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Metalwork
Dhokra (Bastar Bell Metal Craft)
TownBastar
StateChhattisgarh
Craft typeMetalwork
GI tagNot yet registered
About
An ancient lost-wax metal casting technique used to create tribal figurines, jewellery and ritual objects in bell metal, practiced largely by the Ghadwa community using methods that have remained essentially unchanged for over 4,000 years.
Did you know? Dhokra casting is a "lost-wax" technique — each finished bronze piece requires the destruction of a unique hand-modeled wax and clay mould, meaning every single Dhokra artefact ever made is inherently one-of-a-kind, with no two pieces exactly identical.