Crafting genius in the Turquoise Mountains
On the Prince of Wales’s 70th birthday, Ben Farmer visits his beloved project in Kabul that now welcomes virtual visitors, too
As Haji Mohammad Aslam Allahir watches his students patiently work silver and set gemstones the way he was taught by his father, he knows only too well how close this all came to extinction. A little over a decade ago, the jewellery-making skills he had honed over a lengthy career had been set aside and his craft was on the brink of dying out in Afghanistan. Years of war had seen him and other master craftsmen abandon their trades, as work dried up, violence intruded, and they forsook their art for day-to-day survival.
The relentless violence not only forced these masters to stop work, but saw them stop taking apprentices. Skills that had been handed down for generations had reached a dead end.
“It almost finished during the war,” the 67-year-old told The Daily Telegraph last week in his classroom in Kabul. “Now we have restarted this art and it is alive again.”
The fact that his craft has not died out and now can flourish in the 21st century is thanks to a small charity called Turquoise Mountain, founded by the Prince of Wales.
As the Prince celebrates his 70th birthday today and marks a life as patron of scores of organisations, this little-known charity ranks among his personal favourites, say aides.
Turquoise Mountain may not be the most publicly familiar of his endeavours, but it is one of those he is proudest of, and perhaps comes closest to unifying many of his lifelong passions. Turquoise Mountain has, in the space of only 13 years, managed to regenerate a historic corner of
Kabul, by putting traditional skills and sustainable architecture at the heart of a vibrant community.
The Turquoise Mountain story began in 2005 when Hamid Karzai, then Afghan president, visited the UK and met the Prince. As the pair chatted, they discussed the Prince’s new school of traditional arts and Karzai spoke of his concerns that Afghanistan’s own traditional crafts were at risk.
For generations, the country had celebrated skilled woodcarvers, potters, calligraphers and jewellers, but 30 years of war had seen many of these masters give up their disciplines. At the same time, the traditional architecture of Afghan city neighbourhoods was quickly disappearing and being replaced by ugly concrete.
The two men agreed to see what could be done to save both the artistic crafts and architecture.
The Prince turned to Rory Stewart. Now a Tory minister, Stewart had recently walked across Afghanistan from Herat to Kabul and was also known to the Prince as a personal tutor of his sons.
Dispatched back to Kabul, Stewart reported not only that building a school to save the arts was feasible, but suggested it be embedded in the historic, but dying neighbourhood of Murad Khane. Tucked into a bend in the Kabul river, the old city neighbourhood had once been the prosperous home of Qizilbash artisans and courtiers. By 2005, it was the only remaining original part of the shattered city, but fortunes had changed. Now one of Kabul’s poorest areas, the mudbuilt town houses were submerged under rubbish heaps and their ornate carved woodwork was being used as firewood. The whole area was scheduled to be bulldozed.
With little time to waste, the charity was founded and work began. Among the first to volunteer was Shoshana Clark, who later became Stewart’s wife. “Rory went out and had a look around and said, actually, this is a wonderful idea,” explains Shoshana, now Turquoise Mountain’s chief executive. “Both to build a school of traditional arts to train the next generation, but also to embed it in the old city and to restore this neighbourhood in the old city.”
Finding the country’s scattered master craftsmen before they died or disappeared was a priority. Haji Mohammad had given up jewellery during the civil war and gone to work for the United Nations in Pakistan. A renowned woodcarver called Ustad Hadi, who once worked for the king, had been selling bananas in the bazaar for 15 years. But each had kept in touch with others and gradually contact was re-established.
At the same time, with American and Canadian aid money, work began renovating the mud buildings of Murad Khane. With locals employed as labourers, more than 45,000 cubic yards of rubbish was dug out of the streets. The courtyards, town houses and streets were rebuilt using traditional techniques and thousands of builders, carpenters and electricians trained along the way. To date, around 150 buildings have been rebuilt over a nine-acre site. Many of the buildings are family homes and a primary school and medical centre have followed.
As of today, they have been opened up for the world to see as part of a collaboration between the Prince and Google – the first ever “Street View” in Afghanistan means the public can take a virtual tour of the restored architecture in the old city of Kabul, and explore an online exhibition of local Afghan culture via interactive 3D models of art, crafts and historical artefacts.
The centrepiece of the project remains the Institute for Afghan Arts and Architecture. Here, students spend three years studying carving, jewellery, calligraphy or ceramics. Around 500 artisans have passed through already, many going on to start their own businesses.
Finding markets for their exquisite wares, both at home and abroad, is part of the charity’s work. Without markets for their high-end products, the future of the crafts would remain uncertain. Here, the Prince’s profile has helped make introductions.
Commissions have arrived from hotels including the Connaught in London and boutiques including Asprey. A six-month exhibition in the Smithsonian in Washington DC attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors. Perhaps more excitingly, Turquoise Mountain is starting to witness signs of interest from Afghan customers, with ministers and businesspeople rediscovering their artistic heritage. In total, the business grown from Turquoise Mountain is estimated to be worth around £3.8 million per year.
The Prince remains an engaged patron, receiving monthly updates that often come back with handwritten notes and comments. Turquoise Mountain wares took pride of place in this summer’s Prince &
Patron exhibition in Buckingham Palace. The success of Murad Khane has led the charity to expand with similar ventures in Burma and Jordan. “We have gone about building the project with the Prince’s support and vision over the last 12 years,” says Shoshana.
“We do represent, I hope, what he likes – a combining of traditional skills and traditional culture, with economic development. He knows what’s going on because he asks for regular updates and gets pictures of things. I think, for whatever reason, we have put together a number of things that he values.”