Nepal
Losing a Home in a Remote Village of Nepal
Imagine losing your home in an instant.
Few hours ago a landslide destroyed part of the village of our master artists Kamal and Sanjaya in Kavre and they lost the house where they were born.
Thankfully our relatives are safe but some of our villagers friends were injured. There are people that died in the area according to the first reports. According to the news the floods of the past days killed more than 100 people and many are missing in Nepal.
After almost 3 days of rain and floods many roads are closed and entire areas are under water. However the rain now stopped and we hope in few days to be able to reach the village and bring food, clothes and medicines.
These are the pictures that we just received from our friends and family.
Many of the artists and artisans of our thangka school have spent their childhood in small villages in remote areas of Nepal. And for all of us, our family house in the village has a special place in our hearts.
Beyond the physical destruction.
Together with earthquakes, floods and landslides, the families that live in rural villages, like in Kavre, have seen their livelihoods disrupted and this forced many to flee their homes. The economic impact of these events have been devastating, as communities struggle to recover and rebuild. This process, together with many young Nepali migrating, is creating ghost villages and destroying communities and their cultural heritage.
The lives of the people that decide to stay in these villages rely on agriculture and the financial support of their relatives. If you feel like sending a donation to help our villagers friends and families of our thangka painters we are very thankful.
Please use these links:
https://paypal.me/TradArtNepal
https://www.paypal.com/donate/XAQTVUA4XFEU4
Blessings and gratitude for your heart-warming messages and solidarity.
Namaste.
Note: Because of the disruptions caused by the floods also in the Kathmandu valley we will have to delay shipments. We appreciate your patience and understanding in this difficult times.
More updates on our social media pages.
Supporting The Community During The Lock-down
The entire world is living a difficult time as the covid-19 pandemic changed the life of many and people are very concerned for the future of their families and their communities.
In under-developed countries like Nepal people are more accustomed to uncertainty especially in the last years during which we faced earthquakes, blockades, shortages and economic and political crisis.
Here most of the population can afford to feed their families with day to day jobs, and since the start of the lock-down it began a new humanitarian crisis that is affecting the people that are more vulnerable.
Even before we started our little website to share the works of art created by the artists and artisans of our village with the world, we always been committed to help our community.
The meaning behind the artworks that we create is a universal message of compassion and kindness toward each other, and we try as much as we can to live according to these values.
We strongly believe that our generous customers and all our friends that follow us on instagram, twitter, facebook and other social media are moved by the same spirit.
During these years we promoted and participated to several projects that were successful also thanks to help of many of you.
We are sponsoring a beautiful project carried on by Girls Empowered by Travel – Nepal that is currently distributing rice, flour, lentils, oil, salt and milk to vulnerable women: pregnant or new mothers, single mothers and elderly women in three rural communities: Sarlahi, Changunarayan and Gre.
Please share the link of the campaign of GET-Nepal project on GoFundme and if you can please contribute with a small donation.
$10 can feed a family for one week!
Thank you.
Nepal Flood July 2019 – Report from Changu
Rising water level in a stream at Kalanki in Kathmandu July 2019. Photos of Sanjog Manandhar – Kathmandu Post
We are having heavy rainfall especially in the past 3 days and it is still raining today. Many places in Kathmandu valley and southern Nepal have been flooded.
We cannot reach Bhaktapur (only 8km from Changunarayan) because the main access road is totally flooded and the steep road downhill is full of mud and big rocks.
View of the bus park and the main road flooded in Changunarayan, Nepal – July 2019[
All roads to Kathmandu have been cut off and many areas are without electricity and phone lines are off as well. The rescue teams are trying to reach these areas by helicopters.
There are reports of landslides from villages where our relatives live in the areas of Kavre and Sindhupalchock, also few casualties were reported. Today we managed to talk to our families and friends on the phone and they are safe. The fields are covered in mud and stones, and the crop are damaged or lost and they have a total blackout since days. The electric poles are very dangerous in Nepal especially in case of floods.
Here some pictures from Kavre taken by the relatives of Mira and Kabita, two of our dear master artists.
Following few videos showing the magnitude of the flooding – Videos by Sanish Jalmi Maharjan.
It is still raining, but less and the weather should get better in the next days as we keep our hope high.
There is a saying in Tibetan: “Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.”
No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that’s our real disaster.
~ the Dalai Lama
We are sorry to delay the shipments of the artworks for our kind customers. We all thank you for patience, your nice messages and prayers. We will answer your emails as soon as possible.
Namaste.
The Importance of Our Heritage: Changu Narayan Nepal 2020 Campaign
Many people visiting our village walk happily along the small old streets around the ancient decorated buildings, the forest, the temples and shrines and houses, some still damaged like our art school, but the reconstruction works continues and we hope they will be finished soon.
We sometimes forget the importance and the value behind the beauty that we are surrounded with during our daily life but we know, as most of the people coming to visit our village realize, that we live in a very special place.
