인도 파친 카리 대리석 상감 장인의 쇠퇴

### 파친 카리의 투쟁: 인도의 대리석 상감 세공 전통 보존하기
* 🎨 인도의 장인들은 400년 전 타지마할로 거슬러 올라가는 고대 기술인 파친카리 또는 대리석 상감 세공을 **아랄다이트와 아연 분말과 같은 현대적인 재료**를 사용하여 복잡한 디자인을 만들어내고 있습니다.
* 👁 섬세한 작업 특성상 **장인의 시력에 부담**을 주고 **피부가 마모되어 지문을 잃어버릴 수도** 있습니다.
* 📉 코로나19 팬데믹은 관광업에 심각한 영향을 미쳐 아그라의 대리석 상감 세공 장인들이 급격히 감소했으며, **지난 20년 동안 최대 70%까지 감소**한 것으로 추산됩니다.
* 🏆 타지마할 장인의 후손인 아리프 아메드는 장인 정신으로 **실프 구루라는 칭호**를 받은 아버지 하피즈 아메드 칸에게 배워 그 전통을 이어가고 있습니다.
* 아리프와 그의 팀은 내구성과 방수 기능이 뛰어난 고품질 마크라나 대리석을 사용하여 **타지마할의 상감 세공에서 영감을 받은 디테일한 디자인**을 만들고 전 세계에서 조달한 보석을 사용합니다.
* 💰 대리석 테이블과 같은 일반적인 작품의 가격은 **약 40,000루피(480달러)**로, 복잡한 노동력과 재료가 필요한 공예품의 특성을 반영합니다.
* 🛠 현대 기술로 인레이 공정이 빨라졌지만, 일부 장인들은 여전히 전통적인 방식을 선호하며 **사용하는 도구와 재료로 인한 물리적 위험**에 직면해 있습니다.
* 🌍 젊은 세대의 관심이 줄어들고 더 단순한 공예품으로 변화하면서 **파친카리의 미래는 수세기 동안 지속되어 온 이 복잡한 예술 형식이 사라질 위험**에 처해 있습니다.

아그라의 대리석 상감 세공 기술은 젊은 세대가 더 쉬운 직업을 선택하면서 쇠퇴하고 있으며, 수백 년 된 전통을 위협하고 있습니다.

Narrator: This artist is mixing together a special glue using Araldite and zinc powder. It's one of the ways artists in India have updated the art of parchin kari, or marble inlay, since it was used 400 years ago to decorate the Taj Mahal. Artisans work with such small pieces; they say the strain can damage their eyesight. And the wear and tear on the skin causes them to lose their fingerprints. Narrator: But now this work, which lines the walls of one of the world's most famous buildings, is in danger of disappearing. Today, artists make most of their money selling pieces to tourists visiting the Taj Mahal. But the COVID-19 pandemic weakened tourism and led to a steep decline in marble inlay artists. The job is also not as lucrative as it once was, forcing generations of younger artists to choose different career paths than their ancestors.

We went to Agra in Uttar Pradesh, India, to find out how parchin kari is still standing. Arif Ahmed is a direct descendant of artisans who decorated the Taj Mahal. His family is one of only a few left carrying on the marble inlay tradition in India. Narrator: And that number could be even higher. According to some estimates, the number of marble inlay artisans in Agra has declined by up to 70% over the last two decades. For Arif, this work is a source of pride, and its disappearance would be devastating. He started learning the art of parchin kari from his father when he was just about 10 years old. Narrator: His father, Hafiz Ahmed Khan, was granted the esteemed title of shilp guru by the Indian government and has won national awards for his marble work. Narrator: Today, Arif is using many of the same tools,

methods and materials that his ancestors did, starting with high-quality marble sourced from Makrana, a small city near Jaipur, Rajasthan. It's durable, water-resistant, and has few impurities. It's also high in calcium, which gives it its pure white color. Varun Bansai has been working with Arif for about 15 years. He learned the marble craft from his father and grandfather. This same kind of marble was used to build the walls of the Taj Mahal. Varun and his team quarry raw slabs of marble and cut them using circular saws to separate the clean, usable chunks. Water helps cool the blade and reduce dust while they work. They then mold and carve the marble into tabletops of various shapes and sizes for the artisans. Finally, they deliver the finished marble to showrooms and to artisans like Arif. Today, Arif's team is designing an elephant sculpture made from Makrana marble.

