Newar Sculptors and Tibetan Patrons in the 20th Century

Newar Sculptors and Tibetan Patrons in the 20th Century

Erberto Lo Bue

This article is meant to supplement my previous studies on the role played by theNewars of the Nepal Valley in the history of Tibetan art and culture1 with the resultsof a recent research—carried out in December 2000 under the sponsorship of theUniversity of Bologna—updating my earlier fieldwork in the Nepal Valley (1972-1975, 1977-1978 and 1986), in the Tibetan settlements of India (1981-1982) and inTibet itself (1987, 1995-1997). During my last visit to the Nepal Valley, I was able torecord the artistic production of the most representative Newar sculptors workingfor Tibetan clients, by interviewing a number of sculptors, collecting informationon dead artists from their descendants, colleagues or former pupils, as well as locat-ing and having pictures taken of the most representative 20th century Newar stat-ues found in Buddhist monasteries and Hindu temples.

Such research was initially prompted by my painful awareness of the almost totallack of historical information concerning the traditional sculptors who have con-tributed to preserve and transmit the cultural heritage of Buddhism in the 20thcentury through the production of a number of images fashioned not only formonasteries and temples in the Nepal Valley, but also for monastic foundations inBhutan, India, Tibet (both before and after the demise of the Lamaist state), Japan,Taiwan and Mongolia, as well as other parts of the Asian and non-Asian Buddhistworld. The general lack of interest in this topic reflects a common attitude by arthistorians and collectors, who generally discount religious art works produced afterthe 31st December 1899 of the Christian Era and choose to ignore the contributionafforded by generations of artists to the preservation of Buddhism through the trans-mission of its visual forms in the course of a century-old process of which the presentis but the continuation.

I am equally aware of the caveat expressed by Rob Linrothe (in note.4 to hisbrilliant essay in this volume) in guarding against repeating on the blind alleys ofWestern art history and against the danger of recreating a history of great men, ofindividual geniuses who shaped the course of art by creating “originals.” I sym-pathize with his view that a social history of art may be a corrective to romanticismsof the spiritualizing and the aestheticizing varieties. I do not wish to become theGiorgio Vasari of 20th century Newar artists, also because I am not an artist myself;but I believe that it is important to record a page in the history of Buddhist art beforeit becomes anonymous and difficult to date. The study of 20th century Buddhistart works is all the more important since Buddhist images do not merely representthe Buddha and various deities of the Buddhist pantheon, but are “dynamicallyinvolved” in the production of religious meaning. They have an ontological signifi-cance in their own right and serve to “complete” the ontology of their proto-types.2

As in the past, the most important religious images produced by the Newarsculptors of the Nepal Valley are generally commissioned by competent religiousmasters for an audience including a large proportion of ordinary—sometimeseven illiterate—faithful, who are unlikely to resort to texts in order to interpret the

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complexities of the Buddhist or Brahmanical pantheon any more than the majorityof Christian devotees would when praying in front of their images. Texts oftenfollow religious practice and oral tradition rather than precede them,3 and excessivefocus on textual sources may risk to create an incomplete picture of Buddhist art byobscuring vital aspects of Buddhist thought and practice.4 In particular the one-to-one correlation between a specific image and a given text may sometimes provemethodologically unsatisfactory and even incorrect; images can hardly be deter-mined by a single textual source, whereas they ought to be contextualized within alarger field including not only texts, but also practices and ideas as well as local andextra-artistic factors.5

This does not mean dismissing the importance of the relationship of religious artwith religious writing, but it does mean that religious texts should be analysed inconnection with the modus operandi of the artists and within the local environmentin which images are produced, bearing in mind that iconography describes a pre-existing situation before prescribing it. In other words religious images should berecontextualized within a non-exclusively textual environment; then the importanceof their role in the transmission and preservation of Buddhism may become clearerthan it is now. Before affording that kind of recontextualisation, however, a surveyof the present artistic output ought to be made. Hence the purpose of this article islimited to sharing some of the data I have collected on the main traditional BuddhistNewar sculptors of the 20th century, primarily recording their production in relationto their patronage and social background, and referring only secondarily to theirsources, materials and techniques, which have already been dealt with in earlierpublications.

The main artists taken here into consideration are, in alphabetical order: “Babu”Kaji Vajracarya (b. 1942); Bhima Sakya (b. 1932); Bodhi Raja Sakya (1920-1990);Candra Bhai (b. 1949); Indra Raja Vajracarya (b. 1956); Jagat Mana Sakya (b. 1940);Kalu Kuma (b. 1933); Kesa Raja Sakya (1909-1967); Kubera Simha Sakya (1881-1958); Mana Jyoti Sakya (1917-1990); Mohan Raja Sakya (b. 1962); Nhuchhe RajaSakya (b. 1933); Pañca Raja Vajracarya (b. 1916); Raja Kumara Sakya (b. 1966); RajesKuma (b. 1954); Rudra Raja Sakya (b. 1927); Saogha Ratna Sakya (1932-1995); SantaKumara Sakya (b. 1947); and Siddhi Raja Sakya (b. 1924). Their artistic productionwill be analysed following a chronological criterion, sometimes within their ownfamily history.

KUBERA SIUHA SAKYA AND HIS DESCENDANTS

The dean of the Newar sculptors working for Tibetan monasteries during the 20thcentury, Kubera Simha Sakya (1881-1958), specialized in repoussé work. A fineiconometric drawing prepared by this artist for a multipart 3-m-high copper repousséimage of Maitreya commissioned to him by the king of Bhutan in the 1930s is keptat the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D. C. and has been recently studiedby Mary Shepherd Slusser, who points out that “even the well-known ‘mid-17thcentury’ portrait image of King Pratapa Malla (1641-1674) and family that crowns apillar in Kathmandu Darbar Square is in fact a replacement made by Kuber Singh inthe 1940s.”6

Together with his sons—Kesa Raja Sakya (1909-1967) and Rudra Raja Sakya(“Mahila” b. 1927)—Kubera Simha produced important images for several Buddhist

NEWAR SCULPTORS AND TIBETAN PATRONS… 125

monasteries in Nepal. In 1943, the three artists walked for six days to reach themonastery of Begu—in the Dolakha district of Nepal, on the ancient route leadingfrom the Nepal Valley to Tibet—to fashion a 183-cm-high silver image of Vajrasattva,for which 80000 tôlas—that is 928 kilos (1 tôla = 11.6 grams)—of silver were used.The statue had been ordered for a monastery in Bhutan by Kun bzang Bla ma, afriend of the ’Brug pa bKa’ brgyud pa bla ma Slob dpon Tshe chu (b. 1915), whoresided at Begu at the time. As we shall see, the importance of the latter in effec-tively patronizing the best Newar sculptors of Lalitpur can be hardly overempha-sized and must be related to his high political as well as religious status: for manyyears Slob dpon sku zhabs Tshe chu was the Bhutanese chargé d’affaires in Nepal;and in December 2000 I met him in his capacity as spiritual leader of the monasteryof Sangs rgyas Chos gling, founded by him at Kindol—south of Svayambhu hill—in 1992 and inaugurated by the king of Nepal on the 21st November 1997.

The three sculptors spent six months in Begu and then—instead of returning toLalitpur—went to Atharasse Khola (Nubri Gau, not far from Begu and Tatopani)instead, in order to fashion a 183-cm-high copper statue of Maitreya, which theylater fire-gilded, to replace an earlier image in a monastery there; by then it was 1944.At Atharasse, where they spent nine months, they were also commissioned by aTibetan monk to fashion 18 prayer wheels in two different sizes (15 and 11 cmrespectively).

In 1946 the three artists proceeded to sKyid grong, in south-western Tibet, tofashion a small throne with pillars supporting a canopy for the famous statue of’Phags pa Wa ti Lokesvara, which in the second half of the eighth century had beentaken to that site from the Nepal Valley and was kept in a monastery there. Duringtheir stay at sKyid grong they also made a 76-cm-high gilded copper statue of Sakya-muni together with two 61-cm-high images portraying Sariputra and Maudgalyayanafor Kun bzang Rin po che. The three sculptors were then invited to sPang zhing, amonastery north-west of sKyid grong on the way to rDzong kha, to restore a 51-cm-high statue portraying a yogini and to decorate the main temple with repoussé metalwork. After that, they were invited by one dGe bshes Rin po che to the monasteryof “Sritopa”7 to make a 71-cm-high gilded copper image of Sakyamuni, and then tothe monastery of Gunang,8 always in the sKyid grong county, to fashion silver ritualpots and drums at the invitation of the abbot, “Thaka” (Brag dkar?) sKu zhabs blama, who became a close friend of Kubera Simha and later visited him in Lalitpur.Around 1947, while still at Gunang, the three artists received a letter from home9

requesting them to return to Lalitpur in order to take part in the new year festivitiesthere; so they went back to sKyid grong to obtain leave to go home from a reluctantKun bzang Rin po che.

Having returned to the Nepal Valley the same year, the three sculptors embossedfour images in copper and gilded them for the assembly hall of the Dharmacakramonastery, erected in 1946-1947 on the Sarasvati hill, rising beside Svayambhunathahill, 2 km west of the centre of Kathmandu: a 135-cm-high Sakyamuni, an 84-cm-highMañjusri, a 107-cm-high Guru Rin po che and 81-cm-high Syama Tara. After spend-ing a couple of years at Lalitpur, around 1949 the three artists were invited again toAtharasse Kola, on that occasion to fashion a 229-cm-high gilded copper image ofPadmasambhava as well as a 91-cm-high figure of Vairocana; they also made a 91-cm-high portrait of the local chieftain, rGyal po bla ma, in the act of displaying the


dharmacakra gesture. On that second visit they spent eight months there, stayinguntil 1950, and returned to the Nepal Valley before the fall of the Rana rule. KuberaSimha’s last important commission was the 366-cm-high gilded copper image ofSakyamuni located in the entrance hall of the Karmaraja monastery, erected in 1953-195510 by the Red Hat Karma bKa’ brgyud pa school on the top of Svayambhu(Fig.1). It took him about three and a half years (end of 1954-3rd May 1958) to embossand chase that masterpiece with the help of his son, Kesa Raja. The image containsa relic of Sakyamuni and was offered to the monastery by one Juju (Jurjur?) ManaTamrakara,11 obviously a member of the Newar “Thambat” caste of craftsmen work-ing copper, zinc and brass.

