9. Sept 2014

REVIVING HISTORY
and is replicated in all four sides of the
new Chaitya base. The figure is called
Kinnara in Sanskirt and Lapwadyachaa in
Newari. Then the Panchadhyaani Buddha
cube was copied from a simple but artistic
one from the dilapidated and thrown
off Chaitya at the outskirt of same
Kuthuvahi complex. The four niches on
them were vacant and therefore four
Dhyaani Budhas were thought of and
the oldest so far known in Chaitya architecture
was copied from a small Chaitya
to the west of Sighabaha Mahachaitya.
This made the full plan workable.
SELECTION OF THE STONE
Once the plan was finalized Mr Santalal
Dyakhahjyapoo from Khokana was selected.
He was given the task of carving
the caitya and one year period of time.
He is the most talented stone carver in
Kathmandu valley of today.
Three men party was formed with Ulrich
von Shroeder, Santalal and I. Then the
party went on to select the raw material
- the suitable stone. They looked for
the stone in many quarries but suitable
stone was not easily available. Finally
the stone in the village of Talku from
the south of Chandragiri hill was found
suitable. It took almost four months to
acquire and transport the raw material
to the workshop of the sculptor. The
reason behind the delay was weight of
the stone and unavailability of the lifting
equipment in the quarry.
The work commenced after nearly five
months from the date of order. It took
nearly two months to carve out unnecessary
parts of the stones and bring
SEPTEMBER 2014 / 53