The Journal · Artisans, temples, food and festivals
Culture, Craft & Cuisine
India's living culture is among the richest on earth — its craft guilds and master artisans, its regional cuisines, its temples and its festivals. This is our guide to the country's cultural depth: meeting the master makers, travelling India through its food, the temples of Khajuraho, and timing a journey to the great festivals.
Photographing India: Where to Point the Lens, and When
Few countries give a photographer more — colour, ritual, light and faces. A guide to India's great photographic subjects, and the hours that make them.
The Craft Guilds of India: Meeting the Master Makers
Behind India's textiles, jewels and miniatures stand living guilds of master artisans. How to meet them — and why access is the whole point.
The Culinary Journey: Regional India for Serious Food Lovers
India is not one cuisine but dozens, each shaped by region, faith and history. A guide to travelling the country through its extraordinary food.
The Festivals & Fairs of India: Timing a Journey to the Colour
Diwali's lamps, Holi's colour, the great camel fair at Pushkar. India's festivals are among the world's most extraordinary — if you time your journey to them.
Khajuraho: The Temples of Central India
A thousand years ago, a forgotten dynasty carved some of the most exquisite — and famously sensual — temples in the world. A guide to Khajuraho.
The Weavers of Varanasi: A Living Tradition in Silk
On the narrow lanes of the holy city, a craft unchanged for three thousand years continues — and Elevated India will take you inside it.
India's Living Craft Traditions: A Guide for the Serious Collector
From Varanasi silk to Jaipur block-print, from Kutchi embroidery to Nilgiri bronze — where to find India's finest artisan works, and how to acquire them responsibly.
The Textile Journey of India: Cloth as Culture
No country weaves, prints and dyes cloth like India. A journey through its great textile towns — the block printers of Rajasthan, the silk looms of Banaras, the tie-dyers of Gujarat and the shawl-makers of the Himalaya.
The Music of India: A Listener's Guide
From a raga at dawn on the ghats to qawwali at a Sufi shrine, India's living musical traditions are among its deepest pleasures — and among the easiest to miss without the right introduction.
Design Your India Around Culture
Tell us what draws you, and a curator will compose a private journey around it — typically within one working day.
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