A Tour of Kumartuli

Smaller, more ornamental idols on sale.

A kumar puts together the straw body of an idol. You can see a more complete one over his shoulder.

One of the largest examples of the idols made in Kumartuli, this is the multi-armed goddess Kali--or Durga as she is usually known in Bengali--with the severed heads of her enemies slung around her neck.

A kumar--or potter--slathers mud onto the body of an idol.

Half-completed idols of the goddess Kali (in a less formidable incarnation) stand impassive on a street in Kumartuli.

In America, the word 'Kumar' is usually associated with the cult movie Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. In Calcutta, the word 'kumar' means potter and denotes the class of men who work year-round making idols for the city's famed pujas, or festivals.

These idols come in call sizes--small enough to be a Christmas ornament and big enough to need several dozen men to carry them. For the bigger idols, their shapes are first fashioned out of straw and tied together with jute strings then slathered with mud taken from the Hooghly River, which is a tributary of the Ganges and is thereby considered holy. These figures are then fired in kilns then extensively decorated with paint, fake hair, jewels, and sequined clothing.

The small, cloistered district in north Calcutta where the potters--or kumars--have plied their trade for centuries is called Kumartuli. This week, I took a walk through the area's narrow alleys and saw the kumars at work. The half-constructed bodies of dozens of idols sat out baking in the noonday sun, while the potters sat in the shade molding more.

I asked one kumar what festival these idols were for and he responded, "The big one: Durga Puja."

"The one in October?" I asked, uncertain that they would be preparing this far in advance.

"Oh yes. That one."

Indeed, they work all year for the gigantic celebration that lasts an entire week and commemorates the end of the monsoons.