Crafts are the one of the earliest expressions of human creativity. People have been using crafts for making their daily lives comfortable by producing crafts for utilitarian purposes, and to express their creativity by carving certain exotic and aesthetic materials. In both the cases the artisans have to work with their bare hands with minimal use of machines. The life in villages, specially those of the women folk, is greatly influenced by the craft works. This is more prominent in the third world countries where rapid urbanization and capital orientation have resulted in marginalisation of the rural citizens. This book deals with the rich culture of crafts of Assam and discusses the global experiences of throwing the crafts making regions open to the tourists and tourism, who are often regarded as the high flying patrons of such exotic products. It focuses on the traditional hubs of the crafts with two important maps on general craft and textile crafts respectively. As a pathfinder in the field, the book will be useful to those who visit North-east India for craft tourism purposes, the researches and the policy makers for the development of the region.