Kesa and Rudra continued their father’s activity after his demise on the 29thAugust 1958. In 1961 the two brothers together with Harka Raja Sakya—a relationof Rudra’s—went to Helambu (Helmu; Tib. Yol mo), about 75 km north-east of Kath-mandu, at the invitation of bKra shis Shar pa12 to make a 183-cm-high prayer wheelfor the monastery of Sermathang. In Helambu they also worked at the monastery ofBakhang, where they restored an eleven-headed statue of Avalokitesvara and fash-ioned a silver mandala as well as four Garuda heads. After that, Kesa and Harkareturned to Lalitpur, while Rudra remained in Helambu and proceeded to Tarkegyangto fashion a 183-cm-high prayer wheel for the shrine next to the assembly hall of themonastery in that village.

It should be mentioned here that a relative of Kesa Raja’s, Purna Bahadur Sakya(b. 1931), also from Lalitpur, went to Gangtok (Sikkim) in 1958 to work as a silver-smith. On my visit to his shop-cum-workshop on the 24th October 1981, I noticedseveral Tibetan-style ritual and domestic silver objects made by him: butter-lamps,thang thog (finials for thang ka sticks), prayer wheels, tea-bowl stands and lids,boxes, etc.; he also sold ritual bells as well as metal images. Incidentally, at the timeof my fieldwork in Sikkim there were about one hundred Newars in Gangtok, most ofthem Sakya traders and craftsmen from Lalitpur. In the main town of Sikkim, I metthree more Sakya goldsmiths from Lalitpur, one of whom had various statues obvi-ously made in Uku Baha—including a 27.5-cm-high copper Acala fashioned byNhuchhe Raja Sakya (see below)—, Tibetan silver butter-lamps and local as well asTibetan and Newar-style silver jewellery; another had a beautiful parcel-gilt silverga’u (reliquary box); and a third one, Asha Kazi, owned a shop—‘‘Gold and SilverOrnament”—in Mahatma Gandhi Marg. A fourth craftsman, also a goldsmith fromNepal, did not belong to the Sakya caste, but was a Visvakarma.

Kesa Raja’s son, Caitya Raja Sakya (b. 1956), and above all Rudra Raja’s son,namely Raja Kumara Sakya (b. 27th August 1966), have continued their family’straditional craft. The former works as a chaser and the latter as an embosser at hisfather’s house in the Thaina quarter of Lalitpur. Raja Kumara, in particular, fullyassisted his father in his work, while pursuing his own studies from 1974 to 1982.Although he was injured in a bad accident in 1978, when he was burned by the blastof the hot wax mixture—called “jhau” in Newari—used by sculptors to fix and sup-port metal sheets for chasing (see Fig.8), he enjoyed working with his father. Theeconomic difficulties into which his family ran, after orders dwindled following KuberaSimha’s demise, eventually compelled him to give up his hopes for higher educa-tion and, after ending school, he devoted himself entirely to his craft.

In 1983, Raja Kumara was requested to make a silver torana and silver pillars fora shrine devoted to the sacred snake Vasuki—the guardian of Pasupati’s treasure—


rising north-east of the main temple of Pasupatinatha, at Deopatan (Nepal Valley);he was also commissioned to cover the Sivalioga of the same shrine with a silversheathing—a traditional Newar practice in the case of particularly important images—and to fashion a seven-hooded snake for the same. He first prepared the sheathingand the image using a copper sheet; then he covered the latter with the silver sheet.His patrons must have been impressed by his work, as in the following year theartist was requested to make a gold snake symbolising the kundalini to be placedaround the holiest Hindu image in Nepal: the stone Sivalioga housed in the maintemple of Pasupatinatha. Before receiving that commission, he had to produce asilver prototype, which he covered with a gold sheet after receiving the approval ofhis clients.

Tibetan lamas then commissioned him to make three huge copper prayer wheels—one measuring 366 cm in height—for the main eastern gate at the foot of Svayambhuhill (c. 1985), and a fourth one measuring 274 cm in height; the last one was placednear the entrance of bCo brgyad Khri chen Rin po che’s Maitreya monastery, a Saskya pa foundation built in 1981-1983 on the western side of the stupa of Bodhnathawith the help of Newar donors and consecrated in 1985.13 Other huge prayer wheelsby Raja Kumara are found in monasteries in sMos thang and at Manang; manywere made in the period 1985-1987. Furthermore, Raja Kumara fashioned betweenthree and four hundred gilded copper stupas for Tibetan clients and shops, thetallest one measuring 168 cm in height. One of them, made in 1986 and measuring122 cm in height (Fig.2), may be seen at Svayambhu, at the eastern end of theeastern shrine in the main assembly of the Maitreya monastery of dGa’ ldan Byamsmgon mDo sngags bShad sgrub Thar ’dod Gling, a dGe lugs pa foundation estab-lished in 1954 and rebuilt in 1986 according to the inscription found above its maingate.

Raja Kumara also received several orders from Japan, in particular from a mu-seum which in 1993 commissioned him to fashion 39 haloes (one measuring 244 cmand 30 measuring 61 cm in height) for different deities, including an eleven-headedand one-thousand-armed manifestation of the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, for whichhe also fashioned the crown of arms and the crown itself; at the time of our meetingsin December 2000, he was waiting to leave for Japan to fit the items he had made. In1996 he fashioned a copper mandala devoted to Amitabha—measuring 305 x 305cm—for the Nakkayamadeva monastery, rising in a hilly area near Osaka; for thatorder Raja Kumara was provided with the iconography of the five deities belongingto that particular mandala. After the mandala was gilded and despatched to Japan,he went there to fix it against a ceiling in the monastery. Since then he has mademore large-size copper mandalas, such as the 200-cm-one devoted to Hevajra, onwhich he was still working in December 2000 with the help of two pupils. The latterhad completed the first two years of the course Raja Kumara holds at the arts schoolof Akresvara monastery—at Pulchowk, in Lalitpur—where he teaches his craft to-gether with line drawing, an art at which he is an expert and to which he attaches theutmost importance.

In 1998 Raja Kumara fashioned the 13 brass rings for the spire of a 25-m-highcopy of the Great Stupa of Svayambhu, which was exhibited at Expo-2000, inHannover. The number and variety of the metal work he has produced for thetemples and monasteries in the Nepal Valley as well as for private collectors is trulyimpressive and would require a special article devoted to the subject. His prestige


in Nepal is sanctioned also by the items he made in 1996-1997 for the showcases inthe Patan Museum of Lalitpur in order to illustrate the techniques of the repoussécraft.

MANA JYOTI SAKYA AND HIS FAMILY

One of Kubera Simha Sakya’s closest friends, although much younger than him,was the most famous Newar sculptor of the 20th century: Mana Jyoti Sakya (1917-7th October 1990), better known under the local nickname of Ciridai (Mr. Shorty),with reference to his size. He belonged to a lineage of well-known artisans living inthe main artists’ quarter in Lalitpur: Uku (also Oku or Woku) Baha,14 borrowing itsname from an early monastic foundation also known as Rudravaroa Mahavihara,where religious life survives to this day thanks to the support of devoted keepers,often belonging to the artists’ families themselves. I have briefly dealt with thissculptor elsewhere15 and here I shall limit myself to updating information related tothe main topic of this article.

Mana Jyoti had established a reputation of his own as a sculptor working withthe lost-wax casting process as well as modelling in clay by the early 1940s, whenhe was commissioned to make a life-size statue of Guru Rin po che, the first of numberof important orders from the Bhutanese royal family by which he was later officiallyinvited to Bhutan, where he spent five months in 1947, working and visiting thecountry.

Around 1947 Mana Jyoti fashioned the 114-cm-high partially painted bronzeportraying Guru Rin po che for Jatha Baha, a monastery also known as PadmavarnaVihara—not far from Rudravarna Mahavihara—and dating to the time of a 16thcentury Newar religious man, Abhayaraja, who built the temple of Mahabodhi ofwhich this monastery is a branch.16 Since at least 1940, Tibetan Buddhists havetaken interest in this monastery and in the 1970s and 1980s a Tibetan monk of therNying ma pa tradition resided on its premises. The fine 84-cm-high painted clayRadakrari Avalokitesvara and the 76-cm-high Amitabha belonging, like Padma-sambhava, to the mystic family of the Lotus—of which the monastery bears thename—, seated on either side of the central image, were finely modelled by ManaJyoti a couple of years later, in 1949. About that time Mana Jyoti also fashioned the183-cm-high clay Maitreya sitting in the main shrine of the Dharmacakra Mahaviharain Jamal, Kathmandu.17 By 1952 the artist had completed the four 50-cm-high gildedcopper transcendental or cosmic Buddhas (Skr. jina; Tib. rgyal ba) placed in theniches at the cardinal points in the dome of the main stupa known as SantighataCaitya or Kathe “Simbu” (that is “Kathmandu Svayambhu”), rising in the courtyardof the Sigha Baha (or Santighata Caitya Mahavihara), Kathmandu.18

Mana Jyoti then started training artists such as Siddhi Raja Sakya, one of thebest sculptors active in the Nepal Valley (see below), who was an apprentice of hisfor three years. During the same period the master started receiving important ordersfrom Tibetan and Bhutanese clients, and modelled the 99-cm-high brass image ofVajrasattva (Fig.3) now in the assembly hall of the abbot’s quarters in the non-sectarian monastery of bKa’ rnying bShad sgrub Gling, founded at Bodhnatha in1973 and consecrated in 1976 by the 16th Black Hat Karma pa. Around 1955 ManaJyoti fashioned a 213-cm-high brass image of Avalokitesvara with eight arms andeleven-heads for a Bhutanese client. We do not know when he made the portraitimage of the Tibetan king Khri srong lde brtsan (another commission from Bhutan),


of which a drawing is extant. Mana Jyoti was commissioned to make two brass imagesfor the assembly hall of the Maitreya monastery mentioned above, in the depres-sion between Svayambhu and Sarasvati hills: a 203-cm-high Maitreya and a 97-cm-high Jo bo,19 occupying the central niche of the shrine and its western section res-pectively; both statues were gilded. The gilded copper aura, crown and ornamentsof these image were fashioned by Kesa Raja Sakya.

