UNESCO Project
Tuesday, March 31, 2026
Analogous, Preserving Traditional Local Culture in Punjab
The first visit to the village of Thatta Ghulamkha Dhirok, Okara District, at the invitation of graphic designer and journalist Amjad Ali, was a special experience and led a year later to a film production (Amjad's Village, a DGFK production) that captured 24 hours of village life in a documentary. The artisanal skills of the village women and the mud-brick architecture were particularly impressive.
The multi-talented Dr. Senta Siller, born in Vienna, decided to dedicate her extensive skills to this project. The result was the establishment of an organization that enabled the women to develop their artisanal skills, generate supplementary income for their families, and still maintain their family and traditional responsibilities.
Dr. Senta Siller's efforts quickly led to success in Pakistan, with participation in the Lok Virsa National Museum Festival in Islamabad and awards, as well as approximately 16 retail outlets both domestically and internationally. For ten years, the village project participated in the Dubai Shopping Festival. The SPARC-NGO, with Anees Yaqub and M.M. Ali, organized four LIFE events (Lahore International Festival of EduTainment), showcasing analog (village) crafts and digital art (from the USA and Europe). In 2000, the village project, under the title Amjads Village, was highlighted at EXPO 2000 as a particularly sustainable project. Subsidiary projects developed in Cameroon, Colombia, Iceland, and Greece (Olympiad 2004).
The village, now known as the Doll Village / Thatta Kedona, has transformed into a village development project with diverse activities (award-winning mud houses), alternative technologies (photovoltaics, wind turbines, etc.), drip irrigation, drinking water, internet radio, and more, involving up to 30 foreign volunteers. This led to a film crew (Polzer Media Group) producing a documentary about Thatta Kedona.
Various awards and accolades both domestically and internationally led to UNESCO's Seal of Excellence in 2007. The village dolls have since become ambassadors for Pakistan, and bazaars and events in Berlin, Hamburg, Vienna, Cologne, Zurich, Leipzig, and Stuttgart have helped spread their message. The German Society for Cultural History (DGFK), with the support of V. Kopp, founded the Pakistan House in Potsdam. Interested customers in South Africa, Canada, the USA, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand provided the village women with an income and pride in their work.
The project initiator, still active but now also working in other countries, received numerous accolades and recognitions.
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In 2025, the initiator received the Ruth Pfau Medal from the Pakistani Embassy, and the village project participated in the Bazar2025 trade fair under the patronage of Dr. Siller.
In 2026, the Sitara e Pakistan was presented in Berlin.
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Labels: DGFK, Dr Senta SIller, Prof Dr Norbert Pintsch, Thatta Kedona, UNESCO
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 9:30 AM,
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Preserve and Develop
Friday, November 30, 2018
By Omar M. Ali
Exactly 25 years ago, Dr Senta Siller began working in the arts and crafts in the village of TGD.
From 2008 onwards Dr Norbert continued to work with the volunteers, Three years ago, the work was formally handed over symbolically to the Pressident Amajd Ali.
Now, today, the opening of the exhibition in TGD also marked the practical handover.
If one realizes the considerable changes on both sides of the road from Okara to Gogera, it is clear that projects, such as those of the NGO AFA in the village of TGD, have to react accordingly.
It is important to preserve the proven traditions and continue them while developing something new at the same time.
The NGO is holistic and works for the benefit of the villagers.
Political weather conditions, but also the changing consumer behavior must be taken into account.
An important product are the experiences that have to be passed on.
Cooperation with other NGOs and universities must be maintained and expanded. Exhibition openings on important topics, seminars and workshops on site, all these have already taken place and need to be further developed.
Various opportunities need to be taken; the NGO has for example accommodation, which can be used by paying guests. The arts and crafts remain the beacon for the innovations; they can finance only so much, as in the past years, and this should help in new ideas because complex marketing in mass produced products leads to nothing new.
