vietexplorer0043

Ali Muhammad Najar, a 49-year-old carpenter from the Shunlipora village of Halqa (A) in central Kashmir’s Budgam district, is well known for carving wooden drawings, manufacturing decorative pieces, and preserving this traditional Kashmiri art for the last three decades in his native village. His speciality is wooden kitchenware. Born into a family of carpenters, he continued his work and made art out of traditional work with his creativity. Talking to Rising Kashmir, Najar said he was only 14 years old when he started working as a carpenter as his father was well-known in this profession. “In 1993, I lost my father. At that time I was not well-trained in this profession. As we were living in a joint family, all the responsibility fell upon me and my three younger brothers’ shoulders,” he said. Najar said that after the death of his father, he trained his brothers so they could earn their livelihood and get properly settled in their lives. “Then I started making handmade...