As a primarily Tajik town, at the edge of the mountains and therefore an ideal route between Kabul and the safety of the hills for resistance fighters, the Taliban saw Istalif as a threat to their rule of Kabul. As a result after weeks of fierce fighting, the Taliban took control of the town. They gave the residents a few hours warning and then slowly and methodically buried or razed every building in town.

Most of the potters in Istalif fled to Kabul, many walking for almost a month to avoid the intense fighting while carrying all their positions. Most remained in Kabul, living in poverty with relatives or in squatter villages, until the fall of the Taliban. Almost immediately after Hamid Karzai’s interim government arrived, Istalifi potters began to move slowly back to their destroyed homes and returned to what they do best, making pots.

The methods of the Istalifi potters have changed little despite the upheaval of the past three decades. They use a mixture of earthenware clays that they collect in the mountains above Istalif and bring to their workshops by donkey. To the clay they add a plant fiber called gul-e loch, which makes the clay more workable, but also makes their pots much more brittle. They do all their measuring by eye and then the clay is mixed together by stamping it with their feet for between two and four hours.

The Istalifi potters are masters on the kick wheel and traditionally make a variety of bowls and plates. They throw off a hump and often produce as many as 50 bowls an hour when they are pressed for time. Since the 1970s however, they have increasingly made candlesticks and other decorative objects, which both foreigners and visiting Kabulis purchase.

The unfired pots are then dipped into a white slip containing chakhma, or ground quartz, and a white clay. The potters then use three different glazes. The most popular, sundur, is a beautiful, but also highly toxic lead glaze. By working with the Turquoise Mountain Foundation and other non-profit organizations, the potters have come to realize the danger of the lead in this glaze and are beginning to use it less. In the past, the potters used an alkaline glaze called ishkor, made from the ash of a mountain bush found north of the Hindu Kush. Mixed with copper this produces a beautiful turquoise glaze for which Istalif has long been famous.

The potters fire in traditional updraft kilns made with house bricks and clay. The kilns are fired for between five and seven hours, requiring over a thousand pounds of wood. The potters pack the kiln using a series of tripod stilts. This allows them to pack an incredible number of pots upside down into rather small kilns, but leaves three small scars on each pot.

The Turquoise Mountain Foundation’s work in Istalif began by primarily aiding the potters and their families, but the unique history and geography of Istalif are allowing traditional crafts slowly to revive the economy of the town. This is a town which can be reconstructed, primarily by relying on the appeal of their ancient craft. The Turquoise Mountain Foundation is in the process of building a visitor’s center near the town bazaar. This center will have museum displays about the history of Afghan pottery and will also be a place for the potters to display their work for visitors from Kabul and abroad.

The Turquoise Mountain Foundation is in need of continued support for its work with the potters of Istalif and other traditional Afghan crafts. To find out more about Turquoise Mountain’s work in Istalif or to make a financial contribution please contact us at ceramics@turquoisemountain.org. You may also contribute online at our website www.turquoisemountain.org.