Raghurajpur Craft Village, Puri - Timings, Best time to Visit

At a distance of 11 km from Puri Bus Station, Raghurajpur is a heritage crafts village in Puri district of Odisha. Raghurajpur is known for its world famous Pattachitra paintings and is one of the must visit places in Puri.

Raghurajpur was recognized as Odisha's first heritage craft village in 2000. The village is famous for its master Pattachitra painters and Gotipua dance troupes. The village is inhabited by artisans producing sheer poetry on pieces of treated cloth, dried palm leaf or paper. This style of painting is one of the oldest and most popular art forms of Odisha. This is also the birthplace of legendary Odissi dancer Kelucharan Mohapatra.

The main village of Raghurajpur, located in the vicinity of coconut groves, palm, mango and jack fruit, is mostly decorated with mural paintings, and offers beautiful natural surroundings. Besides, the region also creates the crafts like Tussar paintings, palm leaf engravings, stone and wood carvings, wooden, cow dung and papier mache toys and masks, among others. This is the only place where the most traditional piece of decoration still gets used under the throne of Lord Jagannath during the annual Puri Jagannath Rath Yatra Festival.

It is also the venue of the annual Basant Utsav - Parampara Raghurajpur (Spring Festival), was first organized in 1993 under the aegis of State Tourism Department and astern Zonal Cultural Centre, Kolkata, held in the month of February/March and an attracts large number of tourist.