Enjoy a weekend with the Warlis

This April, tribesmen teach Mumbaikars to make paintings, let them indulge in some Tarpa dancing.

Warli paintings are in vogue these days, but have you ever wondered who are the people behind these beautiful masterpieces? Well, this April, you can meet them. Just take the Wander with Warli tour to the village of Walwanda in the Thane District and learn about Warli customs, traditions and much more. You can learn the art of Warli paintings from the masters themselves and even indulge in some Tarpa dance and local village games. The tour is organised by Grassroutes, a city organisation promoting rural tourism.

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“This journey provides you a better understanding of the Warli way of life, culture, religion and hence a more intimate look at their art form,” says Darren Lobo of Grassroutes. Warli paintings usually have an entire scene centered on important events containing various elements of nature including people, animals, trees and hills. Several varieties of trees and animals are frequently depicted in the paintings.

As part of the tour, cityslickers can blend in and have interactions with the Warli tribesmen, dine in their homes, participate in their daily chores like milking the cow, farming and fishing, share ghost stories around a bonfire or even have long chats about their aspirations. The journey ends when the practitioners of this ancient art form share the most intricate facets of the centuries-old techniques of Warli painting.