Bhairav is the fierce manifestation of Lord Shiva, and his strength is depicted in a fearsome face but he is also a protector and guardian. There are eight forms of Bhairav in Kathmandu, and they are all featured in Mukesh Shrestha’s exhibition Bhairav Bhav at Gallery 108 in Darbar Marg. The artist was moved to contemplate the violent September protests through this series of paintings.&nbsp; “The GenZ protests exposed the greedy and aggressive side of leaders in which many young Nepalis lost their lives. Bhairav teaches people that forms of aggression and peace can go hand in hand, and peace can be chosen,” Shrestha explains. The artworks on display have a distinct palette of yellow, black and white, symbolising peace even during turbulent times. “Yellow is an auspicious colour for Hindus and Buddhists, it also has religious significance,” he says. Each painting is imbued by the black walls of the gallery and spotlight with warm lights. Says gallery manager Pooja Mahato, “The backdrop is black deliberately so that the visitors’ focus goes more to the artwork and less on the surrounding.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026012008018_ac2e3090a926cb57fca481d580d1c087b43d392299e2d99231a6044a05696964.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="2026012008018_ac2e3090a926cb57fca481d580d1c087b43d392299e2d99231a6044a05696964" data-rendition-name="original" width="2784" height="3984" loading="lazy" alt="Bhairav art review"> </figure>  Each of the paintings depicts Bhairav’s face in the real form but the bodies are imagined by the artist. This distinction is also made by the use of colours on the face while the body is conspicuously black and white. As Bhairav is one of Lord Shiva’s forms, serpents are an essential part of the portraits. The pieces on Kal Bhairav of Kathmandu Darbar Square and Bagh Bhairav of Kirtipur ooze power from every angle. Kal Bhairav is the Lord of time, and the Bagh Bhairav represents the ferocity of the tiger. Meanwhile, Unmatta Bhairav, also known as Digambar sacrificed the greed for life and is depicted naked. Couples who do not have children are blessed with offspring if they worship this Bhairav avatar. Then there is Batuk Bhairav, the childish god with a happy face. The blue here creates a vibrant, ritualistic visage even as it emotes calmness. “It is believed that Bhairav came in this child-like form to fool the demons to destroy them, and is represented through small hands and feet,” explains Mahato.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026012008018_e1f25fe3e0d9431df47cd8f76182649e969d511298c17c0c92179475e8008809.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="2026012008018_e1f25fe3e0d9431df47cd8f76182649e969d511298c17c0c92179475e8008809" data-rendition-name="original" width="2120" height="3728" loading="lazy" alt="Bhairav art review"> </figure>  Shweta Bhairav's face is also depicted exactly the same as it is in Kathmandu Darbar Square. Its body includes the feet of Bhramayani Devi, one of the forms of Nava Durga. It is believed that this form of Bhairav is granted entry in Kathmandu only after the welcome of Bhramayani Devi.&nbsp; Shweta Bhairav was wrongly identified as the Akash Bhairav when it was chosen as the motif for Royal Nepal Airlines 60 years ago. Despite this, the carrier’s aircraft still carry the wrong Bhairav on their fuselage. Shanta Bhairav, meanwhile, entered Kathmandu Valley in the form of a human to meet his beloved, Lassi. After agreeing to take the role of the protector for children as many were lost, he was allowed to live in the Valley.&nbsp; The paintings also represent peace and tranquility: lotus flowers emerging from the heads of a male and female body, and military tanks below them. Says Mukesh Shrestha, “Each artwork is a journey from ignorance to knowledge. Whatever we think, we become. If we think of peace, we become peaceful, but if we think of destruction, we become destructive.” Bhairav Bhav By Mukesh Shrestha Gallery 108, Darbar Marg Until 31 January 11am-7pm (Mondays by appointment)

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The power of peace

This is the 65th episode of Diaspora Diaries, a Nepali Times series in collaboration with Migration Lab. Right from my childhood, it seemed like I was lost in my own world. I was not interested in studying, I never paid attention in class and was completely disconnected from what the teacher was saying. I was not into <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/migrant-worker-finds-farming-in-nepal-more-rewarding">farming</a> or chores, which used to make my parents angry. Instead, I would scribble on the walls using clay and our <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/opening-their-home-to-others">mud-thatch house</a> was covered with my amateur art. There was <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/how-they-kept-nepal-in-the-dark-ages">no electricity</a> and I used to draw all night in the light of an oil lamp. My parents used to be irritated, but they started understanding my obsession with art. With time, my <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/early-nepal-drawings-come-full-circle">drawings</a> started improving. A turning point was when I drew my grandfather’s sketch. It brought a smile to his face.&nbsp; I overheard him talking to my father and other elders, saying the drawing was very realistic. That was very encouraging. But in class, teachers would punish me for not paying attention -- except my principal, who is now in his 70s, and encouraged me to participate in district-wide competitions. While I never did, the acknowledgement uplifted me. After Grade 7 I had to switch schools to one that was two hours away. My craft improved, and the science teacher was impressed with my artwork. By Grade 10, I was getting recognised for my art and would even be paid, for example by the school, to paint its signboard and drawings.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025042705048_70b1e770c5c7126beaaf9b91c0eed0cbdb5ebf4abbfb64734a294664078c6de0.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="2025042705048_70b1e770c5c7126beaaf9b91c0eed0cbdb5ebf4abbfb64734a294664078c6de0" data-rendition-name="original" width="1080" height="590" loading="lazy" alt="The world of a working artist"> </figure>  My uncle’s son told me it would be a good idea to go to Lucknow to pursue my <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/review/Dhwoj-Gurung-Review,1936">passion for art</a>. There in India, I was exposed to diverse talent. My cousin had seen something in me, and we even started an Art Shop, which was a great learning experience.&nbsp; After Lucknow, I went to Chitwan to work at an art gallery under Prakash Thapa, a renowned artist who became my mentor. I used to watch his work closely as an employee and followed instructions, but I still lacked in-depth knowledge since I did not have any formal training.&nbsp; He advised me to go to Kathmandu and join Lalit Kala campus. I had the hunger to learn, but the campus did not take a student who had not passed SLC. So I went back to school, and was embarrassed that my former classmate was now my teacher. But I did not let that hurt my pride.&nbsp; Unlike my<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/82-in"> childhood days</a> as a weak student, this time I had a newfound purpose as a student. I passed, and I used to go to Lalit Kala Campus in the mornings and work during the days.&nbsp; One day, a friend offered me a job in Saudi Arabia where I could get paid to do art. Lucknow, Chitwan, Kathmandu—I had switched lanes, but now I had finally found a clear path that offered more stability and allowed me to focus on art.&nbsp; Starting in 2006, I worked in Saudi Arabia at an art gallery for ten years. I used to draw <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepali-calligrapher-at-large">large paintings</a> that were kept in Saudi mansions and even palaces. I also painted ceilings, walls, even swimming pools.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250427050412_6685d36eca2fcd92649bb8d8d3f93972f62337c416c1caeca96999f83db88384.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20250427050412_6685d36eca2fcd92649bb8d8d3f93972f62337c416c1caeca96999f83db88384" data-rendition-name="original" width="720" height="942" loading="lazy" alt="The world of a working artist"> </figure>  Taking up art professionally in Saudi Arabia also introduced me to the works of global artists like Van Gogh and Picasso and helped me grow. But as an artist, I had to create <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=13008">my own identity</a>, give my work my personal touch.&nbsp; At first, we copy the works of the great masters but as we mature, we start adding our own individuality. This is perhaps the journey of all creators, including singers who start by covering the songs of the greats.&nbsp; After a decade in Saudi Arabia, I returned to Nepal in 2017, but I did not find what I was looking for. And the money here also did not allow me to fulfil my duty as a father. After two years, I migrated to Dubai to work as an interior decorative artist. While I have painted art that hangs on the walls of some of the most luxurious palaces in the Middle East, I come from humble beginnings in Nepal.&nbsp; I had started out painting on clay walls of my home with brushes made from the tail hair of cows. Those art pieces I made on the walls of my house are now just etched in my memory. I had struggled in Saudi to get wider recognition as an artist but in Dubai, it was different. I started making portraits of famous Nepali personalities during my free time. These sketches, such as my picture of the late Satya Mohan Joshi, got wide attention on <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/no-comment">social media</a>. This was another turning point.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250427050412_aa45b66c31cb9e7b40f4fb23774addd893438180995f822b9c31866ffe90e1bd.jpg" data-media-id="editor_11" data-image-id="20250427050412_aa45b66c31cb9e7b40f4fb23774addd893438180995f822b9c31866ffe90e1bd" data-rendition-name="original" width="853" height="1280" loading="lazy" alt="The world of a working artist"> </figure>  Art draws me. I am hungry for art. When we are hungry, we find food no matter what. It is the same with art. When you have a hunger to create, you will create no matter what. In Saudi Arabia, I used to paint all night before going for my full time job in the morning. You never get tired, you are always encouraged and focused. Your creations will fuel you, make you content. And the more you enjoy it, the more excellence and depth there is in your work. But other than art, I am also interested in music and literature. Perhaps it is in my genes as both my parents were into music and they used to sing during community events in the village. As children, we used to write songs and sing them during cultural events. From songs, I started dabbling into poetry. Just the way I learnt art through noted artists, I also tried to learn from great poets like Bhupi Sherchan and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/laxmi-prasad-devkota-in-english?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2VmkikQOjLTMsX1QRb8N6WjgJJ6IL1mMUb5F9Q4GDYodQVsMOhLnhj5rQ_aem_YhzUzG_aT5Mdxf4-pbVIgg">Laxmi Prasad Devkota</a>. I have published two books of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=10242">poems</a>, and my third one, Dhago, will be released this June in Darjeeling by Buk Ant. When I retire from my <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/speaking-the-language-of-overseas-work">life overseas</a>, I want to dedicate my time to more art and literature. All my life, I have created for others as per their preferences, although I take a lot of ownership of the work I do.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250427050412_c97a9cc80aebb4a5e8e2a3e071f077b15fb3f85cf05920d2ca6302774c6d895c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_15" data-image-id="20250427050412_c97a9cc80aebb4a5e8e2a3e071f077b15fb3f85cf05920d2ca6302774c6d895c" data-rendition-name="original" width="1627" height="2048" loading="lazy" alt="The world of a working artist"> </figure>  But in Nepal, I want to start my own <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/tsherin-sherpa-returns-home-to-takpa">art gallery</a> and create art based on my own interests and passions. All of us have our own priorities in life. Some are driven by money, others by community service. People often ask me why I do not have property in Kathmandu despite spending so many years overseas. I have never hankered for material goods. I enjoy <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/art-and-poetry-in-motion">art and literature </a>and want to get lost in it. Just like when I was a boy, I am lost in my own world.