In c. 1958 the artist fashioned a 198-cm-high gilded brass image of Guru Rin poche which had originally been commissioned by a monastery in sKyid grong. As aconsequence of the Lhasa uprising of 1959, the statue could not be taken to Tibetand reached instead its present location in the Karmaraja monastery at the top ofSvayambhu hill, though not without another vicissitude: its right foot was stolenand Mana Jyoti had to model another. The image, partially painted, occupies thewestern niche of the main shrine in the entrance to that monastery, next to KuberaSimha and Kesa Raja Sakya’s colossal Buddha mentioned above.

Before the Chinese army completed the invasion of Tibet, in 1959, Mana Jyotiwas also commissioned to make five hundred 17-cm-high statuettes of Tsong khapa by a Newar trader, who meant to offer them to the 14th Dalai Lama. The presentlocation of those images is unknown, though it is likely that they never reachedTibet owing to the Chinese occupation of the country. Around the same year ManaJyoti had received orders from three of the teachers of the Dalai Lama and from theDalai Lama himself. Following the latter’s escape from Tibet, the artist travelled toMussoorie in the company of the dGe lugs pa Mongolian lama, Guru Deva, todeliver his statues personally and, during his stay there, he received the DalaiLama’s blessing. To a different commission belongs an 11-cm-high statuette por-traying the foremost rNying ma pa scholar, Klong chen Rab ’byams pa, which wascast in an unusual, brittle alloy of brass and silver, and chased with great difficultyby the already mentioned Caitya Raja Sakya at a later date, in September 1978; theoriginal sword and part of the lotus on which it rested were broken. That statuetteis part of a personal loan of mine to the Victoria and Albert Museum.

In 1960 the artist fashioned a c. 37-cm-high image of rJe Rin po che (Tsong khapa) for one of the Dalai Lama’s teacher, whom he presented with the statue atBodhnatha. Around the same year, when beginning work on a 191-cm-high20 imageof Sakyamuni which he had been commissioned for the Buddhist holy site of Lumbini,Mana Jyoti first developed the pain in his elbow which, along with other ailments,was later to put an end to his activity as an artist. At the invitation of Slob dponTshe chu, he then journeyed to Bakhang, in Helambu, to fashion a 274-cm-high claystatue of Sakyamuni in the monastery of bKra shis rgya mtsho (founded in 1934under Bhutanese auspices by the ’Brug pa lama Shes rab rdo rje Rin po che), also inthe hope of improving his health; clay is anyway easier to model than wax. Tshe chuRin po che, who had directed that monastery with the assistance of sKal bzang blama since its founder’s demise in 1945, liked that image so much that, about 35 yearslater, when he commissioned a Bhutanese sculptor to fashion the main clay Buddhain the assembly hall of the already mentioned monastery of Sangs rgyas Chosgling, south of Svayambhu, he asked him to draw his inspiration from Mana Jyoti’sstatue in Bakhang, where the Bhutanese sculptor actually went. During the sameperiod—around 1960—Mana Jyoti was commissioned by Slob dpon Tshe chu tomake a c. 100-cm-high gilded clay image of Radakrari Avalokitesvara and one hundred


and eight 20-cm-high statuettes of Sakyamuni for a nunnery presided by his patronat Begu, a site where Shes rab rdo rje had founded four other monasteries.

The wax for Lumbini was eventually completed and the image cast in brass; onlythe hands and face of the Buddha were gilded, and the statue was consecrated in1962.21 During the same period, Mana Jyoti sculpted a 114-cm-high Maitreya for themain hall of the already mentioned Dharmacakra monastery on Sarasvati hill. In1970, for the anniversary of Sakyamuni’s birth, devotees from Uku Baha commis-sioned the artist to fashion a 74-cm-high parcel-gilt image of the Buddha, which wasto be carried in procession during that festival and is now kept in the eastern shrine-room on the first-floor of the Hiranyavarna Mahavihara in Lalitpur. During the sameperiod Mana Jyoti modelled the 122-cm-high heavily gilded brass image of Sakyamuniordered for the assembly hall of the Tibetan centre of Rikon, Switzerland.22

Towards the end of 1970, Mana Jyoti was again invited to Bhutan by its royalfamily, this time to teach wax-modelling to a class of three pupils. He found themunwilling to learn, even hostile, and after four months he returned to Lalitpur. Moredetails about that second visit are known to me thanks to the lucky coincidencethat Michael Aris met the artist at bDe chen Chos gling—the royal palace in Thimphu—in the company of the Nepalese politician Harka Gurung, on the 13th Novem-ber 1970; both Nepalese had gone to Bhutan together with Slob dpon Tshe chu.Aris also learned that the Newar sculptor—whose name he did not remember—hadworked at Bum thang, in central Bhutan, many years before—obviously in 1947—and indeed at Bum thang Aris met a father and his son, the latter called Ye shes dpal’byor, “who had worked under his direction casting images. The Newari was of theSakya ‘caste’ (?) and came from a famous family of hereditary craftsmen settled atPatan. In 1970 the plan was that he should cast 10,000 images of the Buddha for oneof the grand projects devised by the King, probably under the inspiration of hismother Ashi Phuntsok Chödön;”23 Aris also remembered that “the plan ran into allkinds of difficulties,” and did not know if it was ever completed: a workshop wasapparently established at Phun tshogs gling, but the sculptor returned to Lalitpurbefore long and some attempts were made to complete the order there.

In the 1970s Mana Jyoti fashioned several large-size statues for Tibetan monas-teries in India as well as Switzerland: the already mentioned 122-cm-high gildedbrass image of Sakyamuni at Rikon; a 100-cm-high brass Jo bo Sakyamuni (1970-1971) for a private shrine of the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala;24 a 137-cm-high brassMaitreya with aura, for one of the Dalai Lama’s teachers—possibly for a temple inDharamsala—, whose engraving was apparently undertaken by his elder son, Ratna;the 107-cm-high brass portrait of Shes rab seng ge kept since around 1975 in theassembly hall of the rGyud smad College, established in 1974 in the Tibetan settle-ment of Hunsur (Karnataka); the 91-cm-high gilded brass Sakyamuni housed sinceabout 1978 in the assembly hall of the Se ra byes college in the Tibetan settlementof Bylakuppe (Karnataka); and perhaps also the 122-cm-high gilded brass Sakyamuniwhich reached its present location in the same assembly hall around 1981.25

Mana Jyoti’s clients included the royal families of Nepal and Bhutan, the DalaiLama as well as the latter’s teachers. Most of his images are fashioned in an idiomin which Newar and Tibetan elements mingle, quite different from the style ofimages such as, for example, the 50-cm-high gilded bronze statue of Vajravarahi,one of the last orders the Newar artist received before becoming unable to work, toreplace the idol stolen in 1971 from the temple of Vajravarahi, in the Nepal Valley:


that image was cast in a purely Newar style, for the clients were local. Statues byMana Jyoti are found not only in various parts of Nepal, Bhutan and India, but alsoin the U.S.A., Japan, Switzerland and the U. K. In 1978 Mana Jyoti stopped workingaltogether because of the pain at his elbow, but his work has been continued sinceby his two sons, Ratna Jyoti Sakya (b. 1957) and Manika Jyoti Sakya (born c.1967),26 and above all by his former pupils, among whom the brothers Bodhi Rajaand Siddhi Raja Sakya ranked first.

BODHI RAJA AND SIDDHI RAJA SAKYA

The brothers Bodhi Raja and Siddhi Raja Sakya inherited a long-standing familyrelationship with the Buddhist monasteries in the Nepal Valley and with Tibet: anancestor of theirs worked as a goldsmith in the Land of Snows, whereas their father,Punya Raja Sakya (1881-1922), though not a sculptor by profession, cast some finestatues as offerings to monasteries, noticeably the brass images surrounding thedoor of the main shrine in the courtyard of the Rudravarna Mahavihara in Lalitpur.

Bodhi Raja Sakya (1920-1990) worked for both Buddhist and Hindu clients, aswell as for dealers and private collectors; statues of his were also made for the royalpalace in Kathmandu. In 1964 he and his brother fashioned the 122-cm-high gildedbrass portrait of Sri Sai Baba kept in an open circular pavilion on the premises of theNepal Distilleries at Balaju, Nepal Valley. Cast in more that one piece, that statueproves the two artists’ ability to treat a subject with a realistic—rather than natural-istic—approach, as shown not only by the treatment of the scarf and of the folds inthe ragged garment, but also by the very attitude of the yogin, sitting in a westernposture with his right leg placed across the left knee; the crown is a later addition.A fine 151-cm-high gilded copper image of Sakyamuni (Fig.4), made by Bodhi Rajain 1989, is kept in the family house at Lalitpur, where his four sons Bodhi Ratna,Sanu Ratna, Jñana Bahadur and Vijaya Ratna continue their father’s craft, modellingfine Buddhist images in wax and casting them in copper. A beautiful 80-cm-highcopper statue of Maitreya, fashioned in c. 1995 from Bodhi Raja’s molds, was ondisplay in Maitri Ratna Sakya’s art gallery at Darbar Square in Lalitpur (see below)in December 2000.

