Nepal, a country with diverse culture, traditional heritage and religion, has had a unique way of life. There was a time, we hear, when everyone were self sufficient. People did not have to worry about providing food, shelter and clothes to their families. People would work hard and tirelessly and were happy with the living standards.
But now, the unstable government, lack of job opportunities and lack of education has led many skilled, semi skilled and unskilled labors to go to the Gulf countries in search of better paying jobs. Many of whom are our artists who learnt the ancient art of painting thangkas and statues from their grandfathers from their early childhood.
A couple of years back, I went to meet one of my artist friends who was a statue maker. I found out that he had left for a better paying job in one of the Gulf countries. I was heartbroken. I never thought that the person who was so talented and skilled at making masterpiece statues would someday decide to go to another country to earn money. I started to ponder. I finally spoke to him on the phone and asked him why he took this drastic measure. His answer was too simple. The reason he had to go to the Gulf country was because he could not provide enough for his family of 5 with the statue making work. The price of the raw materials, utility charges and wages were getting higher day by day and the end product was being sold at very low rates competing with the machine made statues. He had already known that the days of working with statues was over. His preparedness to continue the legacy of his family, his keen interest to teach his kids the art so that they would continue to preserve the art and culture after he passed away, crumbled beneath the weight of the loan he had taken to continue his workshop.
I was speechless and completely shattered to see what our society has done to him and many more like him. Even I was the one who would seek products from him for lower prices so that I could market it at better prices to compete in the ever growing e-commerce. I started to realize that we had been chopping off our tree more than the tree could handle which eventually left the tree dry and dying. I apologized to him for not being able to help him and promised that whenever he returned, I would partner with him and many more like him, to bring their products directly to the global market through a website which will be strictly "DIRECT FROM THE ARTISTS" where they will be the rightful owner of their own products, setting their own prices, taking direct custom orders and grow in their own terms.
Today I am very happy to announce the opening of the website thangkashop.com, a subsidiary of NepaCrafts Product which is committed to bringing affordable and truly majestic thangkas and Buddhist statues to you at the core initiation and involvement of the artists themselves. We will have many photos and videos of our artists and the team in the coming days where you will get to know each one of them and their magnificient work personally.
With love and prayers from Nepal.
