Jodhpur – Judy and Valerie On the Road

Jodhpur- Chandaleo Garh

at Jodhpur we stayed slightly outside the town at Chandaleo Garh which Mary had told me about. The estate has been in the family of Pranduman Singh for generations and in 1997 he turned it into a hotel. But it’s rather different to other places and was our favourite accommodation of the whole trip. It’s very simple, peaceful and beautiful.

In addition he has established a craft centre where women from the village can develop new skills and earn an income.

The evening meal was held on the rooftop and we were lucky enough to see the blood blue moon which was an amazing sight

Mr Singh took us out in his jeep to visit the weaver and on the way we saw camels and a blue antelope.

Jodhpur fort – Mehrangarh

Joshpur fort is one of the largest forts in India and is an imposing edifice and the wall surrounding it is 10k long

It has a very interesting museum containing a variety of artefacts including howdahs (seats for people being carried by elephants), carpets embroidered with gold and silk thread, and paintings containing large amounts of tiny minature detail.

Jodhpur Tie and Dye workshop

Whilst in Jodhpur we went to a Tie and Dye workshop at ‘Isha Silk’ run by Ishwar Dewani on the rooftop of his house. Neither of us knew what to expect and our only experience was back in the 60s.

So this is pretty different to those T-shirts back in the day. Ishwar first described the process he uses for his professional dying and then took us through a simplified version.

We were each give a square of silk folded over 4 times and tacked along 3 sides. We put blobs of dye in a number of places making sure it went all the way through.

Then we wound thread several times creating small knots in the centre of each blob. The material under the thread will retain the dye colour.

The material was then placed in a bleach solution so that it went completely white, rinsed, and then placed in a dye. It was rinsed again, dried in the sun, and then we removed the knots. Hey presto!

Jodhpur bazaar – a flavour

Women going back to their village after a day’s shopping

Weaver near Jodhpur

The owner of Chandeleo Garh took us out in his jeep to visit two weavers in nearby Akthali village who weave dhurries (rugs) using camel wool. The journey itself was wonderful seeing gazelle and antelope and then the visit was fascinating.

The weavers whom we’d seen in other villages used treadle looms, but Bhiyaram and Heera jointly used a hand loom which they had made from tree trunks. Their work was very interesting and we ended up asking them to make us a rug for our home in London, using the same design and colours as the one in progress but a different size. Money was exchanged and the rug will be ready in three days – very exciting!!