Wooden Idol Making - Alleppey, Kerala
Alleppey also known as Alappuzha, is the tenth largest city of Kerala. It is a city of beaches, backwaters, lagoons and picturesque canals. Backwaters of Alleppey are the utmost attraction in Kerala and most important tourist destination in India. It stands third in place among the districts having highest literacy rate in Kerala. In this region, the city Alappuzha is considered to be the oldest city. It consists more than twenty-five towns/cities as per the recent updates. Cherthala is one among the towns located at Alleppey district. The town has thirty-two wards and it is well known for temples, church and coir industry. The famous temples situated here are: Kathyayani devi temple which is located in the center of the town, administered by Travancore Devaswom Board. The other famous temple is Muttathu Thirumala temple, dedicated to Lord Narasimha presiding in Saligrama form. The other attraction of the place is St.Mary’s Forane church. The present church situated in the heart of the Cherthala town is constructed around A.D.1600 in Portugese style of architecture, which is famous for Marian devotion hence it is uplifted as a pilgrim center.
Cherthala is further divided into three block panchayats. They are Pattanakad, Thycattuserry and Kanzhikuzhy. Pattanakkad a panchayat, which comes under the constituency of Aroor assembly, is a charming village. It is located on the National Highway 47, about 7km northwest of Cherthala in Alleppey district. Kochi is located towards the northern side of Pattanakkad of about 22km. This village is very famous for an ancient Mahadeva temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. The temple is situated near to the panjayathu bus stop on the Ernakulum Cherthalai route. As it is a self-originated Lord Shiva, it is the main deity of the temple. It is also believed that the temple is one of the 108 Shiva temples built by Hindu warrior saint Parashurama. Lord Ganesha, Lord Subramanya, Naga, Sastha, Bhagavathy and Rakshas are the sub-deities installed and worshipped at this temple. Eight days of festival celebration is held at this temple every year from the next day of the Maha Shivrathri, which is very famous in and around the locality. This village consists of a school called ‘Pattanakkad Public School’, the most recognized educational institution in the district. Few more interesting spots found around this place are Vayalar and Mahakshethram. The village is facilitated with nearby Shertalai railway station and Turavur railway station. It is also very closely situated near Cochin International Airport. The major livelihood of people in this place is coir making, boat making and woodcarving. Here the large number of laborers works in coir industry. Next come the skilled artisans who work on woodcarvings. One among such skilled artist is Mr.Gopi. He has an experience of about 47years in this industry. Initially he was assisting the experienced sculptors in polishing process at the age of 13. From then he was into doll making and polishing jobs. Since then he was inspired to work on idols making. Approximately 30 years he has worked in Mysuru at Bandipur and has worked for 2-3years at a Church in Bengaluru. From past 5 years due to age factor he is working at his residence and also he is been working on wooden idols. Wood required for his order work is bought in the form of wooden logs from sawmill and then cut accordingly. It takes a day for the artisan to prepare two wooden idols of four inches. These were earlier supplied to Cauvery Craft Emporium of Karnataka. But now the present orders are supplied to the Handicraft’s showrooms located at Shivajinagar of Bengaluru. These wooden idols are also supplied to Sagara, Shivamogga, Cochin, Munnar and some of the other tourist places. It is sold in Alleppey at his residence as well.
