The erstwhile princely state of Chamba in Himachal Pradesh was famous for unique art and crafts. The two sided hand embroidered chambarumal is famous, but few people know about the Chamba thaal.
The Chamba thaal is an embossed metal craft where brass plates are embossed with images of Gods and Goddesses. The thaals are entirely and painstakingly handmade. Most commonly embossed images are the nine avatar as of Vishnu, Ashtalakshmi the various forms of Ma Durga, Radha-Krishna and Shri Ganesh.
First a design is superimposed on a plain brass or panchdhatu thaal or a plate and then it is manually embossed using tiny tools, one mm at a time. The process is time-consuming and involves immense skill. But the products are beautiful and unique!
