Nepal
Changu 3 Years After: How a Village in Nepal Slowly Recovers
Today is the third anniversary of the devastating earthquakes that killed nearly 9000 people and changed the life of everybody in Nepal, as we are still struggling with its consequences every day.
We look today at the pictures of our village after the earthquake and we can see how our small community managed to recover even if several houses are still damaged or under construction.
Little by little the number of tourists visiting Changu Narayan is increasing.
We are very happy to see more people entering our workshops and learn how to create mandala and thangka paintings or traditional Himalayan wooden masks.
This is really important for our art school, especially for the younger student artists that have the opportunity to improve their english while learning side by side with foreigners.
Despite the good numbers registered by the tourist sector, many people in our village and villages nearby, mostly farmers, are still struggling.
Three years ago we decided to use TraditionalArtofNepal.com to help our small community by donating a generous amount of each sale coming from this website.
We are glad of the support we received during these difficult years and we are all truly grateful of the generous contributions of all our customers. Thanks to you visiting the website and purchasing our works of art we funded several projects to build shelters, fixing and restoring houses, providing necessary goods to homeless and people living in rural areas. We also financed several activities like IT classes for kids, village and forests cleanups and workshops to support and empower women in our village.
If you are not familiar with these projects please visit: kaygarnay.org and dada-home.org.
Yet there is a lot of work to do. Even in western countries it takes years if not decades to rebuild after a natural disaster of these proportions. So considering the economic situation of our country, the greed and incompetence of the same old politicians and the high level of corruption, it is reasonable to say that we are still at the beginning of the recovering process.
The good news is that despite the difficult circumstances people here keep smiling and always show hope and optimism, and we are proud to be part of all this.
If you would like to contribute please share our website with your friends to support our art school and help our community to restore our village.
Again thank you to all our dear customers that make this possible.
Namaste.
Art and Monuments One Year Later. Rubin Museum #HonorNepal
The following is a brief video tribute to the Nepalese cultural heritage in honor of the anniversary of the 2015 Earthquakes.
For more information about the Rubin Museum of Art, including the Honoring Nepal installation and gallery programs, please visit rubinmuseum.org
End of 2015 in Nepal: Blockade and Aftershocks.
Eight moths ago a devastating earthquake changed the life of many here in Nepal.
Even if our school and workshops were severely damaged we tried our best to help who lost everything and suffered more this disaster.
We shared this effort with the help of volunteers and donors from all around the world and this was possible also thanks to the contribution of our customers and friends.
During the following months many of our artists had to go to their villages to assist their families and try to fix their houses as they could.
Both these difficulties and the psychological implications of personal traumas, slowed down our work with the orders and we are truly sorry for the long delays.
Today the earth is still shaking (almost weekly) our damaged buildings but, sadly, this is not the only concern that people are fearing at this time.
In fact, since almost three months now, we have been facing an even more critical situation because of the blockade to the import of gas, petrol and other goods from India.
This is severely affecting the economy of the whole country, especially small business like ours, but majorly the people that are still in a very precarious conditions and who cannot afford to buy goods on the black market at a price 4 or 5 times higher.
Very little has been reported by the international media about the current crisis in our country and how the blind political game between the Indian and Nepali governments is effecting our daily life.
From an article of Associated Press posted few days ago:
The blockade of a key border point with India is leaving Nepal with only about 15 percent of its normal supply of gasoline, diesel and cooking fuel, and creating shortages of other goods including food and medicine.
Since most of Nepal’s imported goods flow through India, many businesses are being squeezed by the blockade. They are having a tough time paying rent, utility bills and employee salaries.
Because of these difficulties we decided to use our small resources to take care of our team of artists, especially our young students that we host in our school.
In fact, because of the cold temperatures at night here in Changunarayan and damages in the structure, we cannot use the school at this time and we decided to arrange a better accommodation for them.
At the same time we are trying to help also our master artists and their families, and the contribute of our customers is really important for them.
We hope that this blockade will end soon and with it the humanitarian crisis that many are facing. This would help our small business and school as well.
Again we apology for the delays.
Thanks for your patience, support and understanding.
Blessing
The team of TraditionalArtOfNepal.com