Fascinating Handicrafts of Tajganj

About this tour

Fascinating Handicrafts of Tajganj:

This walking tour will take you to the lanes of a locality named Tajganj near Tajamahal, where artisans were populated during the construction of the Tajmahal. Many handicrafts are still being made.

Whenever we think about heritage, the very first images which come into our mind are of built spaces or monuments. But that certainly is the tangible part of what heritage means. The intangible part of the heritage lies in the knowledge, traditions, arts, music and other cultural aspects. When Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal, he also established a locality by the name of Mumtazabad. The name of this area changed with time and is now Tajganj, which is only a couple of hundred meters far from Tajmahal. This area, untouched by the glare of the tourists, has been living in its narrow streets and colorful people with magical workmanship for years. During this walk we are going to explore the 400-years-old handicraft cluster where we will be visiting workshops of zardozi, marble-inlay, carpet making and flower jewelry.

While curating this walk one of our prime motives was to spread awareness about how tourism can be led in a sustainable manner, where the flow of profit reaches up till the lowest point in the current hierarchical structure of the tourism industry. While visiting the workshops on this trail, visitors can buy handicrafts directly from artisans which are generally sold at very exploitative prices in local emporiums.