The world of a working artist

Bhaktapur is all about ritual, resistance, and remembrance. Now a <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-new-generation-of-alternative-artists">new generation of artists</a> is exploring the city of devotees through art. Balkrishna Banmala was a child <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/deity-devotion-and-divine-dance">deity dancer</a> who performed sacred tantric rituals. But what many saw as divine honour for Banmala was a time stolen from his childhood. “On the surface, it looked beautiful to be honoured with offerings and prayers,” Banmala tells us. “But behind the masks and the barefoot dances, we were children denied a normal life. No school, no shoes, no time to play.” Banmala is now an artist and his canvases are part of the Chitra Katha exhibition at <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/amalgamation-of-nepali-art">Siddhartha Art Gallery</a>. His artwork blur the line between the sacred and the everyday: a masked deity riding a bicycle, a divine child licking an ice cream cone. Some of these images have sparked outrage in his own community. “When I first exhibited these works, community leaders saw them as betrayal,” adds Banmala. “Some even tore up my paintings. A police complaint was filed. But I believe art must speak the truth even when it is uncomfortable.” His <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/painting-a-painter">paintings</a> at Chitra Katha incorporate circular motifs inspired by the Navadurga Jatra where Banmala weaves cosmological cycles into his paintings, saying, “In the cycle of life: Brahma creates, Vishnu sustains, and Shiva destroys. My work reflects this cycle--today, tomorrow, and beyond.” Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/old-art-meets-new">Old art meets new</a>, Sikuma Rai  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20250424110456_8f9008ff390c9e49dbd60d4c0a887e04f249686a8d1db3329cc0d66dc3a0737f.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20250424110456_8f9008ff390c9e49dbd60d4c0a887e04f249686a8d1db3329cc0d66dc3a0737f" data-rendition-name="original" width="848" height="809" loading="lazy" alt="Between the sacred and everyday"> <figcaption>Brahma by Balkrishna Banmala Photo: SIDDHARTHA ART GALLERY</figcaption> </figure>  For Banmala, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/the-art-of-healing">art has become a form of therapy</a>, a step to healing the inherited burdens of tradition. “Children in my community continue to be worshipped at the cost of their dreams. I want them to have what I didn’t. My <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/art-as-a-call-to-action">art is my protest</a>, my hope, and my prayer.” Altogether, 28 artists from <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/clash-of-cultures-in-bhaktapur">Bhaktapur</a> are exhibiting their works at Siddhartha Art Gallery with everyday stories of the city in the form of paintings, drawings, ceramics, printmaking, light installations. Many works use local materials like terracotta, wood and cement, grounding their expressions both literally and metaphorically in Bhaktapur’s soil. Narayan Bohaju’s diptych Floating Hopes II offers a dreamlike view of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=15106">urban chaos</a>. Public vehicles float alongside lotus leaves. The visual texture almost resembles Studio Ghibli, and invites onlookers to romanticise even the most distressing reality, thereby offering some hope even in unexpected places. In Echoes of Childhood Community, Bohaju returns to Bhaktapur’s spiritual core. A towering temple-like chariot teems with figures in communion: local vendors, families, fruit baskets, religious icons--anchoring a city where sacred and mundane coexist.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025042412044_81a2b9042948ed7edc871671b486bb14fa1a137e09119b0a0bb945236a72619c.jpg" data-media-id="editor_10" data-image-id="2025042412044_81a2b9042948ed7edc871671b486bb14fa1a137e09119b0a0bb945236a72619c" data-rendition-name="original" width="1999" height="1721" loading="lazy" alt="Between the sacred and everyday"> <figcaption>Echoes of Childhood Community by Narayan Bohaju</figcaption> </figure>  Meanwhile, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/reimagined-roots">Pooja Duwal</a>’s series Custodians of the Ephemeral celebrates the beauty in the ordinary. Rendered in oil, her scenes capture fleeting moments of men in dhaka topi, elders sipping tea, neighbours chatting at street corners. Her remarkable works showcase unremarkable everyday scenes. Reminiscing Memories by Srijan Ulak uses pen and ink to trace the fading outlines of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=19496">Bhaktapur’s architecture</a> and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/building-homes-on-a-deadline">ancestral homes</a>. His detailed work speaks to nostalgia, and the slow erosion that came with <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/rice-fields-to-concrete-terraces">urbanisation and concrete</a>. For artist Anjila Manandhar, power comes from turning personal struggles into sacred strength. Her artwork often features skulls and divine figures but they represent her, she tells us. “The heads and skulls I draw are like those of Chamunda or Kali. But I gave that power to myself. I made myself the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=16471">goddess</a> strong, playful, and defiant. It’s how I motivate myself and heal.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025042412040_a2c54afebe5e244cd5fed0ed30f27956c3aa317c0d8435dcc01d69352e98cbb6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_16" data-image-id="2025042412040_a2c54afebe5e244cd5fed0ed30f27956c3aa317c0d8435dcc01d69352e98cbb6" data-rendition-name="original" width="1440" height="960" loading="lazy" alt="Between the sacred and everyday"> <figcaption>Nothing by Anjila Manandhar Photo: SIDDHARTHA ART GALLERY</figcaption> </figure>  Manandhar’s works explore identity through <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/when-art-unites-what-divides-us">surreal metaphors</a>. One recurring image is of an ant with a human face. “Ants are everywhere. Tiny, sensitive, stepped on without notice. In many ways, humans are the same. We keep moving, but we rarely look down. Maybe if we did, we’d be more grounded.” Sunflowers are another constant theme, and Manandhar explains that the blossoms always turn to the sun and feel like guardians that are always rising, watching, and protecting. Anjila’s art moves fluidly between strength and fragility, empowering viewers. The exhibition also features Suraj Shilpakar, a master <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/in-with-the-old-in-with-the-new">woodcarver </a>deeply rooted in his family’s artisanal legacy. Woodcarving is his identity, and he strives to preserve the craft while constantly aiming to reinterpret it. Shilpakar explores modern themes through painting, printmaking, and ceramics. His Baja Gaja series is a standout at the exhibition, a sculptural tribute to the role of music in <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/progress-and-or-preservation">cultural preservation</a>.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2025042412040_936a3c559c3de6f3177c5d2a01f15e765208727e54949324395668e19bbda11e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_20" data-image-id="2025042412040_936a3c559c3de6f3177c5d2a01f15e765208727e54949324395668e19bbda11e" data-rendition-name="original" width="3222" height="2177" loading="lazy" alt="Between the sacred and everyday"> <figcaption>Baja Gaja series by Suraj Shilpakar</figcaption> </figure>  The piece is built in the tudal style. The struts represent support. He says, “It honours how youth and <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-sacred-female-energy-of-shakti">women uphold traditions </a>through music. Today, <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-musical-bridge-between-past-and-present">music isn’t just a celebration, it holds culture together.</a>” The work is a reminder that tradition can evolve, adapt, and inspire, while keeping its essence. Each piece at the Chitra Katha exhibition is a meditation on heritage, belief, and identity. The lotus reappears as a quiet metaphor for resilience amidst chaos. The skulls, deities, and age-old rituals find their place beside evocations of temples, myths, and ancestral echoes. Themes of religion, tradition, mortality and divinity recur. Bhaktapur’s artists offer their intimate stories, inviting onlookers to find personal resonance within the folds of collective memory. They are building new ways for future generations to remember their lives. Chitra Katha Siddhartha Art Gallery, Baber Mahal Revisited Until 11 May Sunday to Friday 11AM-5PM Saturdays 12-5PM

