Current Time in Chiniot, Pakistan

Chiniot sits on the eastern bank of the Chenab River in the Punjab province of Pakistan, about thirty kilometres north of the industrial city of Faisalabad. The town occupies a slight rise above the floodplain, with rocky outcrops on one side and the wide, braided river on the other, and its older quarters are a maze of narrow lanes where workshops open directly onto the street.

Some three hundred thousand people live in the city, which has been the seat of its own district since 2009. Chiniot's fame in Pakistan and far beyond rests on woodwork. For centuries its carpenters and inlayers have produced elaborately carved furniture, doors, screens and ceilings in rosewood and sheesham, decorated with brass, ivory-coloured inlay and deep floral relief. Chiniot furniture is exported across the Gulf and to South Asian communities worldwide, and local tradition proudly claims that craftsmen from the town worked on the Taj Mahal and on the Golden Temple at Amritsar.

The settlement is ancient, mentioned in accounts of the Mughal period and probably much older, since the Chenab crossing here has always been strategic. Chiniot flourished in the seventeenth century under Nawab Sa'adullah Khan, a native of the town who rose to become chief minister to the emperor Shah Jahan and endowed his birthplace with fine buildings. Sikh rule followed the decline of Mughal power, and the British incorporated the area into Jhang District in the nineteenth century, connecting it by rail and canal.

The Shahi Mosque, built by Sa'adullah Khan in the middle of the seventeenth century, is the principal monument, a serene red sandstone and brick structure with domes and a broad courtyard. Even better known is the Umar Hayat Mahal, often called Gulzar Manzil, a five-storey mansion begun in the early twentieth century by a wealthy trader and covered inside and out with astonishing carved woodwork, mirror work and frescoes. Its melancholy history, the owner and his only son both dying before it could be enjoyed, has given it an almost legendary status. The shrine of Bu Ali Qalandar's associates, riverside ghats and old havelis complete the picture.

Local life follows the rhythms of Punjabi culture, with urs festivals at Sufi shrines, wrestling and kabaddi matches, and a food culture built on wheat bread, dairy and river fish. The bazaars specialising in furniture and brass fittings are attractions in themselves, and buyers travel from Lahore and Karachi to commission pieces.

Chiniot lies on the railway line between Faisalabad and Sargodha and is linked by good roads to Faisalabad, Jhang and the national motorway network, so both Lahore and Islamabad are within a few hours. Government colleges provide higher education, and a campus of the University of Chiniot serves local students, while significant iron ore deposits found in the district have raised hopes of future industrial development.

Chiniot is a rare thing in modern Pakistan, a town whose identity is bound up with a single traditional craft still practised at the highest level.