International Dolls Museum in Delhi

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Delhi has something for every tourist and so for children too. The International Dolls Museum at Delhi has a huge collection of beautiful dolls from all over the world. However, it will not be fair to claim that this museum is only meant for the kids. The spectacular collection of dolls attracts every tourist's attraction.

History of Dolls Museum:

The Dolls Museum was started by K. Shankar Pillai, the reputed political cartoonist. He had a passion for dolls and had maintained a huge collection of dolls from worldwide. Mr Shankar Pillai's passion was triggered by a doll that he received as a gift from the Hungarian Ambassador in 1950s. Inspired by the beautiful doll, he started collecting exotic dolls and soon had a collection of almost 500 dolls. He used to exhibit these dolls along with children's paintings. Till 1965, there was not any proper museum to display these dolls.

On visiting one of the exhibitions Jawahar Lal Nehru and Indira Gandhi were impressed by Shankar's collection of dolls and decided to start a proper Doll Museum. When the Children's Book Trust established its building, a section was also devoted to the Doll's Museum. The International Doll's Museum was formally inaugurated by the then President Dr S. Radhakrishnan in 1965.

The museum which was started with only one thousand dolls has now a collection of 6,500 dolls belonging to 85 different countries. The collection keeps on adding mostly by way of gifts received from international countries.

International Dolls Museum is a must see for tourists to Delhi. It is also visited by many dignitaries like Queen Frederika of Greece, Madam Tito of Yugoslavia, and the Prime Minister of South Korea and Poland.

Location of the museum:

You can see the Doll's Museum by visiting the Children's Book Trust on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg. The museum spreads across an area of 5184.5 Sq Feet and is situated on the first floor. The museum is divided in two parts- one section is devoted to the display of dolls from European countries, USA, UK, New Zealand, Australia; the second section displays dolls from South Asian countries like Thailand, Singapore, Middle East, Africa, and so on.

Types of dolls:

The dolls displayed in the museum are all special in design as they represent the cultural, society, and lifestyle of the country or state that it belongs to. Almost one-third of the total number of dolls is Indian. Rest come from worldwide with some special ones form Japan.

How to make dolls:

One interesting part of the doll museum is a section devoted to the art of making dolls. The section is a tribute to the craftsmen who put so much effort into making these dolls with intricate design. School children specially like to see this section in order to enhance their knowledge.

A few very attractive and popular dolls are - Man on the Moon, Mexican Aborigines, Japanese Kabuki Dancer, and many more. The collection of dolls is of international fame and the dolls have also won the title of Golden Peacock Feather at the Dolls Biennale held at Cracow, Polland.

Your visit to Delhi is incomplete without a visit to the international Doll's Museum which is easily accessible from anywhere in Delhi. The museum is closed on Monday and remains open on other weekdays from 10.00 am to 6.00 pm.