On November 19th, 2009, amidst Mona Naqsh’s brightly colored floral canvases, Philadelphia residents and members of SABA gathered to listen to a lecture on Pakistani truck decoration from Jamal J. Elias, the current Chair of the Department of Religious Studies and the Class of 1965 Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Elias, who received his BA from Stanford University, his MA from the University of Pennsylvania, and his PhD from Yale University, is the world’s foremost expert on Pakistani truck art, and has written extensively on the subject. He is also an expert on the study of Islam and Muslim society and has written widely on the Qur’an, Sufism, poetry and modern society.
Elias’ lecture highlighted the social function of the Pakistani truck decoration phenomenon, highlighting the religious and political imagery that is incorporated into the designs and the significance of the artistic decisions in representations of religious iconography and political figures. The truck decorations allow viewers to learn a great deal about the current social attitudes. In Pakistan, trucks are the primary form of transportation for the majority of the population. Only the elite bourgeoisie own cars (approximately 2.5% of the population), leaving the remaining 97.5% to rely upon other forms of transportation. Additionally, the rail network in Pakistan was originally created for troop transport by the British and the country has never invested in expanding the rail system. Therefore, the vast majority of goods in Pakistan are moved by truck and every single privately owned truck is decorated in this highly detailed, extravagant and colorful manner. The high level of decoration requires that these trucks be redone every five years, which is an incredibly expensive measure for Pakistani individuals to support. The continuance of this practice regardless of the costs shows how significant these decorations are.
In order to explain the meaning behind different truck decorations and the choices owners have in representation, Elias broke down the body of the truck into three different aspects: the front, the sides, and the back. Each part is decorated in a certain way with particular imagery. The front of the truck is its face and therefore contains high cultural references: the section above the windshield always contains religious imagery and text, and the section below the windshield usually contains high culture poetry and text. The side of the truck locates it within the physical world and usually contains the truck’s company name and any additional information relating to its commercial use. The back of the truck contains the most varied subject matter; since its like a large, blank canvas, large scale portraiture is usually depicted here. Artists also adopt more whimsical designs and insert humorous sayings and popular culture references and text on the back designs. The choice in images depicted on the back makes visible how the current society’s mood is changing.
To give a sense of how imagery reflects social, political and religious attitudes of society, and more specifically of the owner, Elias compared and contrasted the designs on different trucks. The front of the first truck highlighted contained a medallion with a local saint’s name and text glorifying Muhammad and mentioning the saint, a significant addition to the traditional images of the prophet’s mosque and the Ka’aba. The presence of the saint within the decoration presents a major fault line in Islam between those who believe that individuals need saints as intercessors between them and God and those who do not. By contrast, another truck example contained almost no images on the front and instead the decoration was mostly Arabic religious text, which de-emphasized Muhammad and had no mention of saints. An individual’s religious identity can be gleaned from what they choose to incorporate into their truck’s decorations, and this one was a fascinating example of how pervasive religion is in Pakistani society.
The side of this truck prominently displays the name of their flower company, but the medallions underneath that typically contain the names of places where the truck goes to instead contains religious imagery and text. The owners of this truck are missionaries who believe in the transformative power of prayer and that their religious duty is to travel and spread their religious beliefs. By breaking with convention and changing the syntax of the side of the truck to include religion with their business they accentuate their religious message, which fits with their role as missionaries. All parts of this truck reflect religious elements, showing how religion has become so pervasive in society it occupies all space.
The back of trucks is where the most imaginative decorations can be found, and where religious, social and political imagery appears. The image of the white horse, which is a Shiite symbol, was an example Elias used to show how the varied depictions still intrinsically contain the same meaning for a Pakistani viewer. On the back of one truck, the white horse is depicted with the names of two Shiite heroes on either side. By contrast, other trucks contain images of the white horse but within a natural setting without Shiite text and images, and others contain images of horses that aren’t white. One might question whether or not these images represent the same horse; could the horse within nature be a farm animal? However, Elias argued that that horse, even without being white or having the Shiite context, is still a representation of the Shiite white horse since everyone in Pakistan who is part of that religious system knows what that animal represents.
The social and political imagery used on the backs of trucks is the most varied and changes rapidly as the social climate in Pakistan evolves. Portraits are a big theme since the back of a truck is such a large space. The living are typically not depicted and portraits of heroes are generally of the deceased. Some of the most intriguing political imagery Elias showed were of Saddam Hussain. One truck contained a portrait of him standing at a press conference with microphones in his face and missiles wearing the Iraqi flag shooting over his head; here, Hussain is appropriated as a Pakistani hero. Another truck contained an image promoted by Saddam Hussain himself as a religious figure but also modern. He is depicted kneeling with a rosary praying for victory, with tanks and aircraft behind him, an image taken from a popular poster at that time. However, images such as these are ephemeral since the social climate is constantly changing, and the decorations themselves fade and are replaced. Through all these visual changes, you can see individual’s relationships to modernity and to the state, and both regional and national pride is shown. Truck decoration in Pakistan will continue to evolve with current events, and even now a remarkable change can be seen; with increasing prosperity, truck decorations become simplified. One can only guess when the inevitable will occur, when truck decoration decreases and begins to fade from the culture.
The evening’s lecture was co-sponsored by Twelve Gates Art Gallery and SABA-Philadelphia, the South Asian Bar Association of Philadelphia, with a special Gong Fu tea service provided by The Random Tea Room.
The South Asian Bar Association of Philadelphia (SABA Philly) is a voluntary bar association serving primarily South Asian attorneys and law students in Philadelphia, its suburbs and surrounding counties, South Jersey and Delaware. SABA Philly organizes seminars conferences, receptions with dignitaries, mentoring programs, awareness campaigns, networking events and recruiting events for law students.