Between the sacred and everyday

<figure><img width="1334" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181148/636be8929c7e80680e08786ajpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Rob Powell in his Koh Samui studio.</figcaption></figure>Last Wednesday, 16 December 2020, marked the passing of a visionary artist who shared his unique perceptions of Asian architecture, art and culture with the world. With an eye beguiled by beauty and a heart attuned to the strange and ineffable qualities of physical heritage, Robert Gordon Powell was a magician with pen, pencil and brush.Born in Australia in 1948, Rob was teaching art and studying architecture when the Baul clan from just divided state of Bengal in India, came to perform songs, dance and rituals in his university town. This initial introduction to the human-spirit world deeply intrigued him, and the Bauls, who stayed at his home, recognised in him a kindred soul. Laxman Das Baul invited Rob to visit their Bengali village. Arriving at the teeming Howrah train station, riding the branch line through idyllic rice paddies and ending with an hour-long rickshaw ride deeper into mud-walled thatch-roofed villages, the young man from ‘down under’ was transported into an utterly different reality.While sketching and experiencing life in Bengal, Rob heard that Ladakh had recently opened to foreigners, and determined to visit there as well. His camera disappeared en route, being fate’s way of telling him that hand drawings were to be his primary means of documenting what he encountered. This foray immersed him in Himalayan culture which became his most famous subject matter. He first documented Ladakhi buildings painstakingly with dots, the lightest possible method of rendition, well-suited to a patient artist and perfectly suited to the high mountain light, soft palette of colours and often eroded surfaces of Ladakhi architecture. Rob recorded architecture in Swat and Kalash Valleys of Pakistan, evolving a still detailed but faster illustration of light and shadow through cross-hatching in ink.  <figure><img width="1786" height="1255" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181148/636be8959c7e80680e08786bjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>He documented the shamanistic culture of Western Nepal, portraying the initiation of a female shaman who meditated all night on a makeshift perch of perilously few small branches lashed high on a pole above her village. He drew drums, amulets and drumsticks - ritual implements that shamans used to mesmerise the world and captivate those journeying with them.These ethnographically rich locales were sparse in material comforts, and Rob found his way to Kathmandu to more comfortably complete and develop paintings from his sketches. Here he became familiar with the Newa brick, wood and plaster architecture of the Kathmandu Valley. He recognised that temples and residences follow traditional shapes, incorporate sacred proportions, and create a feeling that resonates with community, professional, and visitor. He turned to red pigment watercolours to depict the रातो माटो brick and tile work, and used browns, creams and greys to show how time tempers wood, plaster and stone. He was commissioned to design the Green Pastures Hospital in Pokhara, a comely complex resembling monastic quarters in layout, with the warm detailing of a traditional, welcoming inn.Early in Rob’s three decades in Kathmandu, he encountered the German government’s largest development project in the world at the time – the restoration and conservation of the traditional city of Bhaktapur. Fortuitously meeting its leader, the Austrian conservation architect Götz Hagenmüller and his wife Ludmilla before they departed on holiday, they commissioned Rob to produce eleven drawings of Bhaktapur, including the Kuthu Math priest’s house that they would later renovate as their exquisite residence. These drawings were exhibited at the Vajra Hotel art gallery. The most challenging piece was a small Kuthu Math room which had been used for years for distilling छ्याङ beer. The first sketch showed it cluttered and with blackened walls. After careful cleaning, Rob painted it as the three-century old puja room it originally was — every inch of wall richly decorated with sacred Krishna-Lila murals.Rob’s Bhaktapur work generated a lifelong friendship with Götz, and professional recognition that brought further work in cultural heritage. His skills had arrived at a moment when the world was athirst for all things Himalayan, including the Kathmandu Valley’s ten World Heritage sites. Rob deeply appreciated the works of the great traditional Newar Malla artisans and honed what he saw into radiant compositions that elicited ancient memories and enticed new perceptions. Before long, Rob was engaged by the Nepal government’s Department of Archaeology to accompany their team to Mustang. He travelled on foot and horseback to Lo Manthang, sketching the luminous, mineral-laden mountain-scape.  <figure><img width="640" height="883" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181148/636be8989c7e80680e08786cjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img width="1000" height="570" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181148/636be89b9c7e80680e08786djpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>At the town of Lo, he spent hours on site, absorbing the forms and feelings of the buildings. He celebrated the rich red, white and black colours painted and poured down walls, to call forth the protection of the gods, Manjushri, Avalokitesvara, and Vajrapani on vulnerable building corners and doorways. He vividly highlighted the ram skulls and horns that are positioned above an opening to protect the inhabitants against malicious spirits.When Rob met Mary Slusser, cultural researcher and author of Nepal Mandala, she was impressed with his virtuoso artwork and arranged for him to show at the Sackler Gallery, part of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.  <figure><img width="634" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181148/636be89d9c7e80680e08786ejpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img width="634" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181148/636be89f9c7e80680e08786fjpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>That exhibition, ‘<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Earth-Door-Sky-Paintings-Mustang/dp/0906026539" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.com/Earth-Door-Sky-Paintings-Mustang/dp/0906026539&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608384932546000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGHfnIrkqsbLWIUtsX4spUYkN_ICQ">Earth Door, Sky Door, Paintings of Mustang</a>’ in 1999 introduced the global art world to Robert Powell. His works embraced and slipped beyond the boundaries of ethnography into <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=5455" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D5455&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608384932546000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGfwWsIIqTmokZ4-CsuhYIvAyK5ag">apparitional forms that reflect the essence of the Himalaya</a>. Michael O’Sullivan of The Washington Post said it well, 'Robert draws buildings in an animistic way that reveals something that lies beyond what can be seen.' <figure><img width="1926" height="1244" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181148/636be8a29c7e80680e087870jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>In 1992, Rob married Lieve Aerts, a Belgian woman and teacher of yoga and chi qong, who became his partner for life. After three decades happily settled in the centre of the culture that he portrayed so well, Rob contracted a lung infection that left his health vulnerable. Rehabilitating at length in Europe, he was advised not to return to the poor air quality of Kathmandu. Rob and Lieve moved to Koh Samui, Thailand, where he designed the Kamalaya spa and an exquisite home for themselves that encompassed huge hillside boulders, lush trees and a sublime view over the Gulf of Thailand. As the inside trees grew, so did the building, with some roof sections rebuilt several times to accommodate the surging foliage.  <img width="597" height="824" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181148/636be8a59c7e80680e087871jpeg.jpg" alt="">In Thailand, Rob expanded upon the Himalayan themes that had fascinated him. Rams’ horns that protected the doors of Lo Manthang grew to a full, fantastical wall of hornery. Mountainsides that had housed the awesome Bamyan Buddhas in northern Afghanistan were re-depicted with dakinis, looming, sensual female figures with small fangs to ward off treacherous foes. He discovered new media, moving into acrylics to capture the brilliant, evanescent skies and water around them, and to explore singularly potent spiritual symbols.In 2019 Andrei Jewell made the documentary, Enchanted Matter, capturing Rob’s life, art and philosophy. Sadly his health gradually deteriorated. He passed away with Lieve at his side, in a room brightened by a view to a brilliant, orange-flowered tree, with music and candles to accompany his final journey.Robert will not be forgotten. He will live on in our memories as a beloved, gentle being and a prodigious creator of wondrous works of art, who encouraged us to let the strange and beautiful lift us into enchantment. Linda Kentro and James Giambrone are founders of the Indigo Art Gallery in Kathmandu.

