In a converted workshop in downtown Srinagar, a dozen teenagers are learning to fit small geometric pieces of wood into interlocking ceiling patterns — a craft called khatamband that has decorated Kashmiri homes and shrines for centuries, but that fewer than 200 master carvers in the Valley still practice professionally.

The collective running the free apprenticeship says it started the program after realizing most working carvers were over 50, with few young people entering the trade — a combination that put the craft on a path to disappearing within a generation.

"Nobody wakes up wanting to learn khatamband," the workshop's lead carver said. "You have to show them what it actually looks like finished, in a real ceiling, before they understand why it matters."

Apprentices spend the first several months on basic joinery before touching the geometric patterns that define the craft, which traditionally used no nails or glue — pieces are cut precisely enough to interlock and hold under their own weight.

The program currently covers materials and a small monthly stipend for apprentices, funded partly through commissioned restoration work on older buildings around the city. Organizers hope to expand to a second workshop next year if funding holds.