Product culture of Monastery Market

In my first post I told you basically what all I observed during my first visit to monastery market. Since the first visit for mainly to observe the surrounding, for the second visit we prepared a list of questionnaire that we had to ask the shopkeepers and customers. We prepared a different set of questions for the shopkeepers and the customers.

When we got there,there wasn't much to see around as the market area is very small.After every 5-6 minutes, we felt as if we were going around in a circle and after every 5 minutes we came back to the place from where we started. There aren't much variations in the products that are sold in the market. The best thing about this is that all these are good quality products and they are sold at a very inexpensive rate when compared to the clothes which are sold in companies outlets or online.

The main products that are sold in the market are:-
1.Men's Shirt and T-shirts- One can see these in abundance in the market. Most of the shops in the market sells cotton, blended and printed t-shirts. Shirts are sold too. These clothes are in accordance to what's selling out there in market or what's in fashion.
2.Pants and Trousers- With T-shirts and  shirts, khaki and denim pants, trousers and jeans are sold as well.A lot of college going boys are seen around in the market buying these.

3.Belts and Wallets- There are a couple of shops that exclusively sell belts and wallets for men. Most of them have companies logos and brands on them but they are actually fake but when it comes to the quality, they can last for a long time.
4.Footwear- Right when you enter into the market, you'll see a shop selling footwear for men. One can find all kind of footwear from flip-flops to boots which are affordable and durable too.
5.Sunglasses- There is only a single shop which sells sunglasses for men. Like all the other products available in the market, they too are very low-priced. I'll tell you- One sunglass for 200 Rs. only!!
6.Watches- There are couple of shops that sell watches for men. The quality of watches isn't very good because some of the customers that we interviewed in the market were complaining that the dials of the watch fell off during the first few days of usage.
7..Ladies and Kids wear- There are 3-4 shops in the market which sell Ladies and kids wear as well.



(source: www.monasterymarketdelhi.co.in)

Things to See and Eat and Best time to Visit

To get the best of the things on sale, one should visit the New Delhi Monastery market in broad day light, preferably early hours during the day which will enable making informed choice on picking up best things from the market. This will bring satisfaction of getting the right things at right price. 

There is a Monastery right behind the market which a lovely place to just sit and relax and absorb all the peace from the surrounding. There is another market called 'Majnu ka Tilla' which is 3 kms away from the monastery market. This market has a temple which has different kind of shops which sells clothes, shoes, handicrafts, precious and semi precious stones and jewellery. This market also has an amazing restaurant where one can eat delicious buff momos and noodles.

In monastery market, there are two restaurants which offers great food at inexpensive rates.Just next to the market, there is Yamuna river although it can't really be counted for sight seeing. There is a park right next to the market where one can sit and relax.

When out in the Delhi monastery market, do not miss out on the delicious momos with generous fillings and reasonable prices. The momos are traditionally made and is comparable with the conventional Rajma Chawal from Punjabi kitchen.
The traditional Tibetan food like Thupka, Chowmien are available at Shakura, a food outlet.
To enjoy the taste of Tingmo, the steamed read from Tibetan kitchen, do visit the Zamso restaurant and you cannot but stop yourself from smacking your lips.









(source:www.delhitourism.gov.in/delhitourism/shopping/tibetan_market.jsp)

Problem Areas in the Market and Selecting My Micro Area

Like any other market place in India, monastery market too has many problem areas. Some areas we can fix and sadly some we can't. Some of the problems that are faced on a macro scale are as follows-

1. Sitting Area- There isn't any proper sitting arrangement in the market. Most of the customers were too tired but there wasn't any proper sitting arrangement.
2.No shed available- There isn't any shed to protect the people from harsh climate and this scorching summer heat or rain for that matter.
3. Drainage System- There is some problem with the drainage system as during the rainy season, the Yamuna river floods and results to Flash flood.

There are problems that are faced at micro level as well. I chose the fruit vendor as my micro area.his name is Navlesh and he's 22 years old. As a vendor, he is having problems organising fruits in that stand. His stand isn't portable and he has to stand at a place and he can't move around in the market. He doesn't have any shed above and there isn't any place to store the waste shavings of the fruits and cucumber.

So, I decided to make a cart for him that'll provide him to to move around the market and help him to keep the fruits organised and provide a shed over his head.

As a part of design process, I did mind mapping where I combined every kind of cart there is in the world and extracted some elements from each one of them.

After that, I designed some carts as an exploration and decided upon one.
(source: www.monasterymarketdelhi.co.in/how-to-reach.htm)

First Field Trip to Monastery Market

Hi Everyone! I'm Ananya Shree, a student studying fashion designing in Pearl Academy. I'm in foundation year and as a part of our research in module 4, we were divided into a group of four and my group got Monastery market as our research topic.