Robert G Powell, 1948-2020

<figure><img width="1334" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191120/636bef864b0ad905ca02efb3jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Rob Powell in his Koh Samui studio.</figcaption></figure>Last Wednesday, 16 December 2020, marked the passing of a visionary artist who shared his unique perceptions of Asian architecture, art and culture with the world. With an eye beguiled by beauty and a heart attuned to the strange and ineffable qualities of physical heritage, Robert Gordon Powell was a magician with pen, pencil and brush.Born in Australia in 1948, Rob was teaching art and studying architecture when the Baul clan from just divided state of Bengal in India, came to perform songs, dance and rituals in his university town. This initial introduction to the human-spirit world deeply intrigued him, and the Bauls, who stayed at his home, recognised in him a kindred soul. Laxman Das Baul invited Rob to visit their Bengali village. Arriving at the teeming Howrah train station, riding the branch line through idyllic rice paddies and ending with an hour-long rickshaw ride deeper into mud-walled thatch-roofed villages, the young man from ‘down under’ was transported into an utterly different reality.While sketching and experiencing life in Bengal, Rob heard that Ladakh had recently opened to foreigners, and determined to visit there as well. His camera disappeared en route, being fate’s way of telling him that hand drawings were to be his primary means of documenting what he encountered. This foray immersed him in Himalayan culture which became his most famous subject matter. He first documented Ladakhi buildings painstakingly with dots, the lightest possible method of rendition, well-suited to a patient artist and perfectly suited to the high mountain light, soft palette of colours and often eroded surfaces of Ladakhi architecture. Rob recorded architecture in Swat and Kalash Valleys of Pakistan, evolving a still detailed but faster illustration of light and shadow through cross-hatching in ink.  <figure><img width="1786" height="1255" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191120/636bef894b0ad905ca02efb4jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>He documented the shamanistic culture of Western Nepal, portraying the initiation of a female shaman who meditated all night on a makeshift perch of perilously few small branches lashed high on a pole above her village. He drew drums, amulets and drumsticks - ritual implements that shamans used to mesmerise the world and captivate those journeying with them.These ethnographically rich locales were sparse in material comforts, and Rob found his way to Kathmandu to more comfortably complete and develop paintings from his sketches. Here he became familiar with the Newa brick, wood and plaster architecture of the Kathmandu Valley. He recognised that temples and residences follow traditional shapes, incorporate sacred proportions, and create a feeling that resonates with community, professional, and visitor. He turned to red pigment watercolours to depict the रातो माटो brick and tile work, and used browns, creams and greys to show how time tempers wood, plaster and stone. He was commissioned to design the Green Pastures Hospital in Pokhara, a comely complex resembling monastic quarters in layout, with the warm detailing of a traditional, welcoming inn.Early in Rob’s three decades in Kathmandu, he encountered the German government’s largest development project in the world at the time – the restoration and conservation of the traditional city of Bhaktapur. Fortuitously meeting its leader, the Austrian conservation architect Götz Hagenmüller and his wife Ludmilla before they departed on holiday, they commissioned Rob to produce eleven drawings of Bhaktapur, including the Kuthu Math priest’s house that they would later renovate as their exquisite residence. These drawings were exhibited at the Vajra Hotel art gallery. The most challenging piece was a small Kuthu Math room which had been used for years for distilling छ्याङ beer. The first sketch showed it cluttered and with blackened walls. After careful cleaning, Rob painted it as the three-century old puja room it originally was — every inch of wall richly decorated with sacred Krishna-Lila murals.Rob’s Bhaktapur work generated a lifelong friendship with Götz, and professional recognition that brought further work in cultural heritage. His skills had arrived at a moment when the world was athirst for all things Himalayan, including the Kathmandu Valley’s ten World Heritage sites. Rob deeply appreciated the works of the great traditional Newar Malla artisans and honed what he saw into radiant compositions that elicited ancient memories and enticed new perceptions. Before long, Rob was engaged by the Nepal government’s Department of Archaeology to accompany their team to Mustang. He travelled on foot and horseback to Lo Manthang, sketching the luminous, mineral-laden mountain-scape.  <figure><img width="640" height="883" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191120/636bef8c4b0ad905ca02efb5jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img width="1000" height="570" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191120/636bef8e4b0ad905ca02efb6jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>At the town of Lo, he spent hours on site, absorbing the forms and feelings of the buildings. He celebrated the rich red, white and black colours painted and poured down walls, to call forth the protection of the gods, Manjushri, Avalokitesvara, and Vajrapani on vulnerable building corners and doorways. He vividly highlighted the ram skulls and horns that are positioned above an opening to protect the inhabitants against malicious spirits.When Rob met Mary Slusser, cultural researcher and author of Nepal Mandala, she was impressed with his virtuoso artwork and arranged for him to show at the Sackler Gallery, part of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.  <figure><img width="634" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191120/636bef914b0ad905ca02efb7jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img width="634" height="1000" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191120/636bef934b0ad905ca02efb8jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>That exhibition, ‘<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Earth-Door-Sky-Paintings-Mustang/dp/0906026539" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amazon.com/Earth-Door-Sky-Paintings-Mustang/dp/0906026539&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608384932546000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGHfnIrkqsbLWIUtsX4spUYkN_ICQ">Earth Door, Sky Door, Paintings of Mustang</a>’ in 1999 introduced the global art world to Robert Powell. His works embraced and slipped beyond the boundaries of ethnography into <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=5455" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id%3D5455&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1608384932546000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGfwWsIIqTmokZ4-CsuhYIvAyK5ag">apparitional forms that reflect the essence of the Himalaya</a>. Michael O’Sullivan of The Washington Post said it well, 'Robert draws buildings in an animistic way that reveals something that lies beyond what can be seen.' <figure><img width="1926" height="1244" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191120/636bef954b0ad905ca02efb9jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>In 1992, Rob married Lieve Aerts, a Belgian woman and teacher of yoga and chi qong, who became his partner for life. After three decades happily settled in the centre of the culture that he portrayed so well, Rob contracted a lung infection that left his health vulnerable. Rehabilitating at length in Europe, he was advised not to return to the poor air quality of Kathmandu. Rob and Lieve moved to Koh Samui, Thailand, where he designed the Kamalaya spa and an exquisite home for themselves that encompassed huge hillside boulders, lush trees and a sublime view over the Gulf of Thailand. As the inside trees grew, so did the building, with some roof sections rebuilt several times to accommodate the surging foliage.  <img width="597" height="824" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109191120/636bef984b0ad905ca02efbajpeg.jpg" alt="">In Thailand, Rob expanded upon the Himalayan themes that had fascinated him. Rams’ horns that protected the doors of Lo Manthang grew to a full, fantastical wall of hornery. Mountainsides that had housed the awesome Bamyan Buddhas in northern Afghanistan were re-depicted with dakinis, looming, sensual female figures with small fangs to ward off treacherous foes. He discovered new media, moving into acrylics to capture the brilliant, evanescent skies and water around them, and to explore singularly potent spiritual symbols.In 2019 Andrei Jewell made the documentary, Enchanted Matter, capturing Rob’s life, art and philosophy. Sadly his health gradually deteriorated. He passed away with Lieve at his side, in a room brightened by a view to a brilliant, orange-flowered tree, with music and candles to accompany his final journey.Robert will not be forgotten. He will live on in our memories as a beloved, gentle being and a prodigious creator of wondrous works of art, who encouraged us to let the strange and beautiful lift us into enchantment. Linda Kentro and James Giambrone are founders of the Indigo Art Gallery in Kathmandu.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-sFnHEoH5U&amp;t=63sAsk a person in China about Nepal, and the answer is mostly that it is a happy Himalayan country of Buddhism and mountains. Justin Zhao and Liang Ye have decided that is not enough for the 400,000 Chinese tourists that are expected during <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/bringing-in-two-miilion-tourists,3551" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Visit Nepal Year 2020</a>. When they first arrived in Nepal as tourists themselves, the duo decided that the country had a lot more to offer. Many more Chinese would visit if they knew about the culture, history, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/prithvis-earthy-art/">art</a>  and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-life-and-times-of-arniko/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">architecture of Nepal</a> . Zhao and Ye have set up <a href="https://www.facebook.com/himalayanlight/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Himalaya Light Culture House</a> in Jhonche to exhibit and propagate Nepali art, modern paintings, historical books and local handicrafts. By deliberately locating in the former <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=7121#.XCSzoVUzaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Freak Street</a>, not Thamel, the two wanted to reboot Nepal’s tourism brand among mainlanders.Read also: <a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/chinese-ink-wash-paintings-in-Nepal,2622, Justin Zhao" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepal in ink and brush</a> <figure><img width="1400" height="788" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107171152/636937c59c7e80680e03fe5bjpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>NORTHERN LIGHT: Justin Zhao and Liang Ye (below) with their art gallery in Jhochhen and Boudha. They call themselves “volunteer envoys” working to improve people-to-people ties between China and Nepal. Photos: Ruixue Zhang </figcaption></figure>It is easy to miss the signboard for Himalaya Light Culture House amidst the thangka and scarf shops, the momo eateries and bars in this street off Darbar Square that used to be the haunt of <a href="https://nepalitimes.atavist.com/feeling-groovy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hippies</a>. Through a narrow passageway, after turning right on a sundeck, is the Culture House.“No wonder so few people visit our Culture House, even I sometimes get lost,” jokes Ye, who was at Darbar Square when the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Monumental-loss,2215" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2015 earthquake destroyed the monuments</a> here, and remembers weeping when he saw the devastation.For his part, Zhao has been to Nepal 18 times since 2013, and cannot seem to stop coming back. He was drawn by Kathmandu’s rich heritage, sculpture and handicraft, and decided to establish a new museum, guest house and restaurant here. Zhao says that after the earthquake, many Chinese gave up their businesses and went back, so he had to start from square one. But now he is one of the most influential persons for trans-Himalayan cultural exchanges.  <img width="1400" height="788" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107171152/636937c89c7e80680e03fe5cjpeg.jpg" alt="">Ye, 36, used to be a doctor, first came to Kathmandu in 2014, became a travel writer. “At first, I chose Nepal because of its tourism potential, but now Nepal is like my lover,” he admits, smiling. After seeing the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/kundadixit/2015/05/27/a-month-that-felt-like-a-year/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">devastation in 2015</a>, Ye started posting scenes of the damage on Chinese social media to explain that Nepalis revered Lord Shiva the creator and destroyer, and saw the earthquake as part of another divine cycle. The posts helped spread a huge response in China for relief aid. Zhao has always been fascinated by <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-craft-of-art/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nepali modern art</a> and wants to bring it to the attention of Chinese collectors. “Nepali artists are deeply rooted in their society, and their work carry socio-cultural meanings,” explains Zhao, “but the average Chinese tourist only knows about <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Buzz-the-art,671" target="_blank" rel="noopener">thangkas </a>and wood c<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/a-craving-for-carving,3637" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arvings.</a>”Ye has been in Nepal long enough to understand geopolitical sensitivities. “Nowadays, the relationship between China and Nepal is like friends while Nepal and India are like brothers,” he says diplomatically, “brothers can fight but will always be brothers. China will always be a close friend.”Ye and Zhao say they want to go beyond government-to-government links to be China’s “volunteer envoys” to connect the peoples of China and Nepal. In the past three years, Zhao has taken young Nepali artists to China, held exhibitions and discussions about paintings and music. Zhao’s father Zhao <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/chinese-ink-wash-paintings-in-Nepal,2622" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jianqiu</a> is a famous Chinese artist whose exquisitely detailed ink and brush paintings of Nepal’s mountains and Kathmandu’s temples have been exhibited in Beijing and Kathmandu.Tourism in Nepal has gone through many phases: the world jet-set ‘discovered’ Nepal in the early 1960s, the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-gangster-of-love/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hippies </a>came in the 1970s, trekkers and budget travelers after that. Ye and Zhang perhaps represent a new breed of Asian tourists who are drawn by Nepal’s unique natural and cultural heritage, as well as its modern creativity.

