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His beautiful Journey

The Man behind Thangka Painting in Nepal

Before meeting an experienced and prominent Thangka painter of Nepal, our friend Yanik who had readily slipped into the role of the gatekeeper that day told me that somebody is going to translate things the artist we were going to meet would say. I dreaded thinking about it. ‘Now that sounds like playing Chinese Whisper,’ I snapped back. We walked ahead in silence till we reached one of the many blue gates to let ourselves be welcomed by his daughter-in-law to his abode in the inner residential area of Boudha.

Sitting on the lounge bed in the living room in his house, he was silently waiting for us. We exchanged greetings waving our hands not knowing what to say exactly in Tibetan. So we greeted each other with Namaste. As I went closer to sit next to him, he said something which I could neither hear  properly nor understand what he wanted to tell. I heard him say ’81’ and his daughter-in-law added right there in time ‘age’. How did I not get this? He was as though a child trying to introduce himself to us that he is a man of 81 years. Wow! It got me hard when I saw in him both the eagerness of a child and creases of an old man, and knew in an instance that he had experiences probably older than him to share.

Dharyyal Gngsur, who prefers to be called by his first name ‘Dharyyal’ is probably the biggest and reputed name in the field of Thangka painting in Nepal. Although at this age he has already retired to spiritual living and home-stay, he has however not
stopped painting Thangka. Given the good condition of his health which is rare these days he wouldn’t mind sitting down to make diagrams of Gods and Goddesses on the canvases so that his pupils could easily apply colours on them.

Born in an affluent artistic family of Thangka artists, his life took a different turn as his country did in 1950 with the invasion of China in Tibet. Dharyyal, who is the 6th generation Thangka painter of his family, is a witness who carries the legacy of the 7th generation Thangka artist— his son Wangdi with him. His son is not just a witness to the legacy but his family along with others had been left back in Tibet before fleeing to Nepal, in a search for a hideout from Chinese who confiscated
invaluable properties and jewelries and were only left
with rags. He further lamented that many of his contemporaries and friends had to end up in jail because the Chinese thought they were rich people and were hiding their precious jewels.

This could not go on for long. Tired of living a life of the oppressed, and the constant fear of Chinese who would ‘beat us, lock up us in jail even if we wore something little nice’ compelled him and others to leave the country for better. Before escaping to Nepal in 1964, he had already served for three years in jail in the Eastern part of Tibet. By then he already had a family of his own and was the father of four sons and a daughter. But, it was out of question to even think that he could escape to Nepal with his family members. And, because of religious and other matters like home and land, his family remained there while he silently fled, leaving back his family and country behind to an unknown land.

By then, he was already a good Thangka painter. But due to political upheavals his country had to go through, he was not able to practice it as his fathers and grandfathers did in their time. Unlike the many Tibetans who fled their home for safety and good life, they were not able to accomplish as Dharyyal could. As a child, he was taught the craft of Thangka painting by his father and grandfather who were all successful painters of their time.  It took him time to practice his skills in the new place.

Before reaching anywhere in a safer place, he along with others had to cross the treacherous mountains for seven long days and nights almost without food to reach Solukhumbu. Solukhumbu was the resting point for most of the Tibetans as it provided many resemblances of their home culturally, religiously and geographically.
He decided to live there for some time and wait and see what would happen to his country because he had his family members waiting for him there. But nothing really changed. And, it didn’t take long for seven years to pass by as he stayed there looking for food and home. ‘I used to paint Thangka in the monasteries there and fill my hungry stomach,’ said the revered artist in a childlike manner without any inhibition.

This was the time when he could actually paint Thangka in the monasteries and exhibit his artistic skills to the people around and get work to do and earn his living. The people he met, made friends with and worked with knew his true potential of an artist which would take him to greater heights in the future. It was also the time he earned praises not just for his artistic abilities but his measurements found in ample amount in his work which was rare in others arts. ‘Measurement is very important to Thangka painting because it determines the beauty of Thangka art,’ shared Dharyyal, ‘every image of Gods and Goddesses have their measurements that tell good posture from a bad one.’

So, measurements and lines are what that helped him stand out from the rest in the time when struggles were what everybody was doing. After spending seven years of his life in Solukhumbu he moved towards the valley only to settle down here for the rest of his life. Around 1971/72 he entered the valley and felt a breath of new breeze breezing in the city. He knew he could do many things here through Thangka painting. Given his contacts and people he knew, he soon started working with Lamas of various monasteries in Kathmandu and built stronger bonds with them to work forever here. But, things didn’t go as he expected. His family members were still in Tibet while he was here alone working for and only for himself with no one to look forward to in the times of happiness and sadness. This was not what he wanted, but there was no choice than to resist the hard life.

