Kumartuli, the statuemakers quarter, "the place where the gods are made“, is a quiet and friendly neighbourhood, free of heavy motorized traffic, in the northern part of the city and for me one of the most fascinating parts of Calcutta. More than 4000 artisans live and work here. Their traditional business is the making of the statues for the big festivals, like
Durga-Puja in September / Oktober or Saraswati-Puja in January / February, the time when I visited Kumartuli several times.
In the weeks before a big festival it is easy to watch the progress of the work on these statues, that will be displayed in the street to the public during the festival and at the end of
the festival are given back to the river, from which the clay they are made of came.
Besides these statues, the artisans of Kumartuli also do other statues of Hindu-deities for temples, portrait-busts of politicians, statues of famous people like Gandhi, Swami Vivekananda and others sculptures made to last longer than the statues for the festivals.
Nowadays also modern material like sythetic resin is used.