Metal

From the beginning Nepal produced beautiful art work in metal. The copper coins of the Licchavi from the 5th century of the Christian era show the highly developed metal art of Nepal. In the temples of the Kathmandu Valley there are copper statues made from the lost wax process (cine-per-due) that can be dated back to the 2nd and 3rd centuries A.D...

Jewelry

Jewelry is closely associated with a culture's aesthetic ideals, with its sensuous contours, the glistening patterns of its stones- even materials from which they are made all reveal a culture's impassioned view about what is beautiful...

Masks

The gods are on the hand, the demons on the other, representing good and evil, they are the two radical opposing forces in Hindu mythology who have been fighting ever since the beginning of creation itself. In each drama the gods emerge as victors, the demons get vanquished, and the dancers have worn masks to stage these dramas. Wearing a mask makes a person a god, another a devil, and this is where the drama gets enacted...

Art And Gallery

There are a great many art galleries in Nepal which display not only intriguing ancient artworks but also house more contemporary pieces. Much of the art of Nepal is strongly influenced by the Hindu and Buddhist religions that are prevalent in this land. As a result, you will find that most of the historical artifacts bear beautiful images of deities and other related matter. Nepal's art galleries are fairly numerous and you will find that many of those displaying older artworks can more readily be termed a museum...

Stone

The Kathmandu valley is endowed with thousands of works in stone, some of them dating back 2,000 years, with the huge life size statue of King Jayavarma from 185 A.D. considered the oldest sandstone sculpture in Nepal, which is on display in the National Museum at Chaunni, looking similar to contemporary Indian icons...

Souveniors

Travelers in Nepal can buy souvenirs such as Tibetan carpets, beaded jewelry, prayer wheels, and painted masks. Bargaining is expected in the marketplaces of Kathmandu...

Terracotta

Nepal is famous for this unique art, which is of a mostly religious nature, although there is some secular art from the very beginning of her civilisation. The excavations in the Nepalese Terai have brought to light many terracotta art works that have been scientifically dated to the 3rd and 4th centuries B.C. or even earlier. The terracotta art from Limbini, and Kapilvastu, the famous Buddhist sites, prove that the terracotta art was highly developed during...

Textiles

Jewelry is closely associated with a culture's aesthetic ideals, with its sensuous contours, the glistening patterns of its stones- even materials from which they are made all reveal a culture's impassioned view about what is beautifulRaw materials for textiles are abundant in Nepal, and with the contrasting climates and altitudes there has been a wealth of materials which for centuries have been extracted, spun, twisted and woven into a multitude of textiles. Animals and plants are the sources, and from animals they include sheep's wool, yak hair, cashmere- like hair from goats, and more recently silk from the Bombyx moth larva. Fibers from plants are the...

Thankas

"Painting is the mother of all forms of art" so says a Hindu scripture, whereas the pre-historic cave paintings of Dordogne in France and Altamira in Spain are considered 12,000 years old, the history of painting in Nepal dates back to the Lichhavi period in the beginning of the Christain era. The wall paintings and inscriptions in Chhabahil near Pashupatinath are dated to the 5th century and inscriptions in Kathmandu and Gorkha are some other examples...

Wood Carving

The art of wood carving has been the pride of Nepal for many centuries. Woodwork has been part of traditional architecture of Nepal and wood carvings have graced monasteries, temples, palaces and residential homes since the twelfth century, although the earliest surviving dated temple decorated with wood carving, the Indresvara Mahadeva temple in Panauti near Banepa, bears the date 1396. Another one of such wooden monument, a traditional architectural site named Kasthamandapa a wooden mansion near Hanuman Dhoka, Kathmandu, still stands...

Mithila Art

Janakpur, a city in Nepal's eastern Terai, is a Hindu pilgrimage site with a legendary history, and is the center of Mithila culture in Nepal. It is an age old culture with its own language and rich literature where women have had a predominant role in the field of painting, as well as handicraft.The painting traditions vary from caste to caste. The art of Brahmins and Kayastha (the ca te which one kept records for Brahmins) is closely tied to religious ritual, as shown in the making of aripana, in which the women grind rice with water into a paste called pithar. Dipping two fingers into the pithar they make graceful lace like designs on the mud floors of their homes...

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