Unable to live away from his family for a long time, in 1980, he mustered up enough courage to go to Tibet to be with his children and wife. He did for some time. But what little hope he had of his country and himself faded away with the time, and it was still not a safe place for him to be there. So, this time he had to run away, leaving back his family once again to Kathmandu where he had a different life waiting for him. The only difference this time was that his third youngest son was with him. He took his son Wangdi with him giving an excuse to the rest of their family that he was only taking him for a vacation. He would come back with his son after a few months. But, this never happened. They have ever since been living in Kathmandu.

Wangdi has a family of his own and it is his wife Tsering Chokey who translated the things being said by her in-law, Dharyyal. Wangdi does thangka painting and also runs a Thangka painting school opened by his father in the late 1970s. The school was opened with the intention of helping empower the youths in those days so they could earn their living out of Thangka painting. Dharyyal who then got busy with paintings of thangkas in the monasteries started getting more contracts to beautify the walls of monasteries that had slowly started to grow in those days. As a result, Dharyyal in capital has Sichen Gumba, White Monastery, Thangdu Gumba, Tusal Gumba, Swoyambhu Gumba, Kapan Monastery and Tamang Gumba to his credit. Likewise, he also painted the walls of Tangboche Gumba, Namche Gumba and Solukhumbu Gumba in Solukhumbu with beautiful images of Gods and Goddesses. And, there are several in India which he can’t name all.

At present, he along with his other team members are researching the Thangka painting in Nepal to build a seven-storied monastery with all the images of Gods and Goddesses in Tibet to reestablish the Gumba in his village in Eastern Tibet which was destroyed by Chinese in the time of invasion.  He shares heart-rending news that he would not go to Tibet for the project. Asked why, he lightly answered in a childlike manner that he just ‘cannot go’ flapping his hands in the air. But, his valued works of Thangka paintings will go there and embrace the walls of the monastery bringing the dilapidated state of the place into life once again, and the paintings would once again breathe his love for his country and his family even though he is far away from them all.

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Scribbling a doodle

Innermost thoughts in his lines

Spring shows up giving way to brighter sunny days. On one such sunny day, we headed towards Putalisadak to stop by the studio of artist Krishna Thing. His studio perched on the top floor of the five-storied building, is aloof from the rest of the happenings of the place. But, the only distraction even up there in that height is the noise coming from the busy streets just below the building. It’s inevitable at the same time to even try to ignore the honking of the running motorbikes and buses. It’s probably because people have forgotten that they live there or come every day in this place. Or, it could be that they have very well gotten used to the screeching of the vehicles and noise that comes from everywhere, it seems. Or, it could only be the people who embraced the noise as they did their own life of the city letting it amalgamate and foam into their own each voices.

‘I’m used to this noise,’ accepts Krishna opening the window of his studio from where it is possible to feel how annoying the noise can be to a visitor like to this scribe.’ You tend to forget it is a noisy place, and forget even that you have a studio in the chaotic place because the only thing you are aware about is you are creating an art.’ In fact, the noise which is so much part of his life has stopped to bother him at all. He has embraced it as much as he has the life of an artist. Clearly, the noise, the half finished painting on the walls, dusty floor or even the smoke butts don’t seem to bother him. He has accepted all the more things that make him an artist, a self employed and self taught talent that would have otherwise not taken this up.

Krishna on a quest for artistic direction had a huge influence and exposure of art culture when he visited France with his better half in 2008 and 2009 respectively. Like a baby, he was doing one thing after another since he started off his painting career with Thangka some 15 years ago. Unsure and timid yet firm and determined, Krishna in his teenage life began to explore the uncharted areas without expecting too much from them. Some disappointed him at times. Nevertheless, the Thangka painter and the flute player of the band Ozobozo at one point or the other in his life as craftsman in search of coconut shells or just a monochrome lover, Krishna found the needed potent and juice in them all, to go ahead to know from himself that he was a step closer to Gods and Goddess, a true artist.

Borrowing the motifs and styles from Thangka painting his own canvases gets flooded with spiritual gist and religious tantrums equipped with his inventions of human like creatures sometimes playfully sitting and other times watching in awe. His lines are stark and vivid giving details to each expression of life of their own. ‘For an artist it is important to know his limits and his strengths,’ he added pointing out to his monochromatic frames hanging on the walls and some just simply lying on the floor. Krishna, who initially started playing with multi colours as a Thangka painter for some reason, opted for the tones of monochrome and found the bliss in it for many years to pass by. Then so here he is today jerking around, ‘I’ve added blues and reds to black and white frames because life is simply so colourful.’