The Chinese are coming

<img width="640" height="853" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107171116/63692f849c7e80680e03c0adjpeg.jpg" alt=""/>Located in a corner behind the big bell in Boudha, Gallery LA (Let’s Art) just completed its first year, representing Kathmandu’s rising trend of littler art galleries. This means galleries can be commercially viable, and artists themselves are at the forefront of the change, holding events and art exhibitions.Gallery LA was founded by Laxman Bajra Lama and Anisha Maharjan and is holding an exhibition to celebrate its first anniversary. The gallery mostly features the works of young artists and fresh graduates: one work shows a long line of men holding umbrellas over their successors as each generation becomes more modern in outlook, another depicts mushroom clouds as disenchantment with modern warfare, while a man who tries on different devil masks symbolizes confusion in modern society.“We are trying to encourage young artists,” says Laxman Bajra Lama. “Senior artists can make a living through their art, but the younger ones cannot give all of their time to creative work, and they paint only when they are commissioned to do so.”Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/melding-expressions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Melding expressions</a>, Sewa Bhattarai<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/internal-and-external-expressions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Internal and external expressions</a>, Sewa BhattaraiCommercial art with mountain scenery have always sold briskly in Thamel, but selling creative expression has been more difficult. However, with more and more artists becoming enterprising, things are slowly changing. Gallery LA exhibits are priced at anything between Rs5,000 to Rs500,000.Music Art Gallery Cafe in Jhamsikhel was established last year and has garnered interest among art lovers and buyers in the area frequented by expats. Its ongoing exhibition Ages of Painting features Nepali artists of different generations, from Shashi Shah to Bidhata KC. The expressions range from severe line works depicting Kathmandu, to traditional Mithila paintings and abstract pieces. Realistic paintings of women outside traditional Newar houses depict ongoing innovation in Nepali art, with elements of traditional paubha paintings in modern compositions.Sagar KC, amateur artist and founder of the gallery, agrees that art is exploring new frontiers of expression, but also cautions that it has a long way to go. “Several new galleries like Classic Art Gallery in Chakupat have opened after we started out, and alternative venues like restaurants and theatres provide space to host art exhibitions, showing there is more interest. But Kathmandu still has a long way to go.”Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/manujbabu-mishras-expression/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Manuj Babu Mishra's expression</a>, Sewa Bhattarai<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-art-of-healing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The art of healing</a>, Sewa Bhattarai <img width="640" height="853" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107171116/63692f889c7e80680e03c0aejpeg.jpg" alt="">

Two new galleries in town

https://youtu.be/OIPXh1HNxO4Curious onlookers gather around Prabin Shrestha as he paints the post-earthquake reconstruction of the imposing neo-classical façade of the Gaddi Baithak complex.The canvas picks up the small details of the ongoing restoration: the green net, the scaffolding, danger signs warning people of falling debris. Onlookers at the Hanuman Dhoka Museum Square are impressed with the near-photographic realism.“Wow, thyakkai (‘so exact!’),” is the common refrain. Some ask if they can take pictures, and others want the artist to explain why he paints the ruins and not the beauty of the monument before it was damaged in the earthquake.Shrestha is busy with his brush-strokes, but answers patiently: “Painting this palace as beautiful will not make it beautiful, the unfinished construction shows much work still needs to be done.”<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107121140/6368ef399c7e80680e035969jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="683"/><figcaption>Prabin Shrestha</figcaption></figure>Shrestha is a member of the young artists’ group Paasapi (‘a group of friends’ in Newari) which has been busy painting what the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2015/04/25/massive-earthquake-rattles-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2015 earthquake</a> did to Nepalis. The four art students had been mural painters, but after the disaster, they turned to record<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Rebuilding-what-is-holy,2614" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> the aftermath</a> through art.The four first started by painting the damaged Durbar High School, Lalitkala Campus, and other monuments around Kathmandu, and even sold a painting. But that soon changed.Paasapi member Pradip Pal Saud explains: “We realised that we were actually documenting history, and that had more than aesthetic value. So, we decided not to sell what we painted.” Instead, they went around earthquake-ravaged neighbourhoods conducting art workshops for children, and painted damaged homes, people trying to rebuild their lives.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107121140/6368ef3c9c7e80680e03596ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="683"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Their paintings did not just depict the desolation, but also heart-warming stories of people helping each other and their inner strength in overcoming the crisis. Sometimes, the artists were mistaken for relief workers, and survivors came with their citizenship cards to ask for help. Others would say: “My house is much more damaged, you have to come and paint it too.”Up in the mountains they would come across shepherds living in wooden huts who were completely unaffected, and even blissfully unaware of the earthquake.  Survivors amidst the ruins of their homes, who were themselves short of food, would offer to share meals.“A woman in Sindhupalchok offered us a jumbo bottle of Coke after we said we had to finish the painting and had no time for food,” recalls another Paasapi member Akash Budha Magar.For the artists, the work is not just about portraying structures but also capturing human emotions. “We found that people engage more with painters than with journalists,” says Shrestha. “A photographer takes a snapshot and is off, but we are at one place for days. People want to strike up conversations, and we communicate their feelings through our paintings.”<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107121140/6368ef3e9c7e80680e03596bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1313" height="682"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Even the name of the project, Naksha (‘map’), was given by onlookers, who used it most often to refer to their paintings, and not using the prevalent Nepali words for ‘image’ (chitra) or ‘picture’ (tasbir). The earthquake survivors own the painting as much as the artists themselves.Now, after more than 200 paintings of the earthquake damage, the group is moving on to capture the reconstruction. Explains Shrestha: “The paintings also reflect the slow reconstruction process, and one of our objectives is to use art for political satire.”Paasapi has already held five public exhibitions in Gorkha and Kathmandu, and has turned exclusively to acrylic on canvas after they found watercolours on paper were damaged by exposure to sunlight.For now, the group depends on independent art commissions to fund its work, and ultimately want the paintings to be exhibited together.<figure class="gallery-item"><a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/d6.jpg"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107121140/6368ef419c7e80680e03596cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="681"></a></figure><figure class="gallery-item"><a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/DSC0033.jpg"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107121140/6368ef449c7e80680e03596djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="681"></a></figure><figure class="gallery-item"><a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/d5.jpg"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107121140/6368ef479c7e80680e03596ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="681"></a></figure><figure class="gallery-item"><a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/d8.jpg"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107121140/6368ef4a9c7e80680e03596fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="681"></a></figure><figure class="gallery-item"><a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/1.jpg"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107121140/6368ef4c9c7e80680e035970jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="681"></a></figure><figure class="gallery-item"><a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/3-2.jpg"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221107121140/6368ef4f9c7e80680e035971jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="681"></a></figure>Also read: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/review/old-art-meets-new/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Old art meets new</a>, Sikuma Rai<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/street-art-mural-in-Kathmandu,3840" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Walls as art, not barriers</a>, Shaleen Shah

