Treasure of Nepal - Sample Flip Book

The work in this book covers both secular and religious crafts. It is hard to draw
a line between them because each craft is connected to the religious and spiritual
context of the Nepalese culture. The diversity of the work, the skills, the objects that
emerge from these activities provide us with a comprehensive picture of the Nepalese
and their lives at a time when technology is transforming the country into a
modern society.
Social, economic and environmental changes in Nepal are taking place at a rapid
pace. Education is providing opportunities to more and more young people in
Nepal. Illiteracy is becoming a thing of the past. The Internet exposes children to a
world that their parents were unaware of when they began their vocations. The life
choices of the young are expanding and many are migrating to developed countries
to pursue careers that are not possible at the moment in Nepal. The children
of uneducated craftspeople see the world very differently to the way their parents
do and they face difficult community choices in leaving the family tradition behind.
In the next two decades skilled workers in their prime will get old and retire and
there will be fewer and fewer people to replace them. Tradition runs very deep in
this nation; customs and values will not change overnight, but the craftspeople in
small workshops that are scattered around the Kathmandu valley will inevitably face
challenges as new technologies replace the work of their hands.
Gary Wornell
Riihimäki 2016