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Nepal Cine Symposium

The Nepal Cine Symposium event was held at Gurukul’s ‘Rimal Theatre’ on 18th November 2011. And it wasn’t just any ordinary film festival. The Symposium was actually a concept formed in 2008. It was an idea that gave audiences a glimpse into the reality of Nepali Cinema. It started as a realistic idea and also proved to be fruitful. The symposium encouraged the birth of new independent movies against the age old tradition of monotonous mainstream Nepali movies.
The first day of the festival was made special by the presence of some of the most recognized faces in Nepalese Cinema like Namrata Shrestha, Karma Shakya, Nisha Adhikari, Richa Sharma, Vinay Shrestha and more. The event also presented a short movie ‘Lalteen’ which was a delight to watch. It was 85 minutes long and the theatre was crowded. The four day long fest included presentations of different short movies, theatre pieces and documentaries, in the different theatres of Gurukul and Nepal Tourism Board (Auditorium). The tickets for the films were priced at Rs. 100. However, participation at some of the access discussions and special presentations were available only by invitation and registration. Overall, it was a successful event with a strong base to begin with. It was a big step toward the much-needed improvement of Nepali Cinema’s different sectors. online casino money

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Insfrastructure in Nepal

We all wonder about the future of our countries, if they will prosper or fail, succeed or not, especially now, when we hear reports of political upheaval, natural disasters, and crumbling economies. I am pretty new to Nepal. I have only lived here for a total of about eight months, but I too wonder about its future, how it will be successful and sustainable, maintain peace and economic prosperity. One of the things that many Nepalis worry about, especially in the wake of October’s earthquake, is infrastructure. In rural areas, in particular, much of the infrastructure present in Kathmandu, like good schools and effective hospitals, just does not exist. However, Kathmandu also struggles to maintain its infrastructure and faces certain challenges unique to urban areas. As a foreigner, I came to Nepal with little knowledge of the infrastructure here. However, while living in Kathmandu and travelling around the country I have learned a lot more about the matter partly through dealing with the consequences of lagging infrastructure first hand.

Over the Nepali festival of Tihar, I went on a trip to Butwal, Palpa, and Lumbini with my family. All of these places are pretty highly populated, easy to reach by car, and Lumbini, in particular, is often frequented by tourists. However, even there, much of the infrastructure apparent and present in Kathmandu is missing. Butwal was a bustling city, a crossroads for business, and only about six hours from Kathmandu. That is why when we had to make a trip to the emergency room, I was shocked by its crumbing walls and crowded rooms.

While my husband and I were traveling to Butwal, we stopped for lunch at a road-side restaurant. The food was tasty, and we had eaten there before with no problems. However, on our second day in Butwal, my husband fell sick with a stomach bug, most likely from our meal on the road. We tried to treat his symptoms with Digene to calm his stomach and Cetamol for the pain, but he just was not feeling any better. On Tuesday night at about 10pm, my father-in-law decided we needed to go to the emergency room. I was expecting something like the major hospitals in Kathmandu, with clean enough rooms, ample hospital beds, or at least a place to sit down, but I was in for a shock. Even though Butwal is a busy, highly populated city, their emergency room was very minimal. When we walked in, I immediately noticed the crumbling, dirty walls whose corners were filled with cobwebs. Patients were lying on the floors in the crowded waiting room. Inside the main treatment room, even though hospital beds lined the walls, there was no room for my husband. After standing around for a bit, the nurse suggested he double up with another patient in one of the thin beds. Family members of the sick also had little room to wait. One family of four had gathered on their relative’s hospital bed to eat dinner. Although the doctors and nurses were obviously overwhelmed with the load of patients, we were lucky to be seen quickly. After describing his symptoms, my husband was immediately diagnosed with food poisoning, given a shot of pain killer, and sent home. I have often dreamt about living outside of Kathmandu’s hustle and bustle, crowded streets, and pollution. However, poor infrastructure keeps us from moving into a cleaner city. The health care in Kathmandu is simply the best in Nepal, and that is one of the primary reasons we choose to stay here.

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Besides hospitals, schools are another piece of infrastructure that are lacking in many areas outside of Kathmandu. When I lived in Nepal as a study abroad student, I went on a trip with my program to Bandipur, a beautiful hill town on the way to Pokhara. It is known for its private school, Japanese Notre Dame School, founded and run by Japanese nuns. This school is one of the few outside of Kathmandu that sends its students to colleges and universities abroad. Although I knew that schools like this one are few and far between, I did not realize just how poorly funded and inaccessible schools in more remote and rural areas can be. A few months after traveling to Bandipur, my program went to a much more rural village called Simigaau in the Dolakha District of Nepal. It takes about two days to reach Simigaau, one day by bus and one by foot. The village there has a very minimal school up to grade 5. Although the students living in Simigaau can only attend elementary school, they are lucky to have a school so close. Some of the students who live outside of the village walk up to two hours to class in the morning because their own villages do not have schools. If students in Simigaau and the surrounding areas want to continue on into middle and high school, they have to trek for several hours on Sundays to reach the closest one. During the week, they live and cook on their own at the school location and travel back home on Saturdays. Simigaau is not nearly as remote as some other areas of Nepal. They receive some aid from non-governmental organizations and they get a number of trekkers traveling to the lake Cho Rolpa and study abroad students like me. All of these sources bring in some form of money or assistance to the area. People living in more remote villages that receive less assistance must face worse infrastructure and weaker schools.