 I don't know if you guys have heard about Monastery market or not, but it's a small Market situated at Ladakh Buddhist Vihar, Civil Lines. Monastery market is called as the 'The Little Tibet' of Delhi because the ambience of the place screams Tibet.

 Why i basically went there is because my group and I got this market as our research topic. We basically had to do in-depth research of that area and know about the Visual, Social and Product culture of that area.

We went there via metro and had to change our stations a couple of times to get there from Noida to Delhi.We got off at Kashmiri Gate Metro station and took a rikshaw to get to the market which took exactly 5 minutes.

As we reached that place, we saw an unremarkable entrance with lot of hoardings right outside. This market is situated right under the ISBT flyover.

When we entered into the market, the first thing that caught my attention was the fact that this market sells cloths but sadly there are very little variations for Females as this market aims to sell clothes for men at a very inexpensive rates. There is a narrow street with shutter shops on both sides of the street. On the right side of the street, there are a line of independent shutter shops which sells only and only clothes for men. Whereas, there is privately owned complex at the left side of the street with a number of  shops inside. Most of these shops are rented by the shopkeepers. Every shop has the same green shutters. Some are big shops whereas others can't even fit 3 people at once and I wonder how they adjust all the clothes in those small shops. Well, they know a great deal about shelf management so it's really easy for them to remember where exactly they have kept a specific cloth of specific material and size.

When out in the monastery market, do not miss out the delicious momos with generous fillings at reasonable prices. The traditional food like Thupka and noodles are also available in the restaurant upstairs in the complex on the left side of the street.

Right behind the market, there's a monastery which attracts a lot of crowd.

There are a lot of other things but i'll share it in next blog! Till then, Ciao!

(source: www.mapsofindia.com/my-india/travel/tibetan-monastery-market-in-delhi)

Location and Timings of Monastery Market

Famous market called Tibetan Market is an important landmark in national capital New Delhi whose strategic location very near to the Kashmere Gate ISBT flyover just nearby the Mahatma Gandhi Road or MG Road in national capital makes it easily reachable. The Vidhan Sabha (Yellow Line) is the nearest metro station to travel here. It takes mere 15 minutes to reach here from metro for that you can avail rickshaw service. Several local buses in route no. 227, 258, 192, 171, 883, 901A pass by this area hence any one of them can be taken to arrive here.

The market is always closed on Mondays and the most crowded on Sundays. The market opens at 11 am and closes at 8 pm.

This market isn't very crowded on week days. 

(source: www.monasterymarketdelhi.co.in/timings-of-monastery-market.htm)

Visual Diary

I started with my Visual Diary in 3rd week of the module. Since we had already prepared a visual diary in 3rd module, this time it was easy to make one because we already had an idea what all to do in the diary.
I drew visual of the market, some of the shopkeepers, the products sold there and the food.
These are the pages of the visual diary that depict the Monastery market-

Socio-Culture of Monastery Market

About The People 

There are a certain type of people that forms the crowd in that market. What I mostly noticed is that the customers who come there to shop are generally college goers from Delhi University.

When I started talking to the Shopkeepers and the customers or whosoever who comes to the market, I got somewhat same answers from everyone.

Most of the the shopkeepers in the market had Tibetan descendants. Their ancestors had moved her in the 60s or 70s when this market was built as the refugee for Tibetans. They speak Hindi and Tibetan both so there is no communication gap between them and the customers. When asked about their Education level, most of them didn't even get the chance to complete their secondary education in school. Only 4-5 of them did their +2 and a couple of them graduated from college.

Some of them are north Indians too whereas some of them are Delhi localities.

The thing that I liked the most was that in Tibetan Culture, women rule the roost. The women that we talked to are quite independent and broad minded unlike what we see in Indian culture. They don't like to be dependent on men rather aim to be financially independent.  This is something they pass on to their daughters as well. For example, I talked to Dolma, a 40 year old lady who was sitting in a shop, looking at us out of curiosity. She told us that she thought we were working for some newspaper company. When we started interviewing her, I realized how different she was from the kind of women we see in Indian society. Even though she had studied till class 6th herself but she was determined to make her daughters do masters in whatever field they are. She told us that she didn't want her daughters to be dependent on their husbands either and be financially independent.

There was another lady who works at 2 jobs. One here in the monastery market and the other job as a hotel receptionist. She has studied till class 10th but the way she talks and carries herself makes her look so different than the others. She is confident and easy to talk to.

We saw a few monks too who visit the monastery. There was a fruit vendor too in the market.

We also interviewed some customers who came to visit the market. It turns out that this market isn't really famous or anything because even I hadn't heard about the market till I was told to research on this market. Most of the customers here are men especially students of Delhi University who are on the lookout for fashionable clothes of good quality at inexpensive rates.

(source: www.mapsofindia.com/my-india/travel/tibetan-monastery-market-in-delhi)