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New Indian Express

Shell to art, the Tumba way

RAYAGADA: Dry bottle gourds, or Tumba in local parlance, never go waste in Rayagada. Traditionally, Kondh farmers of the district used dry gourd shells as containers to drink water, 'mandia jau' or even the local brew but today, these shells are statement pieces of fine art in urban households. The contemporary twist is the contribution of Himanshu Sekhar Pandia, a Rayagada-based master craftsman. He not only introduced Odisha to tumba craft and built a tribal economy around it but has also been training tribals and non-tribals in it for close to two decades through his Prerana Art and Craft centre. The craft was included in the state's official list of handicrafts by the department of Handloom, Textile and Handicraft last year, thanks to Pandia's unrelenting efforts. Every year, he trains around 25 to 30 tribal and non-tribal people in the craft, an initiative that is supported by DC(Handicrafts) and the State government. It includes functional and decorative pieces like lamp shades, sculptures, jewellery, toys, crockery products and much more. Back in the early 2000, during a trip to Rayagada, Pandia saw some tribal farmers carrying water in tumba shells to their farms. A diploma holder in fine arts, he decided to refine the hard, dried bottle gourd shells to prepare functional pieces. Before carving, chiselling or painting motifs on them, the hollowed, dry shells are sorted as per their size, cleaned and scrubbed with sandpaper. 'So far, I have trained close to 600 people in this craft and during the training period, which lasts from three months to one year, the trainees get a monthly remuneration of Rs 6,000 which is funded by the government,' he said. The trainees are mostly women from villages nearby Rayagada.