A 91-cm-high image of Mañjusri fashioned by Bodhi Raja was once kept in theassembly hall of the non-sectarian bKa’ rnying monastery of bShad grub gling, atBodhnatha; the 20-cm-high statuette of Sakyamuni inside the stupa at the easternend of the same hall was fashioned by his brother, Siddhi Raja Sakya, whereas the110-cm-high ungilded copper image of the same subject placed along the easternwall was made by one of Siddhi Raja’s sons and by Raju Sakya (b. 1975). A grand-nephew of Mana Jyoti, the latter is one of the most promising artists in Siddhi Raja’sworkshop, where he has been working since mid-1995, after he had started wax-modelling under the guidance of his father, Sapta Ratna, in 1990.

Siddhi Raja Sakya (b. 4th March 1924), began wax modelling on his own in 1933,when he was already engaged in the traditional family occupation of pot-casting,Newar bronze and brass kitchen-ware being traditionally made by the lost-waxprocess. During that period he fashioned about 25 Brahmanical statues in clay,associating with a painter, Tari Citrakara, who painted his images. One year later, inspite of his young age, he collaborated in the renovation of the temple of Mahabodhiin Lalitpur, after its tower had been destroyed by the earthquake in 1934, assistingtwo older generations of great Newar sculptors—including Shen Aju, Jog Mana


Sakya (1901-1978), Pañca Jyoti Sakya and Mana Jyoti Sakya—in modelling thescores of clay images covering its outer surface. Unhappy with his progress insculpting, Siddhi Raja requested and obtained Mana Jyoti’s tuition in the early 1950s.He spent three years in the latter’s workshop and during that period, together withhis elder brother Bodhi Raja, he made a half-ton bronze bell for the courtyard of thetemple of Guhyesvari at the foot of Mrigasthali hill upstream Pasupatinatha, alongthe left bank of the river Bagmati. In 1954 he started working for Newar art dealers,with whom he established a relationship that was to last 15 years.

After the interlude of a tour to India, Siddhi Raja Sakya resumed his activity andin the 1960s fashioned a number of icons to be found in various private shrines,including his own. A real turn in his life occurred in 1966, when he met the alreadymentioned ’Brug pa bKa’ brgyud bla ma Slob dpon Tshe chu, who became hispatron as well as his guru, and taught him a great deal about the Indo-Tibetaniconography of the Buddhist pantheon. Among the first orders that he received byway of Slob dpon Tshe chu, mention should be made of a 20-cm-high eleven-headed Avalokitesvara, a set of 21 statues of Tara (the central image measuring 91cm and the others 46 cm in height) and a 122-cm-high yogin, which were presentedto the royal family of Bhutan. The latter must have been impressed, for in 1968 hecommissioned Siddhi Raja to fashion a set of 21 images of Tara, averaging 20 cm inheight. Around 1970 the Newar sculptor made the triad of Tsong kha pa (91 cm inheight), rGyal tshab and mKhas grub (both measuring 61 cm in height) for a dGelugs pa lama, “Janthu” Rin po che. About that time he fashioned various images forthe royal family of Nepal, including a silver image of Siva and Parvati for the coro-nation of King Birendra—who succeeded his father in 1972—and a Himalayanlandscape to be presented to Queen Elizabeth II.

Between 1971 and 1973, for a period of about two years and eight months, SiddhiRaja taught sculpture to two Bhutanese monks in Lalitpur, until they had to returnhome for the coronation of ’Jigs med seng ge dbang phyug, the fourth hereditaryking of Bhutan, on the 2nd June 1974. On that occasion he presented his pupils withsix of his sets of moulds and the king with a traditional Newar bell. Siddhi Raja’sBhutanese pupils invited their master to accompany them to Bhutan and the latteraccepted their invitation, spending one month and a half in the capital, Thim phu.During the same period the Newar artist was commissioned to make four sets of 21images of the goddess Tara for the royal family of Bhutan: three of 20-cm-highfigures and one of 46-cm-high figures. There are many of Siddhi Raja’s sculptures inBhutan, though none was produced during his stay there: they were all fashionedin Lalitpur after being commissioned through Slob dpon Tshe chu, his guru and theBhutanese chargé d’affaires in Nepal.

During the same period, Siddhi Raja received an important order from the Nepaleseroyal family: a set of 28 very fine gilded brass deities belonging to the Hindupantheon, ranging between 13 and 46 cm in height, to be placed on a torana in theirmain royal shrine at Hanuman Dhoka, the ancient royal palace in Kathmandu;apparently the statues may be seen only during the first nine days of the Dasainfestival. For that particular set, official pandits provided the artist with a text to beused as iconographic reference; other texts were also given to the sculptor byMana Jyoti Sakya, but—like all other major traditional artists—Siddhi Raja had bythen fully memorized the iconography and iconometry of both Buddhist andBrahmanical deities.


In 1974 the Newar sculptor made a 20-cm-high brass image of Amitayus andasked Slob dpon Tshe chu to offer it as his own personal present to the 14th DalaiLama, from whom he received a letter of thanks. In 1975 Siddhi Raja fashioned oneof his masterpieces, a 44-cm-high gilded brass statue of Balakaumari riding a pea-cock, to replace the main idol stolen earlier in the year from the temple of Bala-kaumari—one of the many Newar shrines exposed to the robberies commissionedby unscrupulous dealers to satisfy the demand of Western art collecting—then inthe outskirts of Lalitpur and now part of the north-eastern sector of the town.

The mid-1970s were a particularly prolific period for Siddhi Raja. From around1975 the artist started receiving important orders for large numbers of statues ofdifferent sizes for the Tibetan monasteries which have been built both in the NepalValley—especially in the Bodhnatha and Svayambhu areas—and elsewhere byimportant religious masters such as U rgyan sPrul sku Rin po che, the latter’s sonChos kyi Nyi ma Rin po che and Chos gling Rin po che: images of Sakyamunimeasuring from 46 to 122 cm in height, of Vajrasattva, of Guru Rin po che and ofTara, and also a set of the eight great bodhisattva figures to be sent to Taiwan, aswell as 200 sets portraying the triad of Tsong kha pa (30 cm in height), rGyal tshaband mKhas grub (both measuring 20 cm in height) for the Bucher-Buchner collec-tion in Germany.

Siddhi Raja’s clients included two important spiritual leaders of the Sa skya pareligious order: Khra ’brug Rin po che, for whom in 1978 the Newar artist fashioneda statue of Akrobhya and a portrait of Guru Rin po che (both measuring 152 cm inheight) to be sent to a Sa skya pa monastery in Karnataka (possibly brTse chenChos ’khor Gling, founded at Bylakuppe perhaps in 1964-1965, or else Chos sgarbrTse chen mDo sngags Chos gling, established at Mundgod in 1973-1974) as wellas a set of twenty-one 20-cm-high brass images of the goddess Tara; and Khra rigsRin po che, the spiritual leader of the Ngor pa Sa skya pa monastery of brTse chenbShad sgrub Gling, built at Bodhnatha in 1969 and locally known as Sa skya dGonpa, extended in 1970 and 1979/1982.27 For that monastery, around 1980, Siddhi Rajamade a large number of statues of various subjects and sizes, including a 46-cm-highyogini, as well as sets of images of Sakyamuni and of the goddess Tara; the statuesbelonging to those two sets, cast in brass and measuring 36 cm in height, are keptrespectively on the upper and lower shelves along the back wall of the bKa’ ’gyurtemple built just outside the assembly hall.

About the same period the artist fashioned a large number of statues of differentsizes for Zla bzang Rin po che, the founder of the Karma bKa’ brgyud pa monasteryof Dril yag E wam dPal ris bkra shis mi ’gyur, built at Bodhnatha in 198328 and reno-vated in 1988: a 183-cm-high Sakyamuni, as well as images of Amitayus, Vajradhara,Vajrasattva, Mañjusri, Tara and Guru Rin po che, all measuring 91 cm in height.These statues are encased together with other images—including those of Kurukullaand of lamas of the Karma pa lineages (Fig.5)—in various rows of niches behind thecentral statue of Sakyamuni, against the northern wall of the assembly hall of themonastery. In the early 1980s Siddhi Raja also made a number of different images forBya bral Rin po che, a Khams pa religious leader patronised by the queen of Bhutanand then residing at a hermitage near the rNying ma pa monastery of Yang le shod,founded in 1970 at Pharping, Nepal Valley.29 Those statues include Buddhas, GuruRin po che and a set of 21 images of the goddess Tara.


Around 1985 the Newar sculptor fashioned a number of statues for the bKa’rnying ris med monastery of dPal nges don ’od gsal gling, raised in 1984 in a splendidposition on a hill west of Svayambhu: a 122-cm-high brass Sakyamuni, placed in acentral position along the back wall of the main assembly hall; a 56-cm-high brassSakyamuni to the Tibetan right (left for the beholder) of the main image and a 56-cm-high gilded copper Maitreya to its left; a 61-cm-high Vajrasattva and a 25-cm-highVajradhara encased in the niches above the main image of Sakyamuni; two 46-cm-high parcel-gilt copper images Tara and a 36-cm-high parcel-gilt copper Guru Rin poche, as well as three sets of the eight manifestations of Guru Rin po che. During themid-1980s Siddhi Raja also made a 36-cm-high image of Guru Rin po che ordered bybDud ’joms Rin po che according to the latter’s special design, as well as a largenumber of images of Gu ru Rin po che and of other subjects in different sizes for thesame rNying ma pa master.

In the same span of years Siddhi Raja fashioned a 152-cm-high portrait of the16th Karma pa for a monastery in sMos thang, Nepal, and large number of differentimages of various sizes for Grangs sku Rin po che, the spiritual leader of the ’Brugpa bKa’ brgyud pa monastery of Stag mo lus sbyin, founded in 1976 and completedin 197730 at Namo Buddha (30 km south-east of Kathmandu), as well as a 183-cm-high Sakyamuni and a 152-cm-high Mañjusri for a bKa’ brgyud pa monastery inGangtok (Sikkim). He also made several large statues for Tibetan monasteries inKarnataka: a 152-cm-high Sakyamuni, a 61-cm-high Vajrasattva and images of thegoddess Tara measuring 46 cm in height, as well as 15 protectors of the doctrine,one measuring 122 cm and the others 61 cm in height. Furthermore, in the mid-1980s,he fashioned the 152-cm-high statue of Sakyamuni kept in the Santi Stupa at theholy Buddhist site of Rajgir, India, and presented the Japanese Fuji Guru with a 20-cm-high image of the Buddha.

