High costs have killed the demand for carved wooden doors and window­s.

A single door can take up to three months to be carved. Once completed, it is hard to tell whether the masterpiece is made by hand or machines. PHOTOS: TAHIR SHAH

ISLAMABAD: Wood carving, a unique form of art displayed on doors and windows, is dying fast.

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Apart from the influences from other tradition, the artisans of Swat have established their own footprints in the art of embroidery and garments. The peculiar and typical Sharai (woolen shawl for men) is specially weaved and made from local livestock fleece, which is considered, must for the freezing winter in the valley and revered for its...

The history of ornaments is last in time. Female have occupied the central stage since the inception of human beings in to this world and due to the excessive attention and interest she has aroused and received from men, she has always strived to be more attractive, more beautiful and more eye catching in order to keep the males involved and...

Gandahara art flourished and produced some of the best pieces of art and sculpture of all time during Buddhist period in Swat. Stone carving or tracery was the favorite pursuit of the artisans of that age and they carved the life story of Mahatma Buddha in different postures. The artist also took interest in carving the activities of daily life,...

Courtesy: Dr. M. Ashraf Khan, Buddhist Shrines in Swat, Artico Printers Lahore- Pakistan 1993, p 12
The land of swat, ancient Udyana, remarkably shared the artistic and cultural progress manifested over the centuries in Gandahara proper, but geographically and ethnically it effectively kept its separate identity.

The Buddhist art of Gandahara did...