In fact behind the history of the first rocks that were posed in Changu Narayan there are beautiful Hindu and Buddhist stories and legends that belongs to the whole humanity.
Nepal 2020
Nepal is preparing to host an important international EXPO in 2020. An event about the importance of the world cultural heritage. As Nepali we feel like we are all part of it as we all have worked hard to support our communities recovering since the earthquakes of 2015.
The struggle and the effort that the people of Nepal with the contribution of many coming from all around the world, working together to rebuild our small and slowly developing country, will be finally rewarded.
Our team and community of artists did what we could with the little we had, collaborated and worked together with our villagers and organizations like Kay Garnay for Nepal and other like minded businesses like Changu Farm House and many many people coming from all around the world, visiting our beautiful place.
Together we financed and co-managed projects to build shelters, provide warm clothes to rural villagers, organized cleanups and several other activities to improve the quality of life of our lovely community, and showed to the world the little explored beauties and treasures that our unique heritage temple village has to offer.
Traditional Art of Nepal
Six years ago, we started this website with the intend to open the doors of our thangka art school and workshops to the digital world.
At the time we were already hosting and providing meals to 12 young artists coming from remote villages of Kavre and Sindhupalchok. Sixteen all together living and practicing in the thangka painting school and gallery so people walking by could admire both the artworks and the artists.
To understand what was our starting point please watch this beautiful video that Crystal Bell realized after visiting our art school.
Thangka: A Journey of Discovery
For us the idea to sell online our artworks was incredible, almost impossible at first, because we barely had 8 hours of electricity every day, sometimes none and the wifi was a luxury.
When the website was online we were a little concerned also because our English was not good but we had many great people helping and we were so exited even to receive and read a message coming from a visitor admiring our art on the screen of their computer.
When the first order arrived we were full of joy.
After two years the website started growing in traffic as we received more and more orders. It was very challenging but we where doing our best and thanks to the success we were able to host 6 young students more.
The Earthquakes of 2015
It is difficult to describe how deep was the shock that the earthquakes of 2015 provoked in all of us. The magnitude of this event is present in our lives still today.
It was Saturday morning, the rest day of the week in Nepal so most of the people were outside or doing puja and school is off as well.
In the drama we were lucky somehow. The death toll could have been worse.
Sadly we had few deaths in our village but way less than other villages nearby like Sankhu, or Bhaktapur the main city at the foothill of Changunarayan.
After dealing with the emergency and the confusion and fears of the first days we slowly adapted to the new reality.
It took us almost 6 weeks to be back online.
During this time we collaborated with many people helping of our community and villages around and thanks to volunteers and even friends that sent their messages through the website we also co-funded a local NGO.
However there were no tourists anymore and selling online was our last resource, also to gather money to finance the volunteering projects.
Plus the art school partially collapsed and the rest of the structure was severely damaged. The owner of the building had his house damaged as well so he could only afford to fix his own house. Also our families had damages or loss of structures so we were living in a difficult condition while the tremors of the aftershocks accompanied our daily life for more than one year since that Saturday.
During the monsoon season we placed few good orders so managed to find accommodation for the artists and helped building shelters for homeless families and elders.
The Long Winter
While the cold season was approaching we started collecting warm clothes and other donations in form of stationary items for school kids, water filters and whatever could help.
After the first few deliveries to Sindhupalchok the news came out that the import of all good coming from India where blocked at the border. We don’t want to enter in the political merit of the blockade but the consequences of this block were suddenly evident.
No gasoline, no cooking gas, even less electricity and higher prices basically for everything.
That winter was one of the longest winter we ever felt.
Bistari Bistari
Nepal is still today a country with many issues and many people lack basic needs however we have proven to have a strong temperament as we keep smiling at life.
We sincerely hope that the coming EXPO and campaign #VisitNepal2020 will help not only people coming to enjoy the beauty of our country but also to promote projects for a sustainable development of Nepal.
Here a short interview to our master artist Kamal Bhujel realized by an amazing organization called Girls Empowered by Travels that operates in Nepal.
Gratitude
The construction works of the art school started only last year and it should be completed soon.
We again want to thank you all the warm-hearthed people that that kept our hope high and helped us during these difficult years: our amazing customers, all the volunteers, the donors, the photographers and video makers, web designers and people that, bistari bistari (“slowly slowly” in Nepali language), contributed and keep working for what we believe are beautiful and important things in life.
Blessings.
To learn more about the historical importance of Changu Narayan check these beautiful videos:
Changunarayan Heritage Videos
A Walk Around Changunarayan Temple
A video shot in Changu by Chris Love after the Earthquakes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBObGazMihM&list=PLrGWaemn83HVUujaM-XIPWFvIpxh6bOph
Changu Narayan Heritage: Global Treasure Video
A Video of the Oldest Hindu Temple in Nepal with Murchunga (Nepali mouth harp) Music Intro
If you would like to support #VisitChangu2020 please share this post and subscribe to our Youtube Channel.
Namaste.
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