World Cultures And Youth: Jafar's Blue Tiles (1980)

e [Music] my name is jaffar sarbak I am 14 years old ours is a small village of farmers and Shepherds but what makes it special is an ancient brick dome which stands in the center of our Village Square it's 666 years old and very high about 60 M I live in Iran an old and very rich country 500 kilm West of tan which is the capital city is my Village of sulan there are about 4,000 people living in sulan and everybody knows everybody else after giving a drink to my donkey gar who gets very tired carrying hay I'm going to the place where I really want to [Music] be tonight we are baking my special blue tiles in one of the three mud kill of sulan and if they come out right my long and wonderful Adventure will be [Music] successful this has been the most unusual and exciting summer in my whole life it all started when our school holidays began 1 month ago and of course the big blue Dome plays the main role in my [Music] adventure the Dome was almost in Ruins until the men of the village started rebuilding it 7 years ago this kind of work is called reconstruction my father's name is s and he is the chief brick layer on the Dome he's very good at his work and sometimes I help him I pass him the special bricks or tiles which all put together will make the Dome the beautiful blue color it used to be what I want to do most though is to lay some of the blue tiles myself my father says okay but his conditions are difficult firstly I need the permission of Mr dero an Italian man who head of the Reconstruction team and secondly I have to learn right from the beginning how to make the tiles myself I was shy to ask him but Mr dero says it's okay I can hardly believe my luck summer holidays in sulan are boring and for the first time I have something definite to do Mr dero says that by the command of u a Big King in the 14th century the Imperial City of sulan was built the city was dominated by Olu mosum which is just a big word for a tomb after the King's death the City was destroyed by invasions and earthquakes and now what remains of those days is this big tomb and two smaller ones when Mr Jero came here 7 years ago there were nine big cracks in the dome and nearly all the old blue tiles had fallen off he also says our work here is very important because we are saving the biggest Dome of its kind in all of [Music] ran when Mr dero first came here he found that the art of making the special blue glaze for the tiles was sadly lost it took him 2 years to ReDiscover just the right color now nearly every family in our village has a member who's working on the Dome [Music] [Music] [Music] the inside of the Dome is also being restored it's so beautiful and cool and everywhere there are sacred writings in blue child that praise Allah Our [Music] God my grandfather Mohammad is the head of our family he's 70 years old and even though he loves me a lot he makes me work quite [Music] hard the women of our village are very shy they always wear black cloaks called shadur [Music] [Music] the first stage in making the blue tiles is to need the clay until there are no more lumps and it's soft enough to work with I have to be very careful not to lose my balance but it's fun especially when I think that each step brings me closer to laying my own tiles on the Dome next peruse teaches me how to make the bricks uh uh it takes 2 days for the bricks to dry before we can put the glaze on them all around the tomb about halfway up is a wide balcony from there we can see one of the small tombs which Mr dero says he will take me to when he has time the balcon has beautiful designs on the ceiling and it fills me with Wonder thinking about the workers of long ago [Music] spe spee spee [Music] CH about a kilometer from the big tomb is the smaller tomb called mulah Hassan Mr dero first tried the blue tiles on this Dome and then he started using them on the big dome [Music] making the glaze for the tiles is the most important stage it has to be just right I learned to weigh the exact amount of ingredients of silicate calcium oxide of copper and several other things then we mix all this using old-fashioned grinding stones and we get the silicate by breaking up ordinary bottles We Buy in the village what finally comes out gives the bricks their special blue color Mr dero says that if we use modern technology the tiles are too perfect they have a harsh look by varying the ingredients we make the seven shades of blue that give the Dome its special quality he says that the beauty of handmade tiles can never be matched this brown tomb was also reconstructed by Mr dero and me and my friends often play hide and seek here no allb [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] finally it's time to glaze the 12 tiles of I made in the brick room we wash them in water first so they can absorb the glaze better n the man in charge of glazing and baking the tiles says the only way I'll really learn about glazing is to do it myself he says it's very important that I put the glaze on just right not too thick or too thin [Music] the tiles are then stacked up in the Kil nther tells me that when we light the fire it will be around 1,000° centigrade in there the tiles will be baked until morning and my mother has allowed me to spend the night here watching over them so that's why I'm here waiting I'm a bit nervous suppose my bricks crack [Music] then yeah my bricks didn't crack and I am very happy and proud my father said that if they came out well I could bring them to the dome right away and he would help me lay them in [Music] [Music] foree B [Music] shut [Applause] up it is ch speee now that Mr dero sees the tiles he's telling me Bravo I think that means well done in his language what a day I can hardly believe that I have made these beautiful tiles all by [Music] myself foree [Music] speee for [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] another mer imagine maybe 666 years from now my blue tiles will still be on this Dome [Music] n [Music]