JAIPUR
The handicraft capital of India, the region is home to 35,000 marble workers. These industries have been alive since ancient times and, despite changes to manufacturing and the global economy, still manage to exist in a sustainable state today.
Air filled with dust and spice, as marble workers chisel away at stone, creating elephants and deities commissioned by temples all over the country. Artisans, the people who learned from their fathers, who learned from their fathers, the craft that is their livelihood.
“The fortress-crowned hills look down upon the strange medley…Thanks to the courtesy of the Maharaja, it is possible to see everything, but for the incurious who object to being driven through their sights, a journey down and one of the great main streets is a day’s delightful occupation. The view is as unobstructed as that of the Champs Élysées; but in place of the white-stone fronts of Paris, rises a long line of openwork screen-wall, the prevailing tone of which is pink, caramel-pink, but houseowners have unlimited license to decorate their tenements as they please.”