Labels: Aamir Rafique, Amjad Ali, DGFKeV, Dr Norbert Pintsch, Dr Senta SIller, FPAC, IPC Pvt Ltd, Thatta Kedona
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 8:21 AM,
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Dr Senta Siller in Pakistan
Monday, April 4, 2016
Dr Senta Siller was in Pakistan where she had a very busy time in research and development, meeting people from research specialties to local NGOs and artisans, and also giving guidelines to Thatta Kedona artisans for Lok Virsa Mela (April 2016). Here are some of the images of her activities while in Pakistan:
Senior Researcher Dr Senta Siller at National Data Base of Lok Virsa, Islamabad that includes a library for the benefit of scholars on subjects of Cultural Heritage.
Read more »Labels: Dr Senta SIller, Lok Virsa, Prof Dr Norbert Pintsch, Research
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 11:18 AM,
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Preparation of Operations in March or October
Sunday, February 21, 2016
Through the NGO AFWA, experts are again to be requisitioned from SES for the areas of Basic Health + Traditional Medicine (Marlis Bartkiewitz-Schmid) and Upcycling + Handicraft (Monika Kupler).
Research in Dolls, Toys and Development
SPARC hopes together with with other institutions to win the support of the initiator of the dolls project in TGD for carrying forward the handicraft research project in Islamabad, which will benefit women of AFA and AFWA as well as students. Basics of the project have already published in a report for the National Museum LokVirsa (see Dolls, Toys and More, p. 91 - 106).
Communication+Information
Once again via the NGO AFA and through SES support of PDP is to be requested in order to support among others the C + I.
DGFK e.V., SPARC-PROJECT, Dr Senta Siller/SES-Bonn, Prof Dr Pintsch/SES-Bonn, Marlis Bartkiewitz-Schmid /SES-Bonn, Monika Kuppler/SES-Bonn, AFA, AFWA
Labels: Dr Senta SIller, Prof Dr Norbert Pintsch
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 12:18 PM,
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Carpe Diem – Senta Siller
Monday, November 16, 2015
by S A J Shirazi / Lahore, Aaron Kaah Yancho / Bamenda, Romillio Rodriguez Fajardo/ Chiquinquira
Book review Senta Siller
Use the Time, under this slogan a small publication edited by the Friends of the SS-Foundation was initiated in Pakistan. The person honored thereby stands at a hotel balcony in Chiquinquira and looks into the distance, in the original photo one can see the flags of the city, of the departementos and Colombia. In the area over which she is looking, people stand and look at her.
The foreword of a Pakistani journalist and lover of the handicrafts developed by her enrich her work.
Examples of her work are provided digitally pointing to the production of handicrafts on site.
The circumstances in her early childhood and after World War II made it necessary for her to contribute with her work to food procurement. She helped the family with her paper-cut work for daily newspapers. Her extraordinary skills led to making of murals with her siblings. Still a student, she organized team design jobs and gathered management experience, which proved helpful in production of children's clothes and toys. She was always involved in some way with dolls, an activity which she followed over a quarter of a century in various projects and in different ways: organization, development, research, production, marketing and distribution.
Between her design work and doll making as principal of a school, she used her management experience in various global projects. Whether as private entrepreneur or as honorary worker, she insisted on implementing her ideas to highest standards and a minimum of requirement for herself. In spite of this, she is actively engaged in a variety of artistic techniques: graphics, lithography, oil painting, - she is always curious and uses the time. Waiting is not working! And with enormous patience, conscientiousness and accuracy, which is reflected in her research as youth style artist.
No matter what she does, she does it fully and extensively. In the given picture, she can be seen in her typical working posture, most active on different occasions, at openings, fairs, lectures, workshops, etc., as well as enjoying the landscape between Iceland, the Amazon, the high mountains as well as lowlands.
The publication discussed here is not her work directory, but gives rather an overview of the extensive activities of this versatile artist, organizer, businesswoman, who never forgets to give ample consideration to requirements of our society and life.
Labels: Dr Senta SIller, S A J Shirazi, Senta Siller booklet
posted by S A J Shirazi @ 10:19 AM,
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