Treasure of Nepal - Sample Flip Book

Kathmandu and I have often thought how this shortage of power has contributed
to the preservation of these handcrafts. There are always younger boys standing
around, engaged in conversation, laughing, learning – watching the hammer and
chisel pick out the details, line by line. Apprentices often work from home. They have
a chance to prove themselves on the smaller works before they can get a place in a
studio like Image Atelier.
Rabindra’s workshop has been handed down from one generation to the next creating
both Buddhist and Hindu sculptures for temples and monasteries as well as
for private customers. They practice the traditional craft of Thodya (embossing in
metal sheet) Majha (giving complete form) as it is called in Newari or repoussé as
it is called here in the West. In Thodya Majha larger metal sheet is worked from the
front and back against formers, and for the smaller details the chasing method is
used from the front of the object supported by a hardened pitch mould.
After the earthquake in 2015 not much had changed at least to the workshop and
the works in progress as far as I could see. The craftsmen took time off to return
to their villages and rebuild temporary housing for their families as well as helping
out with relief work in the neighbouring communities. I made several visits from late
2014 to 2016 leaving my home in the north east of the city by bicycle or scooter
along the busy ring road; a journey of about ten kilometres south to Patan. It was
always an adventure.
The roads, before the quake, had been undergoing construction – an incomplete
section of dual carriageway seemed to be years in the making, and after the quake
huge gaps had appeared cutting across the tarmac through the landscape to precarious
leaning and cracked houses on the roadside. There were places where the
surface had risen by half a metre. Temporary dirt ramps had opened up the road
again but traffic was bottlenecked in several places where four lanes were squeezed
Left: The head of a large copper Buddha made using the traditional repoussé
technique.
Top: Two workers discuss the construction of the base of a copper statue.
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