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Saturday, 19 July 2008

Summer 2008 in Lahore: The Local Baghbanpura Bazaar

These pictures are of the market local to my in-laws house. As Lahore's population has exploded over the last ten years and outlying villages have been swallowed up by the city, this bazaar has gone from being a small local market to one of Lahore's busiest. The photo's don't really give you an indication of the sheer volume of noise - motorbikes, haggling women, street vendors hawking their goods, animals, horse-drawn buggies, donkey carts and truanting schoolboys.





This shop was an absolute crafters/hoarders delight with walls full of row after row of beads, crystals, sequins, diamantes and embroidery gems.

Gold is traditionally given in Pakistan during weddings, but the price is now so high that ordinary people cannot afford this tradition. What jewellers do instead is use a little gold and a lot of beads, glass, semi-precious stones and coloured cord to make up the set. The shop above had beautiful designs.



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5 comments:

  1. A Muslimah - Another Stranger19 July, 2008

    Mash'Allah sis! Welcome back!!!
    Your pics are so lovely. Particularly the market with all his colours...mash'Allah. Looks like you had a great time.

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  2. Anonymous19 July, 2008

    Oh Dear!!! Seeing this pictures reminded me of Hyderabad, We have the same Bazaar even there ... :-)

    Thanks Hon,

    Maryam

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  3. Rainbow In The Grey Sky20 July, 2008

    Thank you for giving me an insight into hopping in pakistan, yes very colourful and very noisy i guess, mashaAllah, i hoe you stocked up on some craft materials as they must have been so much more cheeper than UK i am sure?

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  4. iMuslimah20 July, 2008

    Welcome back! I was waiting to read about your trip!

    The Bazaar looks like a fun time. Anything glittery, sparkly and colorful always gets my attention. I would need an extra suitcase to come home with.

    The heat must have been unbearable. I would turn into a sluggish, shlumpy mess.

    Great pics btw! Kids ar super cute mashAllah!

    Assalamu alaykum,

    iMuslimah

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  5. Happy Muslim Mama21 July, 2008

    Assalam-alaikam Sisters,
    thank you for all of your kind comments and patience whilst I have been away.

    Sister Muslimah,
    yes I did have a great time. I weish the pictures could give an idea of the heat and noise too.

    Sister Maryam,
    you know what its like then

    Sister Rainbow,
    Shopping was very hard work, but I bought a few haberdashery items that worked out very cheap. Overall inflation there has been horrendous recently and anything half decent is almost UK price (I asked after a dinner service and they priced it at about £70)

    Sister iMuslimah,
    the bazaar was fun. The best bit is when you stop at a shop part of the service is they send a boy to get you drinks - I like that.
    If you were in my family you's have plenty of suitcases to begin with (we were 60kg under and it seemed criminal as we are usually about 20+ over - brother -in-law went recently and managed to get through 120kg on a 40kg ticket - don't ask me how). Anyway, then you just fill up the same cases on the way back.

    The heat was tough, the hardest thing was salaah. I have real respect for people over there who pray five times a day in that heat and manage to concentrate.

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