Schools in Kathmandu are ubiquitous, easier to get to, and many consider them to be better. While in Butwal last week, I talked with one of the 16-year-old grand daughters of our hosts. She was home for Tihar but usually lives in Kathmandu. Although she studied up to middle school in Butwal, she now attends a high school in Kathmandu because her parents felt the one in Butwal was not good enough. Sending children to boarding school in search of a better education is common among Nepali families who can afford it. A number of the students studying in Kathmandu come from outside of the valley because the schools in their home towns are not as good. One of the best schools in Kathmandu, Budhanilkantha, is a boarding school that reserves half of its spots for students from outside of the valley.

Although Kathmandu has many more facilities than other areas of Nepal, it too struggles with infrastructure. Anyone who has visited knows the roads have a plethora of potholes that are never fixed. Those who have visited or lived here in the winter know that 16 hours of load-shedding is not uncommon. Because the city has become so crowded, and because the government cannot provide the time and money to replace some of the lagging infrastructure, things in Kathmandu are sometimes worse than in other places, and the consequences of lagging infrastructure are higher. Last month, we had one of the biggest earthquakes in Kathmandu in decades. I was born and raised in the Northeastern United States, an area that just recently saw its first earthquake in my lifetime. Although my husband, a Kathmandu native, grew up with them, this earthquake in October was quite a shock for me. After the quake, everyone started talking about the bad infrastructure in the valley. The houses are close together and made of bricks and cement, heavy materials that could kill many if a more serious earthquake hits. Earthquakes can have terribly damaging effects on rural areas, but in highly populated, densely packed places like Kathmandu, an equivalent earthquake produces much greater damage.

Infrastructure allows a city to run smoothly. Reliable sources of electricity and usable roads make it possible for businesses to open and operate and for people to commute to work. Certain infrastructure like schools and hospitals ensure the long-term sustainability of a community. Having good schools produces students who can go on to join the workforce, and having good hospitals keeps a city’s citizens healthy and able to go about their daily lives. Not only does reliable infrastructure make it possible for things to run smoothly, it also attracts those with money. This brings in more resources that can further be funneled into schools and hospitals and into improving the roads, electricity sources, and other infrastructure. However, it is important to note that more infrastructure is not always necessary. In villages where subsistence farming is the common profession, people do not necessarily need roads for their communities to run smoothly and sustainably. There are some aspects of infrastructure that can benefit everyone, like water pumps with clean water or hospitals, but not every community needs the infrastructure that cities require to be successful.

Kathmandu struggles with certain aspects of lacking infrastructure, like poor roads, and load-shedding partly because of its high population. The increased use brought on by so many people wears on the resources. Other areas, because they do not struggle with high population, do not face the same challenges that Kathmandu does. Some communities are also actively working to improve their infrastructure, sometimes with the help of outsiders. The Japanese Notre Dame school in Bandipur is a prime example. Although the nuns started it, it could not run without the help and support of the Bandipur community. Another example comes from Simigaau. People there have also striven to bring better infrastructure to their community. They have their own hydro-electric generator, and many families there have running water, a luxury that some households in Kathmandu do not have. They use the slope of the hills they are living on to bring running water to their houses. As infrastructure outside of the valley gets better, there will be fewer people coming to Kathmandu in search of better resources. This will reduce the strain on infrastructure here. Maybe one of the best ways to improve infrastructure in Kathmandu is to start by improving it elsewhere.

It is unquestionable that those living in areas outside of Kathmandu, especially rural areas, have less access to some very important infrastructure, including good hospitals and schools. However, Kathmandu lacks in certain areas of infrastructure as well, including safe roads and reliable sources of electricity. What is the future of infrastructure in Nepal? There are plenty of NGO and INGO’s fighting to building better water resources, electricity sources, schools, hospitals. Some of the change is fueled by foreigner inpiduals like Maggie Doyne who founded the Kopila Valley Children’s Home and School. Other change has come about through larger organizations like USAID and Habitat for Humanity. However, infrastructure does not always improve through inpiduals and organizations with a social service bent. Many Nepalis have improved their own access to electricity through the installation of solar panels in their homes, and some Nepali businesses are building hydo-electric generators to produce electricity that they will sell to the government. Lack of infrastructure often affects the poorest people, who cannot afford to send their children to better schools, travel to Kathmandu for health care, or put solar panels on their houses, but I feel that change is coming. Nepalis and foreigners have both started to enact change that will lead to better infrastructure.