Expressive Method of Creating Pottery in Kalpoorgan

Wandering around the Iranian villages, we find a rich craft tradition and a high degree of technical excellence in the field of pottery, sculpture, jewelry, weaving etc.  Kalpoorgan village is one of that fascinating villages where is located in Sistan and Baloochestan province in southeast of Iran has recently nominated as the first handicraft village in the world. What attracts the attention of the world to the Kalpoorgan pottery is the making of pottery without use of a pottery wheel, so that all the pottery is done with traditional, primitive methods by Baloch women. The abstract roles and motifs have been inspired from ancient paints and are completely geometric reminiscent of historic art of that area. The warm harmony between the reddish shade of the potteries and the brown motifs make these crafts more and more eye catching. These pinched potteries with their amazing patterns and has been transmitted to the next generations without any change in the way they are made. Local artists have still kept the simple yet expressive method of creating these pieces of art. 

Pottery museum in Kalpoorgan,Sistanbaloochestan,Iran

Official Languages of Iran

Different states of Iran have different official languages. Iranian languages are derived from Indo-Iranian/Aryan languages, branches of Indo-European languages. Ancient languages contain Avestan, Old Persian whose written documents are, fortunately, also available at the present time. New Iranian languages are as follows: Pashto, Pamirian, Yaghnabi and Ossetic, which belong to the eastern groups and New Persian/Farsi, Kurdish, and Baluch which belong to the western groups of Iranians. After the invasion of Iran by Arabs and the influence of Arabic words, a new form of language was put into use which was called the Persian/Farsi language. The official language of Iran is only one: Persian. As the names for regions, people, and languages are mostly the same, seven more languages are recognized as regional languages: Azerbaijani, Kurdish, Lori, Mazandarani, Gilaki, Baluchi and Arabic.

• Azari is the name of the ancient language of Azerbaijan which belongs to a branch of the northwestern Iranian language.

• The majority of the Baluch tribe whose language is called Baluchi, are settled in Baluchistan, in the southern district of Iran, Pakistan, and some parts of Afghanistan in the southeast.

• Mazandarani and Gilaki languages refer to the people who live in the north.

• Kurd tribes live in west of Iran, a part of Turkey and Iraq, and speak Kurdish languages. They come from different religions.  

• Lori dialect is between Kurdish and Farsi and is commonly spoken in western and southwestern parts of Iran.

While traveling in Iran never forget to pack with you some basic Iranian words and phrases and enjoy chatting with local people. 

Two travelers enjoy spending time in Iran

Kalpoorgan:Heart of Iranaian Pottery

Wandering around the Iranian villages, we find a rich craft tradition and a high degree of technical excellence in the field of pottery, sculpture, jewelry, weaving etc.  Kalpoorgan village, one of that fascinating villages, located in Sistan and Baloochestan province in southeast of Iran has recently nominated as the first handicraft village in the world. What attracts the attention of the world to the Kalpoorgan pottery is the making of pottery without use of a pottery wheel, so that all the pottery is done with traditional, primitive methods by Baloch women. The abstract roles and motifs have been inspired from ancient paints and are completely geometric reminiscent of historic art of that area. The warm harmony between the reddish shade of the potteries and the brown motifs make these crafts more and more eye catching. These potteries with their amazing patterns has been transmitted to the next generations without any change in the way they are made. Local artists have still kept the simple yet expressive method of creating these pieces of art. 

Pottery museum in Kalpoorgan,Sistanbaloochestan,Iran