Mapping the earthquake with art

Leaked letters from Korea’s Unification Church have revealed its extensive involvement in buying political and media influence worldwide, including links to Nepal’s parties and politicians. Documents obtained by the <a href="https://newstapa.org/eng">Korean Centre for Investigative Journalism</a> (Newstapa) contain correspondence to and from the controversial religious movement whose leader, 82-year-old <a href="https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/southkorea/politics/20251216/explainer-who-is-han-hak-ja-true-mother-at-center-of-unification-church-scandals">Hak Ja Han</a>, is currently on trial in Seoul for allegedly bribing the wife and associates of disgraced former president Yoon Suk Yeol.&nbsp; The letters and direct messages referenced in the investigation mention three former prime ministers: Madhav Kumar Nepal who has now joined the Nepali Communist Party, K P Oli of the Communist Party of Nepal UML (Unified Marxist-Leninist), and former Maoist ideologue Baburam Bhattarai.&nbsp; The documents detail financial support from the Unification Church (now known as Family Federation for World Peace and Unification) to Nepal Paribar Dal (Nepal Family Party) and its founder <a href="https://reviewnepal.com/national/dhakal-reelected-as-chair-of-pariwar-dal.html">Ek Nath Dhakal,</a> who is a staunch ally of the UML. On Sunday, Dhakal signed an MoU with K P Oli of the UML to cooperate in the March election and beyond. The leaked correspondence concerning Nepal spans the period between the <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/elections-of-by-for-men,4038">first federal elections in 2017</a> till the 2022 polls and contains emails between Dhakal and Yong Jeong Shik, Regional President for Asia of the Unification Church, with urgent requests for funds for campaigning and to support the UML.&nbsp; ‘Regarding funding, I am truly sorry, but a minimum of $500,000 is required,’ one of the messages to Yong in the report says. ‘Furthermore, as the election is scheduled for December 7th [2017], I would be very grateful if I could receive it as soon as possible. The initial $500,000 was used for overall election expenses, and the additional $500,000 is intended for campaign activities for the Family Party and supporting key leaders.’ In addition, there are also letters requesting an additional $20,000 per month in ‘maintenance costs for the Nepal Family Party and preparations for the<a href="http://nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-parties-forge-new-pre-poll-alliances"> 2022 election</a>’.&nbsp; Asked for a reaction to the allegations, Govinda Nath Mishra of the Nepal Paribar Party said: “This is an unnecessary smear campaign against our party. Parties doing good work are always linked to some foreign powers in Nepal to discredit them.” Ek Nath Dhakal has also denied that his party’s affiliation with the UML has anything to do with Unification Church donations. <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Korean-movement-in-Nepal,2962">He told Nepali Times in an interview in 2016</a>: “The party has links to all faiths, as it has with the unification movement. The Nepal Family Party is a kind of conservative party with a manifesto that promotes family values, interfaith dialogue and harmony. There are 11 political parties supporting Prime Minister Oli. Nepal Family Party is just one of them.” <div class="embed-block"><div><div style="left: 0; width: 100%; height: 0; position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%;"><iframe src="https://cdn.iframe.ly/api/iframe?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FMcGp_Mn4fwA%3Fsi%3DM3bVjAnbnelwKwAl&key=87ca3314a9fa775b5c3a7726100694b0" style="top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; border: 0;" allowfullscreen scrolling="no" allow="accelerometer *; clipboard-write *; encrypted-media *; gyroscope *; picture-in-picture *; web-share *;"></iframe></div></div></div> In another update to Yong, Dhakal describes the UML’s election campaign in 2017 as ‘proceeding very successfully … it appears certain the Unified Marxist-Leninist will achieve a landslide victory’. Dhakal was not contesting directly as a candidate, but piggybacking on the UML <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/house-of-cards-6alq6pvi">which had put him on the proportional representation list</a>, ostensibly in return for campaign financing. He continues: ‘It is certain that I will be elected as a proportional representation member of the National Assembly due to a shortage of female candidates. I discussed the possibility of my election with Prime Minister Madhav and Prime Minister K P Oli … both have confirmed that I could be moved from 5th place [on the PR list] to 1st or 2nd if necessary.’&nbsp; After the 2017 election, the UML formed a coalition with the Maoists and Prime Minister Oli appointed Dhakal Minister for Peace and Reconstruction overseeing Nepal’s post-conflict and post-earthquake activities. During his tenure, Dhakal organised an ‘<a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-12/01/c_137644390.htm">Asia-Pacific Summit 2018</a>’ in Kathmandu presided over by Hak Ja Han, wife of Rev Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church and Universal Peace Federation (UPF). The couple are known in the movement as ‘True Parents’ and Hak Ja Han is referred to as ‘True Mother’. Oli addressed the Kathmandu summit (pictured above) which was attended by 1,500 delegates, including Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. The <a href="https://theannapurnaexpress.com/story/15201/">gathering drew criticism</a> for being a proselytisation exercise, prompting Oli to decline attending a ‘blessing’ ceremony by Hak Ja Han.&nbsp; Ever since, the ‘Holy Wine’ has entered Nepal's political lexicon, and is still used derogatorily to label politicians involved.&nbsp; Nepal Paribar Party’s Govinda Nath Mishra says: “Ek Nath Dhakal has become a member of the House of Representatives twice, and our party has since its inception been close to the UML. We are just continuing that cooperation for this election as well.” The Unification Church has said that the leaked documents are not authentic and were unofficial records created by former Director General of the Unification Church’s International Headquarters Yun Young Ho to ‘flaunt his influence’. The Japanese branch of the Unification Church said in a statement this week: ‘After reviewing the documents believed to be the report in question, we have found factual inaccuracies were added or content modified.’ Milan Kumari Rajbanshi, deputy General-Secretary of the Nepal Paribar Party and former MP denied her party was funded by any outside source, and she was no aware of any correspondence between Dhakal and anyone else.&nbsp; She told Nepali Times: “After the September street protests we spoke to many political parties, including GenZ activists, but the UML was the closest to our values.” Rajbanshi will be campaigning in Jhapa-5 on behalf of K P Oli who will be contesting against former Kathmandu mayor Balen Shah. The Newstapa leak show Dhakal and the Unification Church worked behind the scenes in the 2017 election to influence the &nbsp;elections. One email from Dhakal references this: ‘(If) we can secure a majority in next year’s general election … our wish is to educate all parliamentarians for two years until 2020 and create a constitution centred on Cheon Il Guk.’ Cheon Il Guk (천일국) means ‘One Heavenly Kingdom’ and is the vision of a spiritual nation proclaimed by Sun Myung Moon and his Unification Church, and emphasises family values instead of individualism for global unity under a ‘Heavenly Parent’.&nbsp; The emails reveal that the Church was planning to convince Madhav Nepal and K P Oli to take all 150 coalition legislators to Bangkok to introduce them to its beliefs. That trip did not materialise, but the Church had earlier taken 20 Communist MPs to the Philippines and Thailand for ‘principle education’.&nbsp; In another email to Yong Jeong Shik, Dhakal describes Baburam Bhattarai as being ‘disillusioned with communism’ and that he proposed ‘gathering all minority parties to join the Family Party’. Bhattarai left the Maoists and is contesting from the Pragatisheel Loktantrik Party from his Gorkha constituency in March. Despite its connections with Nepal’s Communists, the Unification Church is known to support conservative politics around the world including through ownership of media like <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/">The Washington Times</a> newspaper.&nbsp; Founder Sun Myung Moon was deeply involved in pushing for Korean unification, and the Church has worked with Asian countries that have ties with North Korea. Documents show that the Unification Church had tried to get then UML Chair Madhav Kumar Nepal to Pyongyang, but the Nepal government supposedly under pressure from the South Korean, Japanese and US ambassadors got him to call it off. Madhav Nepal had also insisted that he meet Kim Jong Un, but the North Korean side had said it was not possible. But after Nepal left the UML to form the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Socialist) he met the North Korean Ambassador in the presence of Ek Nath Dhakal to plan a visit in order to work towards Korean unification. A 11-member delegation composed of Nepal, Dhakal, MPs and a newspaper publisher visited North Korea in 2017 (pictured below).  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260123040128_6690244be7aa18e24a4aef825935a7afcaa893b40191f712ab498105e06aaf51.jpg" data-media-id="editor_11" data-image-id="20260123040128_6690244be7aa18e24a4aef825935a7afcaa893b40191f712ab498105e06aaf51" data-rendition-name="original" width="2201" height="1148" loading="lazy" alt="Moonie money in Nepal's politics NT"> </figure>  METICULOUS ARCHIVE An extract from correspondence is indicative of the former prime minister’s links to the Unification Church: ‘Madhav Kumar Nepal … maintains a very close relationship with us and could become Prime Minister again at any time. There is no one who knows us as well or respects the Parents as much as former Prime Minister Madhav does … he is someone who regards the True Parents like God.’ The internal documents of the Unification Church obtained by Newstapa is called the ‘TM [True Mother] Special Report’ and appears to have been prepared for Hak Ja Han. The 3,212-page text provides a chronological account of the Church’s management of politicians internationally, its handling donations, and plans to expand political influence through its affiliated media outlets. The document is a meticulous archive apparently compiled by Yun Young Ho, the former Director General of the Unification Church’s International Headquarters, the organisation’s second-in-command.&nbsp; This suggests church affairs were reported directly to Hak Ja Han. Korean investigators are now focusing on whether Han merely received these reports or issued specific directives based on them. Yun testified during the trial in Seoul that the Church’s regional leaders and local partners would send daily field reports which he would synthesise into a ‘Special Report’ format to provide oral briefings to Han. Hak Ja Han therefore may have been personally involved in the Church’s operations in granular detail. Korean special prosecutors are viewing these documents as critical evidence in her trial to prove that she was directly involved in political lobbying. Last week, during a hearing on the Hak Ja Han bribery case, a regional Church leader admitted to personally drafting segments of the ‘True Parents Correspondence Report’ featured in the document. The ‘TM Special Report’ appears to be a compilation of internal documents reprocessed into a single file and includes emails and direct messaging. Certain periods are missing, leading to gaps in the narrative, raising the possibility that specific portions of the report may have been selectively curated or redacted. &nbsp; <h2>Both Koreas in Nepal</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026012304018_962b3169d725dbd3dc820aab16a6ab8d3a083b55174558003d4ccfe97fe7789e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_12" data-image-id="2026012304018_962b3169d725dbd3dc820aab16a6ab8d3a083b55174558003d4ccfe97fe7789e" data-rendition-name="original" width="1750" height="1168" loading="lazy" alt="Moonie money in Nepal's politics NT"> </figure>  Buddhism spread northwards across the Himalaya from Nepal to China and Korea 1,000 years ago, but in the past decades two of Korea’s powerful ideologies have come to Nepal. Nepal’s leftist movement, most notably the Nepal Workers Peasants Party (NWPP) <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Bhaktapur-dear-leader,3010">inspired by North Korea’s Kim Il Sung’s Juche Idea</a> espouses a nationalist agenda, and has a strong base in Bhaktapur. Meanwhile, South Korea’s Unification Church of Sun Myung Moon has influenced Nepal’s political, administrative and religious spheres.&nbsp; After establishment of Moon’s Universal Peace Federation (UPF) in 2005, the Church has a sizable presence in Nepal. The movement’s leader is Ek Nath Dhakal of the Nepal Paribar Party (right) who is affiliated with the UML and even served as a minister in a UML-Maoist coalition after being nominated as a PR member to Parliament.&nbsp; <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Korean-movement-in-Nepal,2962">He told this paper in 2016</a>: “I am a Hindu, associated with the Unification Movement. The UPF staged one of its mass weddings at Dashrath Stadium in Kathmandu in 2017 (right). The movement recruits public figures like former president Bidya Devi Bhandari, Madhav Kumar Nepal and others as Ambassadors for Peace. Before he died in 2012 at age 92, Rev Moon had picked Nepal as a ‘model peace nation of God’. The Church says it embraces all religions, and does not even display the Christian cross at its places of worship.&nbsp; While young Nepalis follow South Korean pop culture fever, in Bhaktapur it is Kim Il Sung’s Juche Idea that is the dominant ideology. The Nepal Workers Peasants Party has won just about every district and local election from Bhaktapur, not so much for its politics, but because its representatives have performed well. Bhaktapur’s following of Kim Il Sung is based on Bijukchhe’s vision that his town be self-reliant and deliver development equitably.&nbsp; <h2>A worldwide web</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026012304018_5c2949a3715b74f8992a6dcfc305fbaa817a0b834365c737bb81245762d74148.jpg" data-media-id="editor_15" data-image-id="2026012304018_5c2949a3715b74f8992a6dcfc305fbaa817a0b834365c737bb81245762d74148" data-rendition-name="original" width="1750" height="968" loading="lazy" alt="Moonie money in Nepal's politics"> </figure>  In 2022, the Unification Church (Family Federation for World Peace and Unification) arranged a meeting between Yoon Suk Yeol, who was then presidential candidate, and former US Vice President Mike Pence just before South Korean elections. The visit was timed for the ‘World Summit 2022’ hosted by the Universal Peace Federation (UPF), a Unification Church affiliate. The visit was widely covered by the media at the time, but a Newstapa investigation last year confirmed that the Church paid Pence $550,000 to visit Seoul. The visit was designed to bolster Yoon’s diplomatic and security credentials and appeal to religious voters. Yoon knew Pence was a devout Christian, and media at the time reported that both prayed before the meeting. Just like the UPF’s World Summit 2018 in Kathmandu, Cambodian PM Hun Sen was in attendance as was former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The welcome remark at the Summit was delivered by Yun Young Ho, then-Director General of the Unification Church’s World Headquarters. South Korean Special Prosecutors are currently investigating Yun for allegedly bribing former president Yoon Suk Yeol’s wife Kim Keon Hee.&nbsp; Newstapa also dug up Pence’s financial disclosures filed with the US Office of Government Ethics and the Federal Election Commission and found that Pence reported receiving $550,000 from the UPF for ‘a speaking engagement’ in Seoul in 2022 — an unusually hefty fee. Cambodian Premier Hun Sen has hosted K P Oli several times in Phnom Penh, once as prime minister in 2019, and again last year in August. There seems to be a similar nexus between Hun Sen, the UPF and former President Yoon and his wife Kim Keon Hee. When he became president in 2022, Yoon visited Cambodia with his wife, and South Korea doubled its development assistance to Cambodia to $1.5 billion. The Special Prosecutor in Seoul is investigating allegations that the Unification Church provided funds to Kim Keon Hee in helping a Mekong River project in Cambodia.