a popular souvenir among tourists visiting the Taj Mahal. Designers first cover the marble in brightly colored water-based acrylic paint, so the patterns they draw stand out better against the white marble. They draw freehand designs directly onto the painted marble with a pencil. The designs can be quite complex, like this one with thousands of flower petals, leaves, and thin vines. The patterns are often inspired by the inlay on the Taj Mahal, which looms over the city of Agra. The Taj Mahal was built between 1631 and 1648 under Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan. The marble was carried in using elephants from Jaipur. To decorate the walls, trained inlay workers were brought in from Persia. A debunked legend held that the shah forced the artisans to have their hands cut off after they were finished, so they couldn't replicate the beauty of the Taj Mahal anywhere else.

Even though no one really lost their hands, Arif says Shah Jahan made sure the secrets of the art were protected in other ways. Narrator: Many of the Persian artisans used their payment to put down roots in Agra, and thanks to their descendants, the city is still today a major producer of parchin kari. A parchin kari artist will eventually fill each of these outlined spaces with a small piece of precious or semiprecious stone, chosen based on its color and aesthetics. While the marble comes from India, the stones are sourced from all over the world, including from Japan, Germany, and Iran. Narrator: Artisans buy these stones from local shops, where they're widely available. The more stones used in the design, the more expensive the final piece will be. Narrator: Arif estimates a table like this would cost about 40,000 rupees, or $480. It also has lights installed beneath it.

to illuminate the finished design. The size of the piece will also affect the price and increase the amount of time it takes to finish. Narrator: The smaller, more detailed work Arif describes as intoxicating work because it requires more time and intense concentration to get right. Narrator: It takes half a day just to make one of these flowers. Narrator: Arif says this work could damage his eyes from the strain if he does it for too many years, but choosing which stone goes where is one of his favorite stages of the creative process. When the designer is satisfied with their rough design, the artist traces it onto a sheet of translucent butter paper. They mark each tiny petal and leaf on the paper like a massive and complex color-by-number, noting which stone will be placed where. Narrator: Then they retrace these shapes directly onto the flat precious stones, with red or blue carbon paper placed in between.

Cutting out these shapes requires a rotating wheel with very sharp diamond-edged blades. Each blade lasts for only about three days. Depending on the hardness of the stone, they could wear out even faster. Narrator: Updated technology like this has sped up the inlay process quite a bit since the days of the Taj Mahal. Narrator: But some artisans like Shafiq Uddin still choose to use the tools of their ancestors, like this hand-operated pulley, even though he owns a motorized blade as well. Narrator: Work like this, however, comes with a lot of physical risks. The cutters use their bare hands and must get dangerously close to the blade to make sure they get an accurate shape. It can also cause a lot of wear and tear on their skin, even eroding their fingerprints permanently. Narrator: They are always breathing in marble dust. And while shaping the stones, they often work with water,

which can numb their fingers in the cold months, when temperatures in the area can drop to around 4 to 8 degrees Celsius. Narrator: Once the stone is cut, another worker will fine-tune the shape and polish it for a smoother edge using an emery wheel. Each cut stone is then lightly glued into the marble. Then artisans scrape an outline around the border to make sure they all fit perfectly. The elephant is heated by the fire so the temporary glue will soften and the stones can be removed to complete the inlay. At this point, they use a variety of pointed metal tools to dig, cut, and scrape out a shallow recess in the marble several millimeters deep. To attach the stones to the marble, the Taj Mahal workers were said to have used a special glue consisting of sugarcane, beeswax, honey, lemon juice, marble dust, and lentils. This type of glue needed to be used right away

and would expire quickly. Today, however, there are many synthetic alternatives that last longer and are easier to make. They mix an adhesive called Araldite with zinc powder and acrylic paint to create a paste. This will harden while the marble is being prepared. When ready for use, they heat the hardened glue with a hot coal so it's malleable and fill the entire gap in the marble. The stones are pressed one by one into the glue in the originally designed inlay pattern. Once the glue dries, they then use different types of sandpaper and polish pads to bring out the shine and smooth the surface. As they work, the pink dye is wiped away, leaving only white marble and brightly colored stonework. Artisans typically sell pieces like this to showrooms or marketplaces, which then resell them to buyers, many of whom are tourists visiting the Taj Mahal. Narrator: The COVID-19 pandemic brought tourism to a halt,

