The brass and copper utensil craft of the thatheras of Jandiala Guru, in Amritsar district, went onto the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2014, under decision 9.COM 10.19. It is the only craft form in Punjab on that list.
The method: cooled metal cakes are flattened into thin plates, hammered into curves over small wood-fired stoves buried in the earth, polished with sand and tamarind juice, then decorated by hammering in tiny dents. The knowledge passes orally, father to son.
Families working the craft are reported to have fallen from around 500 to around 30.
P-TAL, the Punjabi Thathera Art Legacy, came out of Project Virasat and was founded by Aditya Agrawal, Kirti Goel and Gaurav Garg. It went from supporting two artisans to 42 in two years. Mandeep Kumar, 34, saw his monthly profit rise from ₹2,500 to about ₹20,000. Ashu Kumar, 24, started at twelve.
The craft was inscribed on the UNESCO intangible heritage list in 2014, the only Punjabi craft on it.
The work is hammering sheet from a cast ingot into a vessel, annealing between stages, with the shape controlled entirely by where the hammer falls. Kansa, an alloy of copper and tin, is the traditional metal.
The number of working families has fallen to a handful. Steel and aluminium replaced the vessels, the young left, and the listing has brought attention without bringing a market.