Artisans of the Naikpod tribal community are all set to leverage technology to upgrade their skills and produce wooden miniature masks to foster their age-old art forms and tap a wider market for tribal handicrafts globally.
Thanks to the initiative of the Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA), Bhadrachalam, a group of artisans of Naikpod tribal community formed Naikpod Tribal Arts & Crafts Society and set up a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) router with 90% financial assistance at the ITDA campus in Bhadrachalam recently, sources said.
The ₹32-lakh CNC router facilitates production of wooden miniature masks in impressive designs to serve as decorative artefacts.
The artisans of Naikpod community are famous for their centuries-old craft traditions of paintings and hand-carved wooden masks of replicas of various tribal deities and mythological characters of "Pandavas."
They wear the wooden masks during special occasions and local festivals.
Pasula Buchaiah, General Secretary, Adivasi Naikpod Seva Sangham. Telangana, says the masks of horse-headed chief goddess “Lakshmi Devara” are most revered by Naikpod tribal people during festival occasions.
The CNC router unit will help the Naikpod artisans preserve the traditions.
