Bhuj
— — the city the desert keeps rebuilding.
Not only on a wall.
“Bhuj sits on the edge of the Great Rann, a salt desert that turns white in winter and disappears under shallow water in the monsoon. The town was the seat of the Jadeja rulers of Kutch for nearly four centuries. Earthquakes have leveled it more than once, most recently in 2001. What stands now is partly old palace, partly rebuilt bazaar, and a steady traffic of mirrored embroidery moving in from the villages on the salt.
Bhuj, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Bhuj is the administrative seat of Kutch district in the western Indian state of Gujarat, the largest district by area in India. The town sits at roughly 110 metres above sea level on the southern edge of the Great Rann of Kutch, a seasonal salt marsh of about 7,500 square kilometres that floods during the monsoon and crystallises white through the dry months. Bhuj was founded in 1510 by Rao Khengarji I and served as the capital of the princely state of Cutch under the Jadeja dynasty until Indian independence in 1947.
The old city centre holds two surviving royal buildings. Aina Mahal, the Hall of Mirrors, was completed around 1761 under Rao Lakhpatji and decorated by the local craftsman Ramsinh Malam, who had studied glass and enamel work in Europe. Prag Mahal, an Italian-Gothic palace in yellow sandstone, was finished in 1879 to designs by Henry Saint Clair Wilkins. Both were heavily damaged in the Bhuj earthquake of 26 January 2001, which killed around 13,800 people across Gujarat and reshaped the town. Restoration work on both palaces continues.
Bhuj has its own airport with direct flights from Mumbai, and a railway station on the line from Ahmedabad. The town is the usual base for travel into the surrounding craft villages of Kutch — Bhujodi for weaving, Nirona for Rogan painting, Hodka and Khavda for mirrored embroidery. The Rann Utsav, a tented festival run by the state tourism board, opens at Dhordo on the salt flats from roughly November through February and is the most popular window for a first visit, when the desert is dry and the nights are cool.