In the late 1980s or early 1990s the Newar sculptor made a series of portraits of Saskya pa lamas for the main Sa skya pa monastery of Rajpur, the seat of the 41st Saskya Khri ’dzin at Dehradun, in India, as well as a set of 21 images of the goddessTara measuring 46 cm in height for the monastery of Sa skya, in south-westernTibet. For the latter monastery, around 1990, he fashioned a 122-cm-high statue ofGuru Rin po che, a 66-cm-high image of bodhisattva and twenty-two 46-cm-highstatues of the goddess Tara: Newar sculptors have started to work again for mon-asteries in Tibet proper, as they had done from the first half of the seventh centuryuntil 1959; in fact statuettes made by Newar sculptors have been purchased inLalitpur for or by Tibetans residing in Tibet since the fall of Gang of Four in China.About 1989 Siddhi Raja also fashioned a 122-cm-high image of Guru Rin po che, a122-cm-high statue of the goddess Tara with twenty 46-cm-high images of the samesubject in Newar style, as well as statues of the eight great bodhisattva ordered byone dPal-mo, a follower of Bya bral Rin po che, to comply with the latter’s recom-mendation.

In the early 1990s Siddhi Raja made a number of different statues in various sizes,including a 152-cm-high image of Lama Ye shes with his consort and a 122-cm-higheleven-headed and one-thousand-armed manifestation of Avalokitesvara for amonastery in sMon thang. During the same years, he fashioned statues of Sakya-muni and Guru Rin po che, 66-cm-high bodhisattva images and a set of 21 statuesof the goddess Tara measuring 46 cm in height for the private shrine of a lama in


Bodhnatha, as well as a number of figures of different subjects and various sizes forbSod nams bla ma’s “Dring-king Gayok Ratna Sri Dharma Association” (a reli-gious centre connected with Ladakh) at Jorpathi, near Bodhnatha; the latter orderincluded statues of Sakyamuni and Ratnasri, 46-cm-high portrait of Guru Rin poche as well as images of the goddess Tara. In the early 1990s the artist also madetwo fine 74-cm-high copper alloy images, one of Vajrasattva and the other ofMañjusri, now belonging to Maitri Ratna Sakya’s private collection (on MaitriRatna see below, in the section devoted to his father, Samgha Ratna Sakya). Around1993 the Newar artist fashioned the images of Sariputra and Maudgalyayana to beplaced in the main shrine of the Rudravarna Mahavihara, the chief monastery in thearea where he lives; both statues, measuring 107 cm in height, were cast in copperand gilded.

During the mid-1990s Siddhi Raja received an important order from Zang zangRin po che for the newly-built rNying ma pa monastery of lHun grub Chos ’khorGling, which was completed on the mountain slope behind Budhanilkantha, NepalValley, in 1999 and is presently guided by ’Khrul zhig Rin po che. The Newar artistwas commissioned to fashion a number of different images of various sizes, most ofwhich are found in the main assembly hall of the monastery: two 91-cm-high im-ages, one of Avalokitesvara and the other of Manjusri, encased in niches respec-tively west and east of a 132-cm-high statue of Guru Rin po che made by RajesKuma (see below), along the eastern section of the north wall in the main assemblyhall; two 91-cm-high images, one of the Buddha and the other of Vajrasattva, abovethe same statue; three 91-cm-high images, portraying Amitayus, Sita Tara andVajradhara, placed respectively west, east and above a 132-cm-high statue of Vajra-sattva made by Rajes Kuma and encased in the western section of the same wall;and ten 46-cm-high images of various subjects placed vertically in the niches at thesides of the main statue, a 183-cm-high gilded copper Sakyamuni made by MohanSakya (see below).

Zang zang Rin po che also commissioned Siddhi Raja to make statues of Guru Rinpo che and of sMan bla—the “Medicine Buddha”—as well as a set of 21 images ofthe goddess Tara. The latter measure 46 cm in height—except for the central figure,measuring 91 cm—and are kept in the Rin po che’s private chapel in the monastery.All the statues made by Siddhi Raja for this monastery were cast in copper andgilded.

In the same span of years Siddhi Raja fashioned 65 more portraits of Sa skya palamas, two images of Mahakala—one measuring 91 cm and the other 61 cm inheight—and a 61 cm-high-statue of the “Glorious Goddess” Remati for the Sa skyapa monastery of Rajpur, at Dehradun,31 as well as a 183-cm-high image of Maitreyafor a Tibetan monastery in Karnataka. He also made a number of images belongingto the Indo-Tibetan Buddhist pantheon for Peter K. K. Lee’s monastery in HongKong: three 152-cm-high statues of Sakyamuni; the triad of Guru Rin po che (mea-suring 152 cm in height), Mandarava and Ye shes mtsho rgyal (each measuring 132cm in height); another triad of the same subject, with the main figure measuring 91cm in height and his consorts 51 cm each; 15 more portraits of Guru Rin po che, fiveof which measure 51 cm and ten measure 36 cm in height; a 122-cm-high image of thegoddess Tara; and a 61-cm-high-statue of Sri Remati. In the mid-1990s he alsofashioned a 36-cm-high image of Tara and three 20-cm-high statuettes of Vajrapani


for Oliver Stone. Apparently during the same period he made also the main image ofSakyamuni, measuring 152 cm in height, for the main altar in the assembly hall of theKarma bKa’ brgyud pa monastery of Karma legs bshad gling, built around 1996 tothe west of Svayambhu hill.

In 1998 Siddhi Raja presented his guru, Tshe chu Rin po che, with a 91-cm-highgilded copper statue of Guru Rin po che, which was placed on the main altar in theassembly hall of Sangs rgyas Chos gling, the monastery the latter had founded atKindol. At the time of my visit there, on the 18th December 2000, that flourishinginstitution was managed by sKal bzang (Slob dpon Tshe chu’s faithful assistant)and counted 70 Nepalese monks—mostly Tamang, but also Shar pa, Newar and evenGorkha; a separate nunnery is attached to the monastic compound. About the sameyear Tshe chu Rin po che commissioned Siddhi Raja to make a 122-cm-high image ofthe goddess Tara, sitting on a water-lily supposedly fashioned in “Mongolianstyle”; the statue, cast in copper and gilded, is encased in a niche on the main altarin the same assembly hall. During the same year the rNying ma pa master Thugs cheRin po che commissioned the Newar artist to fashion a 20-cm-high statuette ofAmitayus to present the 14th Dalai Lama with on the occasion of the latter’s birth-day in 1998. For that occasion Siddhi Raja also made a 46-cm-high statue of the samesubject and travelled to Dharamsala with his son and pupil, Nhuchhe Ratna (b.1970), to present the Dalai Lama personally with it.

For the birthday of the Dalai Lama the following year ’Khrul zhig Rin po cheasked Siddhi Raja to make a number of images to present the former with, includinga 122-cm-high statue of the goddess Tara and a number of 20-cm-high images ofSakyamuni and of the long-life triad (as many as 125 statuettes) of Amitayus,Urniravijaya and Tara. During the following year the Newar artist worked on fourimportant orders: a 91-cm-high statue of Guru Rin po che for the Queen Mother ofBhutan; the triad of Sakyamuni (168 cm in height), Sariputra and Maudgalyayana(each measuring 91 cm in height) for a Tibetan monastery in India; 65 portraits ofKarma bKa’ brgyud pa lamas; and an important order for a monastery in Ladakh.When I visited Siddhi Raja’s workshop in December 2000, the last two orders hadnot been completed and the master (Fig.6) was extremely busy working with half adozen pupils on the latter, which included a number of different images of varioussizes, such as a 91-cm-high Sakyamuni, a 61-cm-high Tara with 20 images of the samegoddess measuring 36 cm in height, Guru Rin po che with 24 of his 25 disciples, theeight manifestations of Guru Rin po che, the four great guardian kings of the direc-tions and so forth.

Siddhi Raja’s clients range from the royal families of Bhutan and Nepal to thehighest Tibetan lamas. Statues of his are found not only in the temples and monas-teries of Nepal, Bhutan, India, Tibet and Japan, but also in the private shrines of theDalai Lama and other high-ranking lamas, and even in collections and museums inthe West. A 20-cm-high copper statuette made by Siddhi Raja around 1970 (andsometimes copied by less capable sculptors) representing the dancing skeleton,Citipati, is kept in the Ethnographic Museum in Geneva, where it was labelled as“Tibet, 18th-19th century.”32 Siddhi Raja’s life not only represents the history of apersonal success, but also affords evidence for a revival in the production of Bud-dhist statuary in the Nepal Valley and for the ever-growing importance of the roleplayed by Newar artists in providing Tibetan monasteries with images.


SAMGHA RATNA SAKYA

A relative of Siddhi Raja Sakya, Saogha Ratna Sakya (1932-1995) was also born in afamily of artists in Uku Baha and he learned his craft from his father, a goldsmith andchaser who occasionally produced repoussé work.

In 1956 Saogha Ratna went to Lhasa carry out his trade there, spending a coupleof years in the Bar bskor area. After his return to Lalitpur, in 1958, he continued hisactivity as a goldsmith, but for a short period: in 1959 he started to work as a chaserin Siddhi Raja’s workshop. In that year he also got married. Six or seven years later,about 1966, he began to work on his own and later (perhaps around 1968) he extendedhis activity from chasing statues to casting them: he purchased wax images fromthe leading artists in Lalitpur (such as Kalu Kuma) cast them in copper and afterchasing them or having them chased, he marketed them. Saogha Ratna was one ofthe first (if not actually the first) 20th-century artist who resumed the traditional useof copper in casting instead of brass, which, because of the advantage of having alower melting point than copper, had largely replaced the latter in the course of time.In that way copper has regained the favour it had enjoyed among Newar sculptorsin the production of statues during the best periods of the Malla dynasties. Copperis particularly suitable for fine and deep chasing, as well as for the traditional mercury-gilding technique. To compensate for the excessive softness of copper, Saogha Ratnacast images in an alloy made up of about 90 percent copper and 10 percent brass,which has been adopted by most Newar artists.