Moonie money in Nepal’s politics

The India Art Fair (IAF) advertises itself as ‘the biggest event in India’s cultural calendar … a leading platform’ for art collectors who can discover modern and contemporary art from South Asia.&nbsp; For this year’s ticketed event on 5-8 February in New Delhi, more than 133 exhibitors from 14 countries will be representing top artists from their networks. Danfe Arts, a touring art space from Kathmandu, will participate in the Galleries Section of IAF’s 17th edition featuring a booth with works by six Nepali artists.&nbsp; One of them is Sanjeep Maharjan, Assistant Professor for Sculpture at Kathmandu University, who will showcase his claywork as part of Danfe Arts’ entourage. In 2024, Maharjan curated a show for Danfe Arts at Takpa Gallery titled, ‘Unfolding the City’. The IAF prefers to showcase skilled artists who have honed their practice over many years. Much like various biennales and residencies that have been popping up increasingly in Asia, the Fair delves into sociopolitical issues of the region such as many comissioned works including <a href="https://indiaartfair.in/exhibitor/yogesh-barve-supported-by-art-charlie" target="_blank">Yogesh Barve</a>’s installation entitled ‘I am not your Dalit’ featured at the feastival last year.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260115110136_13f262546fca46c0fe4d76f758a694afe7c0c1cfee5bf74eb4f257f78734f8f2.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20260115110136_13f262546fca46c0fe4d76f758a694afe7c0c1cfee5bf74eb4f257f78734f8f2" data-rendition-name="original" width="989" height="1500" loading="lazy" alt="Nepali artists at India Art Fair"> <figcaption>Anil Shahi's Hand of Hope, Oil on Canvas, 36 x 60 inches. Exhibiting work at IAF.</figcaption> </figure>  As the name implies, it is a grand bazaar where artists and their agents show up, to be seen — a powerful regional platform where creativity merges with commercial interests. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Artists have a reputation for being weak at business.&nbsp; And in Kathmandu, where the contemporary art scene has been steadily expanding since the early aughts, more and more creatives are seeking platforms like IAF and collaborators like Danfe Arts in order to boost their portfolios. A NEW COURSE In 2022, I was invited to participate in a formal group discussion by founder of and curator at Danfe Arts Shivangi Bansal who was preparing to chart a new course with her Danfe Journal. The journal included photos of artworks as well as writings about art and helped bridge the gap between art and the Nepali public’s understanding of associated processes. Contemporary art and literature is considered a niche activity. Proper marketing and outreach is required to make the product accessible to the average consumer. Besides, consistency can also be an issue. Too often, energetic graduates might register organisations and launch initiatives only to burn out within a year or so. Nepali society would benefit more from a sustained effort with a long-term vision rather than trendy initiatives that look bright and shiny. Danfe Arts discontinued the journal but continued to engage with Nepal’s art community, like facilitating a commission for Mini Tamang by the India Art Fair (IAF) in 2025, as part of IAF’s Young Collector’s Program. Tamang’s artwork, ‘Evocative Waves’, was installed at New Delhi’s Stir Art gallery last year. In 2024, Danfe Arts had organised a group exhibition called ‘A Lake That Once Was’ in New Delhi’s Bikaner House to coincide with the India Art Fair, which listed the exhibition as part of its parallel programs. This meant the Nepali artists received more visibility and value among IAF’s much larger audience.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026011804014_2a15d57a63c375503965a41396b22c006152368a018450d2617f4c8c076ccc74.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="2026011804014_2a15d57a63c375503965a41396b22c006152368a018450d2617f4c8c076ccc74" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="998" loading="lazy" alt="arts"> <figcaption>A Lake That Once Was, 2024 at Bikaner House, Delhi.</figcaption> </figure>  Since its inception, Danfe Arts has put out an eclectic mix of programs, demonstrating innovative thinking and effort. With its multi-platform approach, Danfe Arts has collaborated with restaurants like Mezze, putting up an exhibition in November 2025, ‘Bhoye - The Feast’. Danfe Arts is also cultivating relationships with specific artists based on synergies and sensibilities.&nbsp; The history of art practice in Nepal is long and illustrious, but due to political and geographical constraints, esteemed artists have been sheltered and confined within our national borders.&nbsp; By featuring these six artists for the 2026 edition of IAF, Danfe Arts is helping them make regional connections. And as our artists and gallerists show up on global platforms, they might in turn compel Nepalis to view more critically the value of art and how creative practices can contribute positively to society. As technology takes over and AI bots spam the Internet, the issue of originality might become tantamount to survival. We should take risks in our professional pursuits in order to design new communal models of exchange. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; India Art Fair New Delhi 5-8 February&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2026011804014_f226a31af8a33f8da5e7359886289de3fd1b2db17697b96b909404e582d75124.png" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="2026011804014_f226a31af8a33f8da5e7359886289de3fd1b2db17697b96b909404e582d75124" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1875" loading="lazy" alt="arts"> </figure>

