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Buddha Saint

The Indian Handicrafts Signing of Wood

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.

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Indian handicrafts exporter

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Indian handicrafts exporter

did Saint Jerome mention Buddha?

it seems so
I didnt know this

http://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/NAB028/

Saint Buddha