After starting to market statues fashioned by other artists, Saogha Ratna felt theneed to provide them with new iconographic references to produce new images. Inthe beginning the models were Tibetan statues that were brought to him for restora-tion; but from the 1970s onwards he found more inspiration in Western books andcatalogues on Tibetan and Himalayan art. By advising Newar sculptors on icono-graphic matters and by bringing their attention to images produced in Tibet and inthe Nepal Valley (mostly during the Malla dynasties) though found in Western col-lections, Saogha Ratna somehow reappropriated Tibetan and Newar art works whichhad been lost to their original cultural environment and contributed to extend theNewar artists’ scope, encouraging them in particular to revisit the idiom of the Mallaperiod that had influenced Tibetan art and is still appreciated by Tibetan clients.Also Kalu Kuma, who had by then started to specialize in fashioning wrathful deities,benefited from his advice. Indeed Saogha Ratna often determined the style in whichimages—whether meant for the Western art market or for Tibetan clients—wereproduced in the 1970s and even later. Thus he played an important role in shapingthe present production of Newar images in terms of both style and material.

Saogha Ratna’s son, Maitri Ratna Sakya (b. 1960) has perfected his father’s rolesince he started dealing in Buddhist art, around 1978-1979: a real aesthete, hecommissions young talented artists (such as Mohan Sakya) with the production offine images, providing new iconographic sources, checking again and again thatthe latter are followed correctly, and requiring the sculptors to improve or redo thejob if he deems it necessary. He also controls the casting and the chasing, twocrucially important phases in the production of a statue, just as his father did. In2000 Maitri Ratna Sakya and his brother opened an art gallery specializing in thesale of fine metal Buddhist images in the main square of Lalitpur;33 statues pro-duced by Newar artists are finding new markets in Buddhist Asian countries—where Buddhist images are appreciated not just as collection items, but as objects


of worship (and among a few enlightened Western collectors, who have under-stood that “originality”) in the accepted meaning of the word in post-RenaissanceEurope—cannot be a requisite in an art in which copying has always been acceptedand even encouraged.

The items produced under Maitri Ratna Sakya’s supervision include importantritual objects, such as the 115-cm-long vajra-cross cast in 1999 in the copper andbrass alloy mentioned above (Fig.7), as well as Hindu images, such as a fine 44-cm-high gilded copper statue of Virupa fashioned in 1998 by Rajan Sakya (b. 2nd Septem-ber 1972).

BHIMA SAKYA

Bhima Sakya is another artist who, like Saogha Ratna Sakya, went to Tibet to exerthis trade as jeweller. He was born in 1932 in Lalitpur and, from the age of 11 (c. 1943),he learned chasing under the direction of his father, Deva Raja Sakya, who em-bossed and chased a life story of Sakyamuni on a copper plate which was then gildedand is kept in the Calcutta Museum. After three years of training, at the age of 15 (c.1947), Bhima Sakya went to Tibet with his father to work as a silversmith in DevaRaja’s workshop in Lhasa, where they stayed for eight years, till about 1955; therehe learned not only to fashion jewellery both in Tibetan and Khams pa style, butalso to colour black-and-white photographs. Furthermore, following the example ofsome friends of his, he studied Buddhist doctrine at the monastery of ’Bras spungsfor a year; but after his return to Nepal as a monk, he was attracted to TheravadaBuddhism and was a Theravadin monk for four years.

In 1959 Bhima Sakya went to Gangtok, Sikkim, where a cousin of his had a work-shop, and worked for him, chasing gold and silver items. He learned to chase metalimages, working for a year without wages. In particular, he chased a set of 16 copperstatuettes of goddesses for a minister’s wife; the images were subsequently gilded.At the age of about 28, around 1960, he fashioned a golden ring as a souvenir for anartist, decorating it with the eight auspicious emblems of Buddhism painted inenamel upon it; he would have later extended that technique to metal images. Duringthose three years Bhima Sakya worked not only in Gangtok, but also in Darjeeling,where he fashioned a ring with a dragon design (a kind of item that he continued toproduce for ten years) to mount a stone given to him by a client from Bombay, andin Kalimpong, where he fashioned a ritual object called mandala in Tibetan texts—consisting in a set of ever-decreasing rings used to hold cereals to be offered forliturgical purposes—as well as the head of the Indian Prime Minister, JawaharlalNehru, in Western style. He continued to apply the latter to his repoussé work forabout a year and fashioned the head of Burma’s Prime Minister (possibly U Nu),which he offered to the latter in Nepal, where he returned in 1962. When he was 32,in 1964, he chased a silver bust of king Mahendra and, on the occasion of the visitof Queen Elizabeth II to Nepal, he fashioned a silver bust of her prince consort,Philip, which he offered to the royal couple.

Later Bhima Sakya worked for the Industrial Development Workshop of Nepal,an experience that lasted only three months because of insufficient orders. Aftergetting married, he started to fashion a special type of ring, decorated with twodragons and the figure of a god or goddess, for which he received an order of 1000pieces, which he could not take up because he could not produce more than threea day.


About 1968 Newar artists started to cast images again in copper rather than inbrass and, because of the former’s high melting point, coal replaced charcoal as fuelin casting. Copper is easier to chase than brass and in 1969 Bhima Sakya turned tochasing statues, working on the 15-cm-high images fashioned by an artist livingin Naga Baha, Lalitpur, and continuing that activity for two or three years. He usedto complete one piece a day. He also chased statues made by the greatest Newarsculptors, including Bodhi Raja Sakya, Siddhi Raja Sakya, Nhuchhe Raja Sakya,“Babu” Kaji Vajracarya, Jagat Mana Sakya and Kalu Kuma, sometimes for IanAlsop, for whom Bhima Sakya chased between fifty and sixty metal images. Inparticular he chased a statue of Sakyamuni made by Kalu Kuma and measuringbetween 152 and 183 cm, decorating it with silver inlay work representing the eightauspicious symbols of Buddhism; and he chased a 61-cm-high copper image of thesame subject made by Nhuchhe Raja and now found in Hong Kong. He rememberschasing also a 30-cm-high statue of the goddess Tara made by Jagat Mana Sakyafor a Japanese client and decorated with enamel painting a kapala fashioned by thesame artist for Ian Alsop.

When he was 40, in 1972, Bhima Sakya embossed and chased a 46-cm-highcopper image of the tutelary deity Samvara for a private shrine in Kathmandu. Twoyears later he decided to use also enamel paint to decorate metal images; he prob-ably got that idea from Qing dynasty cloisonné work, including Buddhist images.Bhima Sakya regards himself as an innovator also in the field of copper-chasing,where he makes use of a deep-carving technique, and can easily recognize his ownwork. He states that he draws inspiration from the five elements, and decoratesimages especially with stylized clouds, waves, flames and so forth. He is also ableto draw fine vegetable patterns in the Newar, Tibetan and Khams pa styles. Likemany other Himalayan artists, he is able to work in different styles and on a varietyof items, according to the demands of his clients; in particular he remembers havingfashioned a gold necklace in Tibetan style and a silver box with tiny figures allaround it.

Among the work made by Bhima Sakya for Tibetan monasteries in the NepalValley mention should be made of the chasing of an eleven-headed and one-thou-sand-armed image of Avalokitesvara, housed in the already mentioned Dharmacakramonastery on Sarasvati hill, and of the embossing and chasing of a 91-cm-high stupakept in the Rin po che’s private apartment at the already mentioned Maitreya mon-astery of Svayambhu; the stupa contains an image of the goddess Urniravijayafashioned by Siddhi Raja Sakya. When I interviewed Bhima Sakya in December2000, the artist was assisted by five pupils, who were busy embossing and chasingseveral images (cf. Fig.8), including a set of 108 copper plates reproducing as manymanifestations of Avalokitesvara; for the iconography of that set he resorted to thedrawings made by the great 20th century Newar painter, Siddhi Muni Sakya (b.1932), who in January 1965 had painted the series of the 108 manifestations ofAvalokitesvara—apparently on wood—for the monastery of Sveta Matsyendranathain Kathmandu, to replace those painted by his father, Ananda Muni (c. 1902-1943).34

NHUCHHE RAJA SAKYA

Nhuchhe Raja Sakya (b. 1933) is a member of Bodhi Raja and Siddhi Raja Sakya’sfamily; a self-taught sculptor, he entered the profession seriously at the age of 21,around 1954. Metal images of his are found in Tibetan monasteries, not only in the


Nepal Valley—at Bodhnatha, Namo Buddha, Pharping and in the Svayambhu area—but also in India, Tibet and even Mongolia. The earliest commission he received fora Tibetan monastery was probably the order for a gilded brass triad (c. 1967) ofTsong kha pa (76 cm in height) with his two disciples (both measuring 41 cm inheight), rGyal tshab and mKhas grub,35 which are placed in a niche east of thecentral image in the main shrine along the northern wall of the assembly hall in dGa’ldan Byams mgon mDo sngags bShad sgrub Thor ’dod Gling, the dGe lugs pamonastery devoted to Maitreya at Svayambhu.