Nepali artists at India Art Fair

The series <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/looking-good-by-doing-good">Nepal Made</a> profiles world-class Nepali products and the people behind them. Deepak Acharya was born and raised in Simara, before his uncle took him to Pokhara when he was only in sixth grade. After class, he helped sell jackets and outdoor gear at his uncle's Lakeside store. &nbsp; Twenty-two years later, &nbsp;Acharya is still selling jackets. Not international brands like he used to, but products of his own outdoor gear company, DOLPO.&nbsp; Acharya and his brother-in-law, Krishna Ammai, started making and selling jackets and gear for international companies out of Thamel. After losing his business partner in the 2015 earthquake, he was done selling imported items. He launched his own line of outerwear, named after Nepal’s rugged and remote district, known for its stunning arid landscape. The careful selection of the name DOLPO paid off. It took off, providing a high-quality, affordable Nepal-made alternative to foreign companies.&nbsp; “A lot of work went into choosing the name Dolpo,” says Acharya, who considered what came into people’s minds when they heard the name of a place with double-O sound. “I wanted a brand that local customers would instantly relate to toughness and mountains.” The elegant logo reflects this as well, made up of two overlapping rounded triangles denoting mountains with a third peak in the middle. Underneath is ‘DOLPO’ in upper case sans serif.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20260116120148_968d9354094049265372d851d0e44e16ae4fc86b5631481e365e6e977f13d37d.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20260116120148_968d9354094049265372d851d0e44e16ae4fc86b5631481e365e6e977f13d37d" data-rendition-name="original" width="854" height="1280" loading="lazy" alt="Dolpo NT"> <figcaption>Photo: DOLPO</figcaption> </figure>  RIGHT QUALITY, RIGHT PRICE “Our philosophy is Right quality, Right price,” says co-founder Deepak Acharya, adding with a smile that the pricing strategy of a particular competitor has made business easy: “The employees at North Face may sell North Face, but they wear Dolpo.” The rebranding was so successful that Acharya regrets not launching it sooner. The reason for the success is that the outdoor gear market in Nepal has taken off with more and more domestic tourists trekking in the high mountains to share their adventures on social media.&nbsp; Nepalis seem to be consciously choosing sustainable, Nepal made products of international quality. Acharya says: “Of course, there will always be a demographic that only wears North Face, or Sonam. But we have the right design, right price philosophy.”&nbsp; DOLPO uses fabric and material mainly from Japan, and adheres to strict quality control. The reversible down jackets, windcheaters, shorts, fleece-lined pants, trekking trousers, backpacks, and polo shirts can be bought through its website, or two exclusive flagship stores in Sorakhutte and Thamel Chok. “After the rebrand, we slowly made a digital platform, marketed online, and worked with a delivery company to get items directly to buyers,” says Acharya. “We have no brokers or middlemen to keep prices low for the consumer.” DOLPO is a family business with Acharya’s mother and sister also involved, and nephew Nishant Ammai driving digital sales. Acharya points out that there is a lot of business opportunity in Nepal, as there are too many low-quality products being sold at too high a price. &nbsp;“The market is begging for an auto-correction,” he says. For Nepal’s pessimistic youth who are fleeing the country, Acharya urges patience: “The younger generation wants shortcuts. The mindset is to set up a venture and in three years they will be set for life. But this is not how success works.” “Choose a field, put in ten years of effort, really learn about it, and then you will see the vast possibility present in Nepal,” he continues.&nbsp; Last month, the DOLPO logo was seen on the jerseys of the Biratnagar Kings in NPL 2. The company made hats, jackets, and jerseys for star-studded cricket players including Lokesh Bam, Sandeep Lamichhane, Faf Du Plessis, and Martin Guptill. The Kings finished second in the group, and although Acharya is a football fan, he is happy to contribute to the rise of cricket in Nepal. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Proud to wear DOLPO

This is the 80th episode of Diaspora Diaries, a Nepali Times series in collaboration with Migration Lab providing a platform to share experiences of living, working and studying abroad.
I worked in Kuwait for 11 years before deciding to call it quits. I had not visited Nepal in nine years. A broker from eastern Nepal had arranged the migration of 15 of us, and I was the only one from Jajarkot. 
Since the government did not allow domestic workers to migrate, we went through India. We were afraid he might sell us off in India. I had never left my village. As a precaution, we made the female broker accompany us to India till we flew out to Kuwait.
At the airport in Kuwait, no one came to pick us up and we waited there for two days. We did not have any money so we had to beg for food and water. Some gave us noodles, biscuits and water. Others ignored us. 
We even drank water from used bottles from the trash. The Indian agent finally came to pick us up but we were too scared to confront him.
The first house I was placed in was not good. I did not speak Arabic and I did not know how to use the iron or washing machine. A Filipino worker helped me, but madam kept following me around and making me do everything twice. It was not easy at all.
Not able to understand the language I was like someone dumb and deaf. Hand gestures were not sufficient. I don’t know how I passed those two years before returning to Nepal. But there were no jobs, no money. So I decided to migrate again to Kuwait because it felt familiar, and by this time I spoke Arabic. 
This time, I stayed with the same family for nine years. All four children in the house were born when I was there, so they are very attached to me. Madam was all right although she made me work a lot and micromanaged me. Every family member in Kuwait had their car and driver. Back home we don’t even own personal bicycles.
Taking care of children meant that I could go wherever they went so I got to travel and eat pizzas and burgers. They paid me on time, and I sent money home to take care of my sister, a cancer survivor.
With my savings I also bought land and built a small house in Surkhet. I have no educational background or work experience, so this was a big deal.
For nine years, I did not see a reason to return because of my obligations to my sister and her son. In Kuwait, I met with colleagues from different countries like the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and India but we communicated in Arabic. We worked for different families but got to meet every Thursday when madams used to go to her mother’s house. 
We got along and fought like sisters, but most of our time went running after the children. There was no time for anything else. Madam’s house where I spent nine years was good, but it is actually how well the employers treat us that is important.
I watched Tiktok videos during my free time. Mostly deuda songs. During the GenZ movement, I was glued to social media. I supported it, but wished they had not burnt down government offices. I was not allowed to post on social media. 
By the time I left, I was making around 180 Kuwait dinar a month ($580). I have heard horror stories from Nepali sisters about their employers, but mine paid me well and on time. She could have been better by allowing me to rest more, to use the phone more freely. 
Between preparing children for school, ironing, washing, cleaning the house, cooking, taking care of the children, I had no time for anything. Not even to sleep properly. What can we do?
Back in Nepal I often wonder how the children are doing. If they are eating well. You get attached to them, but as they grow older, they also complain about us. I used to sing and dance with the kids. They depended on me for everything and I had watched them right from the time they were born. 
Sometimes, they used to refer to me as their mother which my madam did not like. I don’t have my own kids. That is why when I made up my mind to leave, I felt bad leaving them behind, especially the youngest one who relied on me for everything. 
Even now, when I think about it, my eyes tear up. Madam asked me to take a long vacation and return to Kuwait, but I had made up my mind to go back to Nepal. A Sri Lankan woman replaced me, and we overlapped for a month as I trained her and the children got used to her. 
On my last day, Madam and I decided that I should sneak out without telling the children because they would not be able to handle it. I asked the Sri Lankan woman how the children are holding up, and she said the youngest one still cries asking about me. Madam was also emotional about me leaving, she gave me olive oil, clothes and sweets but no money. I cannot describe how happy I was to get on the plane to return home, my heart was full of excitement.
Since I came back, it has been a very different experience. After nine years of living in someone else’s house where my every move was monitored, I feel so free. I can use the phone as I please. I can sleep as I please. I need to catch up on my sleep. There is so much freedom. 
Because of the children, I had developed a taste for pizzas and burgers but they are not as tasty in Nepal, I don’t know why. But the meal I was craving for when I came home was freshly made rice, lentils and mustard greens. I went to the hospital here, and I saw nurses in uniform and it reminded me of the domestic workermaid’s clothes I wore in Kuwait. 
I am worried about money running out, even though it has only been a few weeks. Expenses are high in Nepal. The monthly income has stopped. When I went a decade ago, I relied on others financially. Now, there are others who depend on me.
Author wants to remain anonymous.

paintings

The power of peace

The world of a working artist

Between the sacred and everyday

Robert G Powell, 1948-2020

Robert G Powell, 1948-2020

The Chinese are coming

Two new galleries in town

Mapping the earthquake with art

Moonie money in Nepal’s politics

Nepali artists at India Art Fair

Proud to wear DOLPO

Homecoming after nine years