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The Depository documents 14 techniques in Pakistan; by risk level: 6 critically endangered, 7 endangered, 1 vulnerable. Each record opens with a public summary; the full research record is free to view once registered.
Shu (شو) is the traditional woolen cloth of Chitral District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — the narrow valley gateway to the Hindu Kush and one of the most geographically isolated communities in South Asia.
The Wakhi people of the Ishkoman, Yasin, and Ghizer valleys of Gilgit-Baltistan province weave a distinctive wool carpet at altitudes above 3,000m — one of the northernmost active carpet traditions in South Asia.
Patti (پٹی) is the narrow-band woven textile tradition of the Swat Valley and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's Pashtun communities — producing the narrow striped woolen bands used as belts, bag straps, and decorative borders on Pashtun garments and…
Pakistan's blue pottery tradition — called neeli mitti (نیلی مٹی — 'blue clay') — is distinct from the better-known Jaipur Indian blue pottery in using a higher proportion of quartz in the clay body and a more opaque tin-white glaze that…
Kashi (کاشی — named from Kashan, Iran, the origin of the technique) is Multan's blue and white glazed tile tradition — one of the oldest continuously active tilework traditions in the world, with families in Multan's tile district tracing…
Multan's camel skin craft produces the luminous translucent vessels — lamps, trays, vases — made from tanned camel hide so thin that candlelight or electric light passes through it, illuminating the painted surface from within.
The hand-stitched making of khussa — the flat-soled, often pointed-toe, heelless slip-on leather shoe considered one of Pakistan's most culturally iconic footwear traditions, closing a genuine gap in the archive: no footwear-making craft…
Phulkari (پھلکاری — 'flower work') is the embroidery tradition of the Punjab — practiced on both sides of the 1947 Partition line, in both Pakistani and Indian Punjab.
Rilli (ریلی) is the Sindhi patchwork tradition producing quilted textiles in concentric diamond and zigzag compositions — used as bed covers, wall hangings, and ceremonial textiles.
Ajrak (اجرک) is the Sindhi resist-print and natural dye tradition — producing the deep red and indigo blue geometric pattern cloth that is the defining textile of Sindhi identity.
Hala (ہالہ), a small town in Matiari District, Sindh, is Pakistan's primary lacquerware center — producing the brilliantly colored lac-turned wooden objects that are among Pakistan's most recognized craft exports.
Balochistan contains Pakistan's primary onyx deposits — a banded green-white translucent stone distinct from the black Western onyx and the yellow Afghan onyx — quarried near Quetta and carved into decorative objects, vessels, and chess…
Pakistan truck art is the tradition of elaborately decorating commercial trucks, buses, and rickshaws with paintings, carved wood panels, metal chains, and reflective tape — creating the most densely decorated commercial vehicles in the…
The engraving, repoussé, and decorative working of brass and copper into household utensils, trays, lamps, and ornamental vessels, centered on Peshawar's historic Misgaran Bazaar ('bazaar of brass workers,' from misgar, the Hindko-language…