers' account, a remedy.
Bagh block printing is a natural-dye hand block printing tradition from the village of Bagh, Dhar district, Madhya Pradesh, practiced almost exclusively by the Khatri community of Muslim artisans.
Bagru block printing is a natural dye and resist-printing tradition practiced by the Chhipa community in Bagru village, near Jaipur, Rajasthan.
Bandhani is a resist-dyeing technique in which small sections of fabric are tightly bound with thread before immersion in dye, creating intricate patterns of tiny undyed dots on a colored ground.
Varak (also waraq) is the Rajasthani craft of beating pure gold or silver into paper-thin leaf and hand-block-printing it onto textiles.
Kalamkari (Persian: kalam = pen; kari = work) is a hand-drawn and naturally dyed textile painting tradition practiced in two distinct centers in Andhra Pradesh: Srikalahasti (pen tradition) and Machilipatnam (block-print tradition).
Kotpad handloom is a cotton handloom weaving tradition from Kotpad block, Koraput district, Odisha — on the Chhattisgarh border — practiced by the Mirgan community for the Bondo, Kondh, and Gadaba tribal communities.
Channapatna is a small town in the Ramanagara District of Karnataka, known since the 18th century as a center of turned-wood toy production using ivory wood (Wrightia tinctoria) and organic lac (shellac) in a distinctive on-lathe…
Kondapalli is a village in Krishna District, Andhra Pradesh, known for its tradition of carved and lacquered soft-wood toy making using Tella Poniki (Polianthes genus) wood, a uniquely soft, light, and easily carved wood that enables the…
Lavani is the classical folk performance tradition of Maharashtra — a form of song and dance characterized by its vigour, emotional intensity, and elaborate theatrical costume.
Pinguli is a village in Sindhudurg District, Maharashtra, home to the Thakar tribe, practitioners of a leather shadow puppet tradition closely related to the Chitrakathi painting tradition of the same community.
Sawantwadi is a royal town in Sindhudurg District, Maharashtra, with a lacquered wood toy tradition patronized by the Bhonsle kings of Sawantwadi.
The hand-modeling and hand-painting of Thanjavur's traditional bobble-head and roly-poly dolls, terracotta or paper-mache figures engineered so that all their weight concentrates at a rounded base, allowing the smallest tap to set the…
Kerala coir weaving is a large-scale handloom cottage industry tradition using the fiber extracted from coconut husk (coir) to produce woven mats, rugs, and matting.
The tribes of Northeast India — particularly in Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya, and Mizoram — have developed among the most sophisticated cane and bamboo working traditions in Asia.
Ringal (Himalayan dwarf bamboo, Drepanostachyum falcatum and Thamnocalamus spathiflorus) is the primary material for the traditional basketry and tool-making tradition of the hill communities of Uttarakhand.
Sikki is a coiled and woven craft tradition from the Mithila region of Bihar (and adjacent Nepal Terai), using sikki grass (Cyperus tegetiformis or related golden sedge species) — a naturally golden-yellow grass that grows in waterlogged…
The Bankura horse is Bengal's most iconic folk terracotta form: a stylized votive horse with elongated neck, cylindrical body, and flared ears — a form of absolute geometric clarity that has become one of India's most recognized design…
Jaipur Blue Pottery is a unique ceramic tradition that is technically not pottery at all — it uses no clay.
Athangudi tiles are handmade decorative cement floor tiles produced in Athangudi village in the Chettinad region of Tamil Nadu, developed in the late 19th century by the Nattukotai Chettiar trading community to ornament their extraordinary…
Lac turnery is a wood-turning tradition in which colored lac (a natural resin secreted by the lac insect Kerria lacca) is applied directly to a spinning wooden object on the lathe, using friction and body heat to melt and bond the colored…
Naga woodcarving is inseparable from the morung — the traditional men's dormitory institution that governed Naga social and political life for millennia.
Nirmal painting is a decorative painting tradition from Nirmal town in Adilabad district, Telangana, in which carved wooden panels, furniture, and objects are coated with a white clay ground (locally called 'putti' — a mixture of tamarind…
Kashmir Papier-Mâché (kar-i-qalamdani) is a craft of Persian-Central Asian origin in which objects are formed from layers of paper pulp, chalk, and glue, then painted with extraordinarily fine miniature designs in lacquer-based pigments.
All miscellaneous & heritage-adjacent craft techniques worldwide →
Kolhapuri chappal is the traditional hand-stitched vegetable-tanned leather sandal from Kolhapur district, Maharashtra — one of India's most recognizable artisanal footwear traditions.
The Orissan stone carving tradition is one of the most accomplished sculptural lineages in world art history, responsible for the erotic and devotional sculptural programs of the Konark Sun Temple, the Lingaraj Temple (Bhubaneswar), and…