 |
Kathmandu Wednesday March 21, 2001 Chaitra 08, 2057.
|
Giving life to the stones
By Perina Pathak
KATHMANDU - Dharma Raj Shakya, 27, saw life in stones. And he has grown up
making the stones as mortals. With enormous contours and curves, he has filled life in the
stones.
And it is his passion for the stones and to give energy to them, that he has
come up with a solo exhibition of stone carvings, which was recently held in the capital.
It was his father - Nunem Raj Shakya, who is a teacher and sculptor, whose
works inspired Dharma. He learned the art of stone carving in his father’s Jyashal
(working place).
In his life of 27 years, Dharma has already made more than 3,000 sculptures
including big and small crafts, all his work in a single stone. Amongst all his works, the
largest one is the Buddhanilkantha Narayan Statue at Banepa, which is 19 feet tall and 15
feet wide. He has also made small stone sculptures which are as small as 1-2 inch, which
are also on display at the exhibition.
The enormous display of 101 sculptures itself is an evidence of his passion
with the art of stone carving. There are mainly the sculptures of gods and goddesses from
Hindu (Durga, sleeping Bishnu, Changu Narayan, etc.) and Buddhist (Life of Buddha, Pragya
Paramita, stupa, etc) religions.
"Among all my works, it took me around seven months to finish Pragya
Paramita for which I won first prize for National Talent Award in 1999," says Dharma.
"It is the most expensive one amongst the displayed works." And it shows in the
price list. Pragya Paramita’s cost has been put up at Rs 312, 000, the most expensive
amongst those in display.
He did all the stone works for the expo 2000, held in Germany.
His craftsmanship reflects the socio- religious and spiritual concept of
human civilization that could probably be history tomorrow. Dharma has this deep fear that
the tradition of stone carving could be extinct tomorrow.
"There may be only 12 families in the Kathmandu valley, who are doing
this work," says Dharma. "What I want to achieve from my exhibition is that I
want to enliven the art of stone carving. I want people to know about the beauty of the
imations of stones, which I fear Nepali people have almost forgotten."
Though it has remained a life-long passion for him, Dharma started taking
this as a profession in the nineties. "I am working as a professional in this field
from early 90s," he says. He does not, however, have much knowledge about when his
ancestors started taking the art as a profession.
He believes that an artist is inborn and the trainings and courses in the
colleges only help them brush up their talent. There is no school or institution that
trains on stone carving, "I learned painting at Lalit Kala Campus and stone carving
at home," says Dharma.
"No one can be an artist by learning that in the colleges," he
says. "Since there are no institutions that teach stone carving, the interested
students come to our house and both of us (me and my father) teach."
During his passion for the art of filling life to lifeless things, he has
made sculptures out of stone, wood and clay and now it is just the stones that has
engrossed him. "It is my profession and my way to survive, the only way of
earning," he says. Not only his own job, he says he can guarantee a job for 15
people.
His problem lies in the unavailability of stones. "There is also a
problem of finding and bringing stones, which I bring from Hattiban (on the way to
Dakchhinkali). The stones are very expensive, the cost ranges from Rs 200 to 2,000,"
says he. "The price varies according to its quality. For the sculpture two types of
stones are used - one is Hard Black stone and another is soft stone that is brown in
colour."
Dharma tells that from soft stone if they try to make a scupture more than
two feet then it will break or may crack, therefore, black stone is used for sculptures
bigger than two feet.
The work is not without hurdles and disappointments. "While working if
the stone cracks or the parts like nose, hand break out then we have to start all over
again, which is tough and challenging and we have to use lots of imagination and work very
hard," says he.
He has already made a mark in National and International arena for his work.
He has also won awards in different competition for his works, like gold medal on all
Nepal Handicraft competition and more. He has also worked for different temples, statues,
portraits, and for orders.
"His works have protected the heritage and archeological work which is
at the verge of extinction from our country," says Shekhar Manandhar, one of the
visitors.
The inner apperception of beauty, the subtle and mysterious way of self
expression of young Nepalese traditional artist's mind is unfolded here in the present
displayed works of sculptor Dharma Raj Shakya.
Other Stories
|
