Caucasian craftsmanship keeps traditions alive
Published 25 July, 2007, 05:26
Keeping traditions alive is very important to the Georgian people. In a small studio in the centre of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, a group of craftsmen continue to use ancient techniques to make traditional Georgian weapons.
Tamaz Jalagania is a man passionately committed to his art. Using techniques that date back hundreds of years, Tamaz helps to keep alive the ancient traditions of Caucasian craftsmanship, fashioning silver, gold, leather and horn into classical Georgian sabres, rifles and daggers.
“If it were not for these weapons, what would remind Georgians of the past? That’s why I always use the traditional methods of making weapons, making them with the same techniques that were used ten or fifteen centuries ago,” Tamaz Jalagania, said.
Tamaz and his team painstakingly polish, beat, grind and inlay to create masterpieces of traditional Georgian design. But while Tamaz’s work is unmistakably Georgian, its beauty and complexity appeals to an audience from all over the world.
“Whenever I meet tourists here, whenever guests come to visit me in Georgia, I always take them to Tamaz’s studio. I think that his workshop is one of the most interesting things in Tbilisi. It’s great that he’s keeping this tradition alive,” says Greg Levonyan, a Georgian art enthusiast.
In days of old no Georgian was fully dressed without his traditional khanjarli dagger at his side, and today, thanks to men like Tamaz, Georgia can look to the future with its ancient traditions intact.
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