Crown Prince inaugurates art show

By Indra Adhikari

KATHMANDU, Apr. 7: His Royal Highness Crown Prince Paras Bir Bikram Shah Dev inaugurated the Natural Rock Art Exhibition organised by the Arniko Academy amidst a function at the Nepal Association of Fine Arts (NAFA) Gallery at Naxal today.

HRH Crown Prince Paras observed the stone arts put on display with keen interest. There are 158 rocks of different shapes and patterns. The stones show figures and images that resemble fishes, mammals, birds and human beings, while a few look like abstract paintings.

Raj Bikram Bhola Shrestha, president of the academy, took 33 years to collect them. He said he has not tampered with any of the rocks except to clean the soil. They are in the very shapes that they were found in.In his more than three-decade long tour to collect the rocks, he travelled to every nook and corner of the hilly regions of the country. His collections on display were made till 2058 BS.
The Department of Mines and Geology estimates some of the stones to be between 500 million to 3.5 billion years old.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Kuber Prasad Sharma said that the stones could be tourist attractions.

Secretary of the academy Keshav Rayamajhi said that they have been working to promote fine arts in Nepal and that the Royal family has always been a source of inspiration in this endeavour. This is highly encouraging, he said.

Shrestha said that he has spent three months annually since the last 33 years looking for these stones.

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