By the early 1970s much of Nhuchhe Raja’s production was also aimed at satis-fying the demand of the fine arts market: mention has been made of his copper Acalain a Newar shop in Gangtok. A silver-inlaid specimen of the latter is part of theAniko Collection loan to the Victoria and Albert Museum, together with one of themost outstanding statues fashioned by the artist during that period: a 55-cm-highsilver-inlaid copper Caturarana Virnu modelled in several parts around 1971 afterthe iconography provided by the publication of such images as the four-headedeighth century Kashmirian copper-alloy statue from the Nasli and Alice HeeramaneckCollection—now in the Los Angeles Museum of Art—or as the ninth century brassimage from the Lakrminarayana temple in Chamba town, which went on display toNew Delhi in 1971.36 That was by no means the only instance of a statue modelledby a Newar sculptor after an image published in an art book or catalogue, but it wasone of the few in which such a statue was in turn copied by less capable artists andsold in artificially-aged specimens.37

Around the same period Nhuchhe Raja started receiving important orders for thenewly-built Tibetan monasteries in India. Outstanding statues fashioned by theartist are found in the assembly halls of dGe lugs pa temples and monastic collegesin the Tibetan settlements in Karnataka, for which Nhuchhe Raja fashioned severalgilded brass images, some of which were published as anonymous pieces: a 183-cm-high image of Maitreya, made around 1971 for the assembly hall of the Shar rtsecollege in the dGe lugs pa monastery of dGa’ ldan, at Mundgod;38 a 122-cm-highstatue of Maitreya and a 102-cm-high portrait of mKhas grub rje, both fashioned by1978 for the assembly hall of the Se ra byes college at Bylakuppe;39 and perhaps the135-cm-high gilded metal Maitreya found in the assembly hall of the Byang rtsecollege, in the same monastery.40 In 1985 the artist made a 91-cm-high brass statueof Samvara which had been commissioned by one sTobs rgyal (a middleman) ap-parently for a monastery in Tibet.

About 1992 Nhuchhe Raja fashioned a 76-cm-high gilded copper portrait of Yongs’dzin Ye shes rGyal mtshan, a teacher of the Eighth Dalai Lama, kept in the shrinealong the eastern wall of the assembly hall in the earliest religious foundationestablished at Bodhnatha in the 20th century: the dGe lugs pa monastery of sKyidgrong bSam gtan Gling, originally founded in 1954 by Sog po Rin po che, a Mongo-lian lama;41 the building was subsequently extended, and completely renovated andenlarged in 1996.

Around 1993 Nhuchhe Raja fashioned a 122-cm-high image of the Buddha for aTheravada monastery (the Pugata Mahavihara) near Lumbini, on the way to Bhairava.In 1994 a Tibetan monk commissioned him to fashion an 81-cm-high copper portraitof the 14th Dalai Lama with Mañjusri and Tsong kha pa’s attributes, the sword andthe book, providing him with a picture of bsTan ’dzin rGya mtsho’s head. During thesame year Nhuchhe Raja was requested by the Tibet Office in Kathmandu to make


a silver long-life triad to present the Dalai Lama with in Dharamsala: a 56-cm-highstatue of the Buddha Amitayus with the images of the goddesses Sita Tara andUrniravijaya, both measuring 46 cm in height. The same set, but in copper, wasordered for a Tibetan monastery in India by a Tibetan lay middleman fromSvayambhu, who had seen Nhuchhe Raja’s triad in Dharamsala: the artist was stillworking on that commission when I last interviewed him on the 7th December 2000and he expected to have the images cast three months later. In 1998 he made a 152-cm-high copper portrait of Atisa (from the picture of another image) for the dGe lugspa monastery of Kopan, founded in 1972 north of Bodhnatha; the statue wassubsequently gilded.

In 1994 the foremost Bon po master bsTan ’dzin rnam dag founded the Tibetanmonastery of Khri brtan Nor bu rTse, in the Ichangu Narayana area west ofSvayambhu (not far from the Nagarjuna hill), and Nhuchhe Raja was requested tomake a few images—such as those of the great sage Dran pa nam mkha’ and of thegoddess Shes rab byang ma, measuring 22 cm in height—for the abbot’s privateshrine room, as well as a pair of 61.5-cm-high copper statues of Khri gtsug rGyalba—namely the great teacher gShen rab, the founder of the Bon religion, in hisguise of king—(Fig.9) for the main shrine in the assembly hall, which was still beingdecorated when I visited the monastery on the 18th December 2000. The latterimages—parcel-gilt and antique-painted—had not been installed yet.

The works that Nhuchhe Raja remembers with greatest satisfaction include astatue of Maitreya that he made for a Tibetan monastery in India and a 13-cm-highgold portrait of Tsong kha pa which he fashioned in 1994 for a Tibetan lama, but isnow in Mongolia. Of the important images made by Nhuchhe Raja in 1999 mentionshould be made of a 132-cm-high copper Guru Rin po che for a monastery in Tibetand of the 111-cm-high gilded copper Sakyamuni enshrined in one of the stupasrising along the circumambulation wall surrounding the foot of Svayambhu hill, inthe eastern-north-eastern section of the same.

KALU KUMA

One of the most interesting Newar artists of the 20th century is Kalu Kuma42 DachhaPrajapati Thaku (b. 1933), a contemporary of Nhuchhe Raja Sakya. Kalu startedmodelling figures in clay during his childhood, but his father, a farmer, did not fosterthat inclination. In 1955, Kalu suffered from an illness that kept him housebound forsix months, during which he eased his boredom by spending much of his timemodelling clay images. That incident paved the way to his future profession, butother occurrences convinced him to shift to wax-modelling and to start a career as aprofessional sculptor. One was the circumstance that he was requested by Tibetanrefugee monks to restore metal images brought from Tibet. The other was the factthat, during that period, he dreamed of the wrathful deity Vajrabhairava (Tib. rDo rje’jigs byed), identified by Newars with Yamantaka—known to them as “MeghaSamvara” and to Nepali-speakers as Mahira Samvara, namely the “Buffalo” (-headed) Samvara—and of the related bodhisattva Mañjusri, whose head is identi-fied with Vajrabhairava’s yellow and peaceful upper face.43

Kalu related those dreams to the requests he had received of restoring ancientBuddhist images and perceived them as indications to pursue the career of a sculp-tor. Later he specialized in the production of the images of wrathful deities, whoselargest and most outstanding specimens represent the deity that appeared in his


dreams: Vajrabhairava. Kalu’s visionary experiences should be understood in thecontext of his deep faith, and reflect the fact that artistic creation in a Buddhistenvironment is closely related to religious practice and meditation. A follower ofVajrayana Buddhism, Kalu gets up and takes a bath at 3 a. m. every morning,unconcerned by the temperature of the water; he then worships the tutelary deityCakrasamvara, meditating upon it for about an hour. He strictly abides by tradi-tional Newar Buddhist caste rules, including those forbidding the consumption ofcertain foods (such as chicken) and of barring people not belonging to the samecaste from access to the home kitchen, some of which are specific to the Sakyacaste, which he does not belong to; paradoxically, though in conformity with theofficial abolition of the caste system, members of the latter caste nowadays mayneglect the very rules followed by Kalu, marrying people belonging to other castes(even Hindu ones), eating all sorts of food and allowing people not belonging totheir caste into their family kitchens.

In 1961 Kalu paid several visits to Mana Jyoti’s workshop to watch him work, butit was not until 1965 that he began sculpting professionally. By 1968 he had evolveda personal style, modelling preferably (though not exclusively) the images of wrath-ful deities. Alsop and Charlton have written that his images “tend to be somewhatstiff and static,”44 which may have been the case in some statues produced in the1960s and 1970s, but the remark cannot apply to the subsequent production. In factit may be argued the style adopted by Kalu in the manufacture of wrathful deitieshas infused new vitality into Newar sculpture, otherwise represented at its best byvery graceful images echoing the idiom in vogue under the Malla dynasties andsuiting the Tibetan taste.

Kalu received the first important Tibetan commission in the early 1970s, when hefashioned a 107-cm-high statue of dPal ldan lha mo Remati—the wrathful goddessprotecting Lhasa—for the 14th Dalai Lama; the image was cast in copper and gildedbefore being sent to Dharamsala. A few years later he fashioned a 76-cm-highstatue of Vajrayogini for the main shrine in the assembly hall of the alreadymentioned dGe lugs pa monastery of dGa’ ldan Byams mgon mDo sngags bShadsgrub Thar ’dod Gling, devoted to Maitreya; also that statue was cast in copperand gilded. In the summer of 1978 the artist was requested to model a 36-cm-highimage of four-armed Bhairava to replace an idol stolen at the already mentionedshrine of Balakaumari.45 He completed the wax image between the 23rd August andthe 4th September of that year. During the same period, he modelled two 9-cm-highbronze statuettes, one of Radha and the other of Rukmini, to replace the images ofKprna’s two main consorts stolen from a shrine devoted to that god at Sankhamul,Lalitpur.

Around the same year the Newar artist made the 76-cm-high statue of thebodhisattva Vajrapani placed just above his Vajrayogini in the shrine of the assem-bly hall in the monastery of dGa’ ldan Byams mgon mDo sngags bShad sgrub Thar’dod Gling. In 1985 he received the “best award” from the Department of Cottageand Village Industries (Handicrafts Promotion Centre) of Nepal. In the same yearKalu was commissioned to make a 107-cm-high statue of Vajrayogini, which wascast in copper and later presented by the client for consecration to a convent of dGelug pa nuns from the Tibetan border area of sKyid grong, ’Phags shing sKyidgrong Thugs rje Chos gling, built in 1993 west of Svayambhu hill; that image ispresently housed in a temple above the assembly hall of the monastery. In 1986 he


fashioned another 107-cm-high statue of dPal ldan lHa mo Remati (Fig.10) for LamaGangs can’s teaching room in his private residence, Gangs can Bla brang Srid zhi’i’Dod rgyur ’Khril ba, at Ca Bahi, between Kathmandu and Bodhnatha; the imagewas cast in copper and gilded. The following year the artist made the 45-cm-longbrass vajra inscribed 1st Sravana 2044 (17th July 1987) placed on the stonevajradhatu mandala rising in front of the Mahabodhi temple in Lalitpur.

