Chadoora calligraphy workshop ends with call for preserving traditional art

A five-day calligraphy conference-cum-workshop ended in Chadoora, Budgam, with the clearest message coming not from a speech but from the event itself: traditional calligraphy survives when it is taught, handled and repeated in public. The programme closed with a valedictory function at Government Higher Secondary School, Zohama, Chadoora, bringing the week’s instruction back into a school setting where younger hands could see the work as a living craft, not a museum piece.

The workshop was organised by the Sheikh-ul-Alam Calligraphy and Cultural Organization, Chadoora, Budgam, with financial assistance from the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, New Delhi. That backing mattered because the group has now made a pattern of returning to Chadoora with the same purpose. In 2024, it held a 15-day calligraphy and drawing workshop at Government Degree College Chadoora, again with ministry support, as part of a continuing effort to revive the art form through repeated community-based programmes rather than a one-off exhibition.

The final gathering drew Tariq Ahmad Reshi, ACD, RDD, as chief guest. Among those present were artist Asad Anjum, Abdul Ghani Dar, principal of Government Higher Secondary School, Zohama, and Dr. Raja Muzaffar Bhat, chairman of the RTI Movement. Their presence underscored that this was being treated locally as more than a cultural formality. It was a public call to keep the district’s calligraphy tradition active at a time when organisers have described the practice in earlier events as a dying art form in Chadoora.

What made this workshop effective was its insistence on continuity. The five-day format gave space for practice, while the earlier 15-day workshop at Government Degree College Chadoora showed the same organisers are not relying on symbolism alone. They are building instruction into local institutions, first in a college and now in a school, with the Ministry of Culture’s support helping keep the programme in motion. That is how preservation happens in calligraphy: not by praising a script from a distance, but by putting reed, ink and lettering technique back into circulation until the next generation can carry them forward.