NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday gifted two handcrafted stone bowls made from rose quartz and yellow quartz stone and hand-woven dhurries to his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe. The gifts have been specially crafted for PM Modi's visit to Japan for the 13th India-Japan annual summit.
The specially made bowls were sourced from Rajasthan and were crafted by master artisan Shabbirhusen Ibrahimbhai Shaikh of Gujarat’s Khambhat region.
The uniqueness of the bowls lies in the fact that the form of the product is scooped out from a block of stone, and then shaped and refined using basic hand tools generally without any lathe machines.
The dhurrie gifted to the Japanese PM has been hand-woven by the master weavers of Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh. The designs on the dhurrie show the diversity of possibilities available.
The designs reportedly vary from symmetrical repeating geometric tessellation in one, to stylistic floral motifs arranged around the classical medallion pattern in another.
There are two distinctive Indian colour palettes that have been used to make the dhurries. While one uses Indigo blues, reds and sprinkles of turmeric yellows, the identifying colours that have marked Indian textiles for centuries, the other uses the muted earthy tones of the Indian landscape.
These stone bowls and dhurries were reportedly crafted under the supervision of India's premier design institute, the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.
PM Modi is in Japan to attend the 13th India-Japan annual summit. The PM said that the partnership between the two countries has been fundamentally transformed and it has been strengthened as a 'special strategic and global partnership'. The two-day summit began on Sunday and will seek to review the progress in ties and deepen strategic dimension of the bilateral relationship.