In 1990 Kalu fashioned the statues for the three-dimensional mandala (blosblangs) devoted to Vajrabhairava housed in the dKyil ’khor lha khang of the dGelugs pa monastery of gNya’ gnang bShad sgrub dGa’ ldan ’Phel rgyas Gling, estab-lished in 1970 east-north-east of Svayambhu hill. The central image housed in the“palace” at the centre of the wooden structure with glass panels protecting themandala measures 24 cm, while the surrounding ones measure 13 cm in height;they were all cast in copper and gilded. About the same year Kalu made a copperstatue of Vajrayogini for the shrine in the private residence of the Mongolian headlama, Guru Deva Rin po che, at Bodhnatha (Fig.11); the image measures about 101cm in height, including the magic staff. In 1992 he fashioned a set of eight 20-cm-high heads of the Mother Goddesses as well as those of Ganesa and Bhairava forthe shrine of the Virnu Devi temple in the village of Thankot, 15 km west of Kath-mandu. The heads were cast in brass and then placed symmetrically at the sides ofthe central image of the main goddess, with those of Bhairava and Ganesa at the farends.

Around the same year Kalu also fashioned two 76-cm-high statues for the shrinebuilt along the northern wall of Lama Gangs can’s private teaching room at theHimalayan Healing Centre, not far from Bodhnatha: one—placed at the western endin the shrine—is a manifestation of the bodhisattva Amoghapasa and the other—at the eastern end of the same—portrays the goddess Kurukulla. In 1993 the artistmade two 91-cm-high images of Vajrayogini, which were both cast in copper andgilded: one for Lama Gangs can’s private apartment in the already mentioned Gangscan Bla brang Srid zhi’i ’Dod rgyur ’Khril ba; and the other for the assembly hall ofthe Ngor pa Sa skya pa monastery of Khra rigs Rin po che at Bodhnatha. In 1994 hefashioned a set of gilded copper images for a Vajrabhairava mandala, this time forLama Gangs can’s teaching room in the Himalayan Healing Centre near Bodhnatha.There a 137-cm-high statue of Vajrabhairava is housed in a pagoda structure withpanes making up the deity’s palace; another image of the same god, measuring 24cm in height, together with those of his 12 attendants—each measuring 13 cm inheight—is placed in the niches of its roof.

In 1995 Kalu fashioned an identical set for the monastery of Kopan. During thesame year he received the “best artist’s” award in metalcraft from the Committee ofthe Cottage and Village Industries of Nepal. In 1996 the Newar artist made a 30-cm-high brass statue of Dhananantari Varahi together with a set of twelve 8-cm-highfaces to go with it for the shrine of Dhanantari in Lalitpur, between Patan Gate andthe Bagmati river. During the same year Kalu fashioned an 81-cm-high copperstatue of Vajrayogini—identical to the one he had already made for the dGe lugs panunnery west of Svayambhu—for the assembly hall of another dGe lugs pa monas-tery connected with sKyid grong bSam gtan Gling, at Bodhnatha; the image is placedat the northern end of the shrine. At the southern end of the shrine there is an imageof six-armed Mahakala in the same material and size, made by the artist in 1997; bothstatues were gilded.


In 1998 Kalu made a 290-cm-high copper statue of Vajrabhairava for the festival ofLalitpur and another image of the same subject—measuring 125 cm in height andbeautifully gilded—for Maitri Ratna Sakya, in whose art gallery I could admire it inDecember 2000. Kalu also fashioned several images of wrathful deities for the alreadymentioned Byang rtse college in the dGe lugs pa monastery of dGa’ ldan, in Mundgod;the statues were delivered in Karnataka in June 2000. During the same year the artistmade another copper image of Vajrayogini for the shrine of Guru Deva Rin po che’shouse at Bodhnatha; the image is identical to the one he had fashioned ten yearsearlier. At the time of my last interviews, in December 2000, the artist was modellingthe wax parts of a 213-cm-high image of dPal ldan lHa mo Remati and a clay model fora 320-cm-high—including the lotus base and backplate—statue of “White” Manjusri,which had been ordered by the same Byang rtse college: from that model he was toobtain the molds to fashion the image in wax and then cast it.

Kalu Kuma’s skills have been appreciated by the 14th Dalai Lama, who has toldother lamas of the Newar artist’s ability at making images not only of dPal ldan lHamo Remati—of which he has a specimen in Dharamsala—but also of Vajrabhairavaand other tantric deities. A successful sculptor whose works have sometimes beenimitated,46 Kalu Kuma has lost neither his innate kindness nor his deep Buddhistfaith. His life story represents the social ascent of a farmer’s son who answered thecall of art and who, through hard work, rose to the Olympus of god-making artists,a traditional preserve of the Sakya caste.

The high status achieved by Kalu’s family in a Sakya-dominated artistic environ-ment has been strengthened by two of the Newar artist’s six sons: Rajes and Rakes.The former, a brilliant sculptor who has set up the most important casting facilitiesin Lalitpur, will be dealt below. The latter was a monk in a Theravada monastery inLalitpur for several years and has attended international Buddhist conferencesabroad in his capacity as Nepalese representative of that tradition: paradoxically,although the Sakya caste claims to represent Buddhist monkhood by hereditaryright, its members very seldom become full-time monks, while Newar Buddhists notbelonging to the Sakya hereditary group have to join Theravada or Tibetan monas-teries in order to follow their religious vocation. Rakes manages the family business,and once a week goes to Bodhnatha to collect orders and payments for imagescommissioned to his father and brother: some of their statues reach Tibetan monas-teries after being sold through local shops.

SCULPTORS BORN IN THE 1940S

The descendant of a family of pot-casters, Jagat Mana Sakya (b. 1940) began sculpt-ing at the age of 14, acquiring his knowledge of wax-modelling and metallurgy fromhis father: as in the case of Bodhi Raja Sakya and other major artists, he did notreceive a formal training. Jagat Mana’s artistic interests and approaches are varied:in 1958 he started drawing with the help of a Tibetan iconographic text borrowedfrom Mana Jyoti Sakya, from which he copied the iconometry; in 1956 he began toplay tabla drums and continued to do so as an amateur; during three journeys toIndia he was able to devote himself to a favourite pastime of his, visiting museums,whose pieces have occasionally inspired his work; and between 1970 and 1973 heworked with a theatrical group in Lalitpur. In 1962, he was commissioned to fashionthe rat standing opposite the shrine of Ganesa at Maru Hiti, on the southern side of


the old Darbar Square in Kathmandu. There are many such rats accompanying theirlord all over the Nepal Valley, but Jagat Mana’s treatment of the subject was originaland charming. His rat, with a bell hanging from its neck, measures 63.5 cm from thetip of the nose to the end of the tail and 41 cm from the tip of the nose to the bottomof its inscribed single-lotus pedestal, which bears the date of the Vikrama year 2019and measures 48 x 36 cm.

In 1972 Mana Jyoti Sakya agreed to model a 274-cm-high statue of Siddhartha asa child—raising his left hand towards the sky and the right towards the earth at thetime he declared he would become a Buddha—for the Japanese Buddhist masterFuji Guru, on condition that he would obtain Jagat Mana’s collaboration. The latteraccepted: Mana Jyoti modelled the face and Jagat Mana fashioned the rest of theimage using an 8-cm-high Japanese statuette as a model; the modelling of the waxtook one month. After casting and chasing, the statue was sent to Japan. JagatMana then made a 213-cm-high gilded brass image of Siddhartha as a child for aJapanese monastery near Pokhara, which was demolished in 1973 because it hadbeen built without permission; the image was taken to a Tibetan monastery at Mato-pani. After that, Jagat Mana worked with Nhuchhe Raja Sakya to restore the clayimage of Sakyamuni in the main shrine of the Mahabodhi temple, in the main artists’quarter of Lalitpur. In 1973 he was commissioned to fashion an 86-cm-high gildedbrass statue of Sakyamuni for the anniversary of Buddha’s birthday, falling on thefirst full-moon day of Vaisakha (April-May); the image, bearing an inscription withthe Newar year 1093, is housed in a shrine of its own among the temples in DarbarSquare, Lalitpur, opposite the royal palace complex (Fig.12).

In 1984-1985 Jagat Mana fashioned a gilded copper statue of the BuddhaDipamkara, measuring betwen 20 and 21 cm in height, which is shown once a yearon the occasion of the festival of norã at Pim Baha, the name of a defunct monas-tery in the north-western sector of Lalitpur, where “occasional rituals are still per-formed” near the large stupa still rising there;47 the artist fashioned that statue basinghimself upon an important and taller 17th-century image on the same subject kept inthe Patan Museum of Lalitpur.48 That piece had already inspired him to fashion a 26-cm-high copper image with garments decorated with an intricate and deep carvingas well as silver inlay work by an outstanding chaser, Siddhi Raja Sakya (born c.1934); a specimen of the latter statue, made in c. 1970, is part of Aniko Collectionloan to the Victoria and Albert Museum.

In 1993-1994 Jagat Mana was commissioned to make a 247-cm-high image of theBuddha Vairocana for a temple in Japan. The statue was cast in copper and gilded;it weighs 1500 kgs. Its halo was embossed by Raja Kumara Sakya (see above).During the same period Jagat Mana made a 305-cm-high copper image of Siddharthaas a child for a monastery at Thaukhel, near Godavari, 15 km south-east of Kathmandu.Jagat Mana and his six sons occasionally fashion statues in clay and also produceimages for the art market. In 1995-1996 they made the items illustrating the lost-waxprocess displayed in the showcases of the Patan Museum.

Jagat Mana’s contacts with Japan brought about new commissions in the 1990s:at the time of our last interview, in December 2000, he told me that he had madebetween 30 and 40 statues for Japanese monasteries, which in fact meant a de-crease in his output of images in Tibetan and Indian style, as well as a differentstylistic approach to his themes. In 1998 he fashioned a 183-cm-high image of


Siddhartha as a child for the World Peace Pagoda built in Japanese style by Bud-dhists from Japan at Pokhara and measuring over 35 m in height; its 640-cm-highgilded copper spire as well as the four dharma wheels measuring 82 cm in diameter,placed at the corners of the turret below, were fashioned by Raja Kumara Sakya.During the same year Jagat Mana made various 213-cm-high gilded copper lokapalafigures in Japanese style with