Rag dolls made from tattered saris and handmade clay dolls called tepa putul were once the few tangible belongings young ...

MADURAI: The annual Christmas season sale of traditional clay dolls has come to an end in the pottery village of Vilachery.

It is Navratri and Chennai’s streets in religious centres like Mylapore; Triplicane, Nanganallur and West Mambalam have become colourful with plenty of clay and paper mache dolls on sale for the Golu.

The knowledge of how to transform mud into pottery signifies a major leap forward for prehistoric cultures, and until the development of metal cooking pots, ceramic pottery was the pinnacle of cooking ...