Lamakaan hosts a Handloom Bazaar for Sale and exhibit the Fabric of Freedom. Woven in to the wonderful tapestry that is India, handloom weaving is a 4000 year old tradition. Handloom weaving is one of India’s predominant rural economic activities.This unique tradition has surpassed ages solely because of the magnificence of its craft, the mastery of its makers and patronizing consumers. Handlooms had a glorious past and o a penurious present. The handloom weavers used to live in a life of comfort and complacence in the past. They were respected for their invaluable craft that symbolized the essence of our rich culture and tradition. However, as time wheeled by machines began to exude dominance over human labour. In the state of Andhra Pradesh alone, there are about 320,000 handlooms on which about 500,000 families directly and 20,00,000 families indirectly depend for livelihoods. The recent years have witnessed migrations to cities in large numbers by handloom cotton weavers, taking up of alternative employment in rural industrial units and in extreme cases even starvation deaths or suicide deaths. The monthly handloom bazaar is one of the initiatives we are undertaking to bring back the wonder of handloom into mainstream popular culture, thus increasing the market for these products. In addition the exhibition cum sale hopes to educate the people at large on the issues of handloom weavers, and also on how to recognize the "real handloom" from fakes and "powerloom products". The bazaar will also include talks from time to time, display of weaving skills, and also will encourage children to learn these skills in an interactive way - like learning to use the "charkha".

Entry - Free