Living Craft Treasure Award

What is the Living Craft Treasure Award?

Living Craft Treasure Award: in Tamil, Vaazhum Kaivinaip Pokkisham Virudhu, is the highest award for handicrafts at the state level in Tamil Nadu. The award was introduced in the year 2013-14 by the Handlooms, Handicrafts, Textiles and Khadi Department, Government of Tamil Nadu, and is administered by the Tamil Nadu Handicrafts Development Corporation Limited, which trades under the brand name Poompuhar.

The award exists for a specific reason. Tamil Nadu's crafts: bronze icon casting in Swamimalai, stone sculpture in Mamallapuram, Thanjavur art plate work, palm leaf and korai grass weaving, kalamkari, wood carving, tanjore painting, brass and bell metal, survive because a small number of master craftspersons still hold the whole technique in their hands. The Living Craft Treasure Award identifies those people while they are alive and working, which is what the name says.

What the award carries:

Ten artisans are selected annually for the Living Craft Treasure Award.

Selection basis. The experience of the craftsperson and the special features of the service rendered in the profession are taken into consideration during selection. This is not a competition judged on a single submitted piece; it is an assessment of a career.

Who is eligible for the Living Craft Treasure Award, and who is not eligible?

You can apply if:

• You are an artisan, that is a working craftsperson rather than a trader or a manufacturer employing artisans.
• You are a native of Tamil Nadu.
• You are working in the handicraft industry in Tamil Nadu.
• You are 65 years of age or above. This is the defining condition of the award, which exists precisely to honour craftspersons of eminence late in their careers.
• You can obtain a recommendation certificate attested by an authorised officer or craft body, described below.

You cannot apply if:

• You are below 65 years. You are not eligible for the Living Craft Treasure Award and should apply instead for the Poompuhar State Award or the Poompuhar District Craft Award, which have no such age floor, or for the Gen Next competition if you are a young craftsperson.
• You are not a native of Tamil Nadu, or you work in the handicraft industry outside Tamil Nadu.
• You are a trader, exporter or middleman rather than a practising artisan. Exporters have their own category. The Handicrafts Export Award, and a production unit can apply under the Team Production Award.
• You cannot produce a recommendation certificate from any of the specified authorities. Poompuhar treats the attested recommendation as a mandatory part of the application.
• You apply after the closing date announced for the year.

There is no income condition, no education condition and no community condition. The award recognises craft mastery.

How to apply for the Living Craft Treasure Award

1. Watch the Poompuhar announcements. The Tamil Nadu Handicrafts Development Corporation publishes award notifications, application forms and corrigenda as downloadable PDFs on the news and events page of tnhdc.poompuhar.com. Awards are notified together each year — Living Craft Treasure, Poompuhar State Award, Poompuhar District Craft Award, Team Production Award, Handicrafts Export Award, Utility Based Handicrafts Award and the Gen Next competition.
2. Download the application form for the Living Craft Treasure Award for the current year and read the corrigendum, because closing dates for these awards are routinely extended. The window for the 2026-27 award was extended up to 10 August 2026; the 2025-26 window was extended up to 10 September 2025.
3. Obtain the recommendation certificate. It must be attested by any Manager of a Poompuhar showroom or manufacturing unit, or by the respective Area Assistant Director (Handicrafts), or by a Craft Council of Tamil Nadu, India or World under the Office of the Development Commissioner (Handicrafts), New Delhi. Start this step first; it takes the longest.
4. Assemble the age and residence documents establishing that you are 65 or above and a native of Tamil Nadu, along with Aadhaar and a bank passbook copy in your own name.
5. Document your craft. Photograph the pieces you have produced, gather any earlier awards, exhibition records, Pehchan or artisan card, and a written account of your training lineage and the years you have practised.
6. Submit the completed application with all enclosures to the Tamil Nadu Handicrafts Development Corporation within the announced date, and keep proof of submission.
7. Wait for the selection. Ten artisans are selected each year on the basis of experience and the special features of the service rendered in the profession.
8. Attend the award function, where the Rs 1,00,000 cash prize, the 8 gram gold medal, the thamirapattiram and the certificate are presented.

What documents are required?

What are the other Poompuhar handicraft awards?

The Living Craft Treasure Award is the top of a ladder, and a craftsperson who does not qualify on age should look at the rest of it. Poompuhar notifies these categories together each year:

• Poompuhar State Award. The state-level award for top artisans, carrying a certificate, a 4 gram gold medal, a thamirapattiram and a cash prize of Rs 50,000.
• Poompuhar District Craft Award; introduced in 2011-12 to honour artisans district-wise, carrying a cash prize of Rs 10,000, a silver medal and a certificate.
• Team Production Award, for production groups rather than individuals.
• Handicrafts Export Award, for exporters of handicrafts.
• Utility Based Handicrafts Award, for handicraft products designed for everyday use.
• Gen Next competition, a craft skill competition for the next generation of craftspersons.

Working up this ladder is the realistic path: a district award, then the state award, then Living Craft Treasure after 65.

How to check the status of your application

1. Check the news and events page at tnhdc.poompuhar.com, where Poompuhar publishes award notifications, extensions and results.
2. Contact the Tamil Nadu Handicrafts Development Corporation on 044-28521271 or by email at info@poompuhar.com, which are the corporation's published contacts.
3. Ask the Manager of your nearest Poompuhar showroom or manufacturing unit, who is one of the officers authorised to attest the recommendation and can usually trace whether the application reached the head office.
4. Ask the Area Assistant Director (Handicrafts) for your region.

Why applications for the Living Craft Treasure Award fail

• No attested recommendation certificate. This is the commonest defect. Because the attesting authorities are specified, a general recommendation letter from an association is not accepted.
• Age below 65. The floor is absolute for this particular award.
• Filed after the closing date. Dates are extended often, but once the extended date passes the application is out of the cycle. Check the corrigendum PDFs.
• Applicant is not a practising artisan. Traders and unit owners who no longer work at the craft themselves fall outside the category.
• Craft not documented. Selection weighs experience and the special features of the service rendered. A file with no photographs and no record of the artisan's pieces gives the committee nothing to weigh.
• Only ten awards a year. A strong application may simply not be among the ten selected in a given year, and reapplying in the next cycle is normal.

Where to ask and where to complain

• Corporation level: the Tamil Nadu Handicrafts Development Corporation Limited (Poompuhar), on 044-28521271 or at info@poompuhar.com.
• Regional level: the Area Assistant Director (Handicrafts) and the Managers of Poompuhar showrooms and manufacturing units.
• Department level: the Handlooms, Handicrafts, Textiles and Khadi Department, Government of Tamil Nadu.

No fee is charged for an award application, and no intermediary can secure an award. Selection is made by the corporation on the strength of the artisan's record.