Raghurajpur: The Crafts village
Rajhurajur is known as crafts village of Odisha. This place is famous for the beautiful crafts developed by the villagers.
History of Raghurajpur
Villagers or the craftsmen of this place were supplying decorative items to temples and Mathas (temples constructed mostly by famous devotees located around Sri Jaganatha temple.) of Puri. They also supply Patas which used in the throne of Lord Jaganatha inside temple. During car festival several the chariots are decorated by paints of these artisans. These craftsmen are also called locally as Chitrakaras.This village is also the birthplace of famous Odissi Dance Guru Sri Kelu Charan Mohapatra.
There are around hundred families in the village. All houses are divided in two lanes. This village is located within tall coconut, palm and other tress. In all houses of the village , front room is used as show room and they also work from here.
Accommodation at Village.
If you wish you can stay in guest houses within the village with basic facilities or you can stay at Puri ( 12 KM , 30 minutes drive ) or at Bhubaneswar ( 50 KM , one and half hour drive ).Reaching Ragurajpur village.
Staring from Puri side travel in Nabakalebar road ( 4 lane Highway ) and take right turn towards Chandanpur after 12 KM. From center of the Chandanpur market there is a right side ( 1 KM ) road to take you to Raghurajpur. This 1 KM road will cross railway line through a under pass just after Chandanpur. From Bhubaneswar Chandanpur is 50 KM and from here you can travel another 1 KM to reach Raghurajpur.While entering to village you will find showrooms of different crafts but instead of stopping here better to avoid these commercial shops and enter into the village to see the village men and women preparing paintings and toys.
After reaching the village you will find many people requesting to visit their houses to see the products. Try to visit houses located towards end of the village.
This is an ideal village of Odisha and you will find different cast of people living together.
Many foreign tourist visit Raghurajpur and some of them join the artisans to learn different arts. Some of them had helped in popularizing this art and helping villagers in maintaining this tradition of developing art and crafts. We found some students from nearby states learning paintings in this village.
Types of Crafts
Patta Painting , Palm leaf painting / engraving , tusser / silk painting, stone carving, coconut painting , wood carving, Papier Machie / Mask, Cow dung toys, Ganjapa playing cards are some of the different types of crafts developed here. Here some paintings take months to complete .
Cow dung toys
These toys are prepared by using husk , cow dung and lime powder.INTACH ( Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage ) has listed this as Heritage village and completed several projects here. Orissa Tourism Development Corporation ( OTDC) is developing this as a rural tourism center to promote art and crafts of this area.
This article is written by go2india.in team.
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