Khullu Project
NID Ahmedabad X Looms of Ladakh
The Khullu Project involves decoding Ladakh as a mountain culture, it's people, contextualisation of it's practices and material tinkering,
Designing for Ladakh's textile canvas to incentivise local wool and skillset of the region in order to build local economy and ecology.
+ Research I Material Exploration I Heritage Textiles
+ Guided by Swasti Singh Ghai and V. Sakthivel
+ 4 Weeks
Dive Directly
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Project Plan
Devising stages and possible areas of intervention in terms of strategy and material experimentation.
+ Keeping wool at the centre of the ecosystem.
+ Developing design strategy for Ladakh's craftspeople.
+ Material Experimentation and possibilities as PoC.
Research
The indigenous Bactrian Camel and Yak population in Ladakh is depleting in number. Can we incentivise their wool to devise a system around it that ensures their survival ?
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Experimentation
Expanding the scope of the Yak and Camel wool from Ladakh in terms of potential
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+ usage,
+ skillset, and
+ production.
Design Direction
Maryul
Landscape of Ladakh
“ Our land is so barren and mountains are so high that only the best friends and fiercest of enemies come to visit us ”
Glyphs
Petrol-glyphs or rock-carvings are found in most ancient civilisations all around the world, including Ladakh in India.
An attempt was made to study Ladakh's historical relationship within its ecosystem through these rock artworks.
The Ladakhi petroglyphs, documented by researcher
Tashi Lwada Thasngspa, were studied for the same and translated into materials to tell a story.
The Petroglyphs of Ladakh are inspired by the animal kingdom of the region, mostly centred around the dominant animals - both wild and domestic.
This depiction is a reflection of how much interaction the people had with the fauna back then and the senstivity with which they captured their essence.
Lamayuru
Lamayuru is a sanctuary considered to be a place of total freedom according to local tales.
The place is popular for its moonscape as the rock formations glimmer at night. A different geography with unique rock formations form the Lamayuru. Such diversity in a difficult terrain is unique to Ladakh.
Tangible aspects such as rock formations as well as intangibles such as folklore, belief systems elevate a place like Lamayuru to a spiritual junction.
The place is popular for its moonscape as the rock formations glimmer at night. These spaces become places of contact, socialty and wonder because of various elements rooted within the local ecosystem; in this case, the land, the weather and the stories fused in the air of Lamayuru.
Sangam
Different cultures coming together, values coming together; people and animals coming together, two odd things; opposite things coming and being together.
Green water is not corrupting the blue and neither is the blue water corrupting the green.
The Sangam is symbolic of the conflence of the two rivers; which has been combined with our habits of holding or rubbing hands, especially when its cold.