Current Approaches, Solutions and Practices in Conservation of Cultural Heritage

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DOI :10.26650/B/AA9PS34.2024.006.005   IUP :10.26650/B/AA9PS34.2024.006.005    Full Text (PDF)

From the Cave to the Canvas “Keeping the Ancient Art of Rogan Silk Painting Alive”

Tom Corcoran

The Bamiyan Valley’s cultural landscape and archaeological sites are a testament to Buddhism’s artistic and religious evolution. The Bamiyan valley marked the most westerly point of Buddhist expansion and was once a crucial hub for travellers and trade. Its caves are home to the earliest known oil paintings dating to 650 CE, where scientists also documented traces of resins and numerous ochres, just as one would find in any modern-day artist’s studio. While the Monks of these art studios applied their oil paints to the walls, this period was also the peak of the Silk Road trade and no doubt there was significant artistic experimentation with oils on textiles such as silk. Evidence of the expansion of oil painting can be found nearby within the Afridi tribal arts. The Afridi are the oldest Pashtun tribe in the region, and they have occupied the mountainous areas straddling Afghanistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, long before the arrival of Islam. Their oil painting technique is referred to as “Rogan Silk Painting” (‘Rogan’ is the Persian word for ‘Oil’). They were once well known in the marketplace for their artistic oil-based block-printed Afridi Lac Cloth. While the Afridi no longer practice this tribal art, the technique remains in the region with one local family of Rajput descent from the old Silk Roads city of Peshawar. The Ahmad family has a long history of working as Rogan Silk Painters. As artists of old, they travelled widely, painting only the best textiles across this region of South Asia. Rogan painting spread as far east as Gujerat, India, where the Khatri family today continue to produce handmade and printed Rogan Islamic-style art. The Khatri family trace their Rogan heritage back around four hundred years. Today, Rogan art has been revived in India. Yet, in Pakistan, Fayyaz Ahmad is finding it much more challenging to keep this fading art alive. Although his art has gained some international interest, the Rogan painting technique is yet to be fully recognised and preserved in Pakistan. Rogan painting offers a new chapter in the history of oil painting through the journey from the cave to the canvas.


Keywords: Intangible Cultural Heritage, Buddhist Heritage, Rogan Silk Painting, Silk Road Arts, Bamiyan, Peshawar, Gandhára

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