Kumortuli | Sacred Soil

In preparation for the annual Durga Puja festival in Kolkata, workers create various Hindu idols and goddesses out of straw and mud. Clay is collected in the Hooghly river and distributed at the ghats of Kumartuli, the traditional potters’ quarter in West Bengal’s capital. Day and night sculptures are built by hand from one generation to the next. As manufacturers have a strong relationship to their deities, it is said that most of them are Shaktas.

July 2018