which led to a downturn in the marble inlay business. Narrator: Arif says he hopes the government will one day open its own showroom and buy directly from artisans to help boost their business. Meanwhile, workers put in a lot of time and effort for little profit. But it's not just a decline in tourism that's a threat to the future of the craft. The job is not as lucrative as it once was, so many young people are opting for other fields. Narrator: These days, Arif's son enjoys watching him work, but Arif says he'd never force him to become a parchin kari artist. Others, like Mohammad, don't plan on passing the legacy down to their kids. Narrator: New workers are entering the trade, Arif says, but they are choosing simpler work that requires less training, like creating larger wall pieces or those with less stone. Narrator: And the production of small,

highly detailed pieces, the intoxicating work that's been passed down from generation to generation, is in danger of being lost forever. But their creations will last for years, just as the Taj Mahal has withstood the test of time.

How Descendants Of Taj Mahal Artisans Are Keeping Marble Inlay Work Alive | Still Standing

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파친카리의 예술성을 보존하기 위한 투쟁

인도의 예술가들은 400년 동안 이어져 온 전통 대리석 상감 기법인 파친카리를 현대적 기술로 업데이트하고 있습니다.

코로나19 팬데믹은 관광업에 심각한 영향을 미쳤고 지난 20년 동안 아그라의 대리석 상감 장인의 수가 70% 감소했습니다.

타지마할 장인의 직계 후손인 아리프 아메드는 선조와 동일한 도구와 재료를 사용하여 전통을 이어가고 있는 몇 안 되는 장인 중 한 명입니다.

타지마할에서 영감을 받은 기념품 예술성

타지마할을 방문하는 관광객들은 기념비의 상감 세공에서 영감을 받아 대리석에 복잡한 문양이 새겨진 기념품을 구매하곤 합니다.

대리석에 페인트를 칠한 다음 전 세계에서 공수한 돌을 사용하여 복잡한 무늬를 수작업으로 그려 넣습니다.

이 예술성은 여러 세대에 걸쳐 전승되어 왔으며, 현지 상점에서 돌을 공급하고 최종 작품은 사용된 개수에 따라 가격이 달라짐니다.

스톤 인레이 디자인의 복잡한 과정

스톤 인레이 작업의 크기와 디테일은 가격과 완성도에 큰 영향을 미칩니다.

예술가의 창작 과정에는 반투명 종이에 디자인을 트레이싱한 다음 다이아몬드 모서리가 날카로운 칼날을 사용하여 돌을 자르는 작업이 포함됩니다.

현대 기술로 공정 속도가 빨라졌지만 일부 장인들은 여전히 전통적인 도구를 선호하며, 세심한 작업 과정에서 신체적 위험과 건강상의 위험에 직면하고 있습니다.

타지마할의 석재 상감 세공 예술

타지마할의 석재 상감 세공 작업자들은 추운 날씨를 견디며 돌을 자르고 연마합니다.

원래는 천연 재료로 만든 독특한 접착제를 사용하여 돌을 대리석에 붙였지만, 오늘날에는 합성 접착제를 사용하는 것이 일반적입니다.

완성된 조각은 쇼룸이나 시장에 판매되어 타지마할을 방문하는 관광객들에게 판매됩니다.

대리석 인레이 비즈니스의 쇠퇴

대리석 상감 세공 사업은 관광 감소와 수익성 저하로 인해 어려움을 겪고 있으며, 젊은이들은 다른 분야로 눈을 돌리고 있습니다.

아리프는 정부가 장인들을 지원하기 위해 쇼룸을 열기를 희망하지만, 고도로 섬세한 작업의 전통이 사라질 위험에 처해 있습니다.

새로운 노동자들이 이 업계에 뛰어들고 있지만, 이들은 더 간단한 작업을 선택하고 있어 정교한 장인 정신의 유산이 위험에 처해 있습니다.