Shirui National Park
— — the lily that blooms only here, only in May.
Not only on a wall.
“Shirui National Park climbs the ridge above Ukhrul in the eastern hills of Manipur, close to the Myanmar border. The park exists for one flower: Lilium mackliniae, the Shirui lily, which grows nowhere else on earth and opens only on the upper slopes of Shirui Peak for a few weeks each May and June. The peak rises to roughly 2,835 metres. The Tangkhul Naga community of Shirui village holds the meadows as ancestral land and stewards the bloom each year. — from the studio
Shirui National Park, 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.
Shirui National Park lies in Ukhrul District in the eastern hills of Manipur, India, close to the international border with Myanmar. Its highest point, Shirui Kashung Peak, rises to about 2,835 metres above sea level and is the tallest mountain in the state. The park was established to protect the habitat of the Shirui lily, the state flower of Manipur. The Tangkhul Naga village of Shirui sits on the slopes below the peak and the community holds the meadows as customary ancestral land. The state holds the Shirui Lily Festival in Ukhrul each spring to mark the bloom.
The Shirui lily, Lilium mackliniae, is endemic — it grows in only one place on earth, the upper meadows of Shirui Peak, between about 2,400 and 2,800 metres. The botanist Frank Kingdon-Ward documented and named the species in 1948, naming it for his wife Jean Macklin. The bloom runs for roughly three to four weeks from mid-May into early June; the flowers open pale pink, fade to white, and carry a faint violet flush at the throat. The state Forest Department lists the species as endangered. Outside the bloom window the meadow is a quiet stretch of rhododendron, oak, and bamboo grass.
The park is reached from Ukhrul town, about 84 kilometres by road northeast of Imphal, the state capital. From Ukhrul a rough track climbs to Shirui village, and the final ascent to the peak is on foot — a steady three to four hours through rhododendron forest and ridgeline meadow. Permits for non-Indian visitors require an Inner Line Permit issued by the Manipur government. The Shirui Lily Festival, organised by the state and the Tangkhul community, runs annually in late April and early May to draw visitors and fund conservation of the species.