ઢોકરા (Dhokra)
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 (CRAFT-0060). The Gujarat variant shares the core cire perdue process with its Bengal cognate but differs in form vocabulary, alloy composition, and surface finishing. Gujarat Dhokra tends to produce larger ceremonial objects — votive horse and elephant figures for tribal shrines, ritual lamps, deity plaques — and makes greater use of sheet-wax modeling (flat wax sheets pressed over clay cores) rather than the wire-wax winding technique predominant in Bengal. The Gujarat tradition also uses a higher proportion of copper in the alloy, producing a redder cast surface. The Kutch earthquake (2001) devastated several Dhokra Damar settlements; the post-earthquake NGO support infrastructure (particularly Khamir) has both sustained and partially commercialized the tradition.
Risk level: Endangered · Not inscribed
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