Happy World Handicrafts Day

June 10 marks the World Handicrafts Day, an occasion commemorating the creative works of hard-working men and women all over the globe.
Handicrafts and traditional arts reflect the identity of Iran and form a great part of the Iranian life in history and represent the culture of our country.
There are a large number of artisans working on handicrafts in Iran, particularly in the city of Shiraz and Isfahan. The major traditional arts in Iran include carpet weaving, khatam art (Persian technique of inlaying), interior decoration with mirrors, Persian rug weaving and ceramic tile art.
A broad range of Iranian handicrafts are put up for sale in the popular tourist attraction that you can buy as a souvenir.

World Handicraft Day on June 10

Wood carving Art in Iran

From the beginning of history, human’s chase for beauty and art has never stopped. 
Iranian artists mix unique designs, innovative ideas, different viewpoint and long-lasting value to creat amazing products.
Persian wood carving has a great tradition in Iran. wood carvings are elaborate and amazing crafts that require a lot of skills and effort. Wood carving products are made by highly skilled craftsman. Process of making wood carving is complicated work of art. Woodcarvers have to employ a composite techniques that allow to engrave a single piece of wood elaborately and combine several pieces of woods.
 The eye-catching wood carving pieces are exciting gift that you can buy while you’re in Iran.

Wood carving Art in Iran

Iranian Handicrafts

Many believe that the best way to get to know a folk culture is through discovering its traditional handicrafts. You can find a legend, an ancient story, a life attitude even the social trend in a folk handicraft. Gabbeh is the handmade product of tribes and today produced in some workshops. The weaver chooses the layout according to his concepts or perspective of his surrounding animals, people, trees or even woven geometric shapes. Roberto, our Italian guest was really curious about Iranian handicrafts and Leila, the professional tour guide of Uppersia team, satisfied his curiosity.

An Italian traveler tries to weave Gabe

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