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epertoire of the indigenous skills. They are closely linked with their way of life and play animportant part in the rites of passage and the festivals, which enrich their lives. Many seeglobalization as a threat to the craft industry, however if globalization is effectively used toreach out to newer markets it cannot only create a larger market, but also increase the earningsof the craftsmen, who are often paid a pittance for the traditional objects. What is needed is asupportive government policy, which would work for the interest of the craft sector and notagainst it. It needs greater participation of the master craftsmen in policy making, as well asin creating protective measures and assistance in reaching out to global markets.The Hidden World of the Living Craft Tradition, Noorjehan Bilgrami 6Craftsmen in Swat produce the most powerfully primeval wood-carvings and a similarvocabulary continues on the textiles. At the foot of the Karakorums, is the Indus Kohistan -‘the land of mountains’ where costume is the vehicle for the finest embroidery.The Indus flows through the land of the five rivers, the Punjab, with its fertile lands. Alegendary granary since the time of Harappan culture, it is also home to the fabled city ofLahore, known for its exquisite hand embroidery with silver and gold thread, the zardozi,perfected by the Mughals, which still continues. Punjab is well known for its phulkaris, whichfollow a technique similar to those of Swat Valley and Hazara.In Sindh, the people have a deep reverence for the ajrak. From birth to marriage, until death,ajrak commemorates all significant events of the life cycle. The process of making an ajrak ishighly complex, comprising of 21 different stages of washing, dyeing and block printing.Khairpur, located in upper Sindh, is a place of great historical significance in thesubcontinent. Indigo was extensively cultivated and exported here, making Khairpur state thefourth largest exporter of indigo in the world. Khes, a traditional patterned bedspreadcommonly used in homes is a double-weave cloth, intricately woven with cotton or silk yarn.It was an acclaimed textile export item in the Moghul Period and was very popular inEngland.The variety, diversity and enormity of the traditional textiles of Pakistan is overwhelming.One vital thread common to all the traditional textiles is the involvement of the maker,whether it is purely at an individual level, or as part of a communal activity, shared by familyand friends. Each pair of hands has innocently embroidered or woven a part of its soul in thecloth. What is woven from the soul of one immediately reaches the heart of the other!Continuation of Local Knowledge - Methodology of the Reuse and theRevival of the Local Knowledge in Employing the Natural Resources inTraditional Crafts Industries, Kaltham Al Ghanim 76Artist, Designer and Researcher. Years of research into ajrak, a traditional Sindhi textile, led topublication of the book Sindh jo Ajrak, and later to the making of the documentary video, Sun,Fire, River, Ajrak -- Cloth from the soil of Sindh. Handloom weaving and natural dyes are nowher major interest and she was awarded the Japan Foundation Fellowship in 2001-02 to pursueresearch on natural indigo in Japan. Bilgrami curated the exhibition Tana Bana: The Woven Soulof Pakistan in collaboration with Jonathan Mark Kenoyer at the University of Wisconsin,Madison, in 1998; the exhibition later traveled to the Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland,Oregon, the Pacific - Asia Museum, Pasadena, California and Mingeikan, the Japan Folk CraftMuseum, Tokyo. A comprehensive bilingual exhibition catalogue documenting the traditionaltextiles of Pakistan was produced in 2004 when the exhibition traveled to the prestigiousMingeikan. Traveled extensively and lectured at universities and museums in the United States,Scandinavia and Japan and has written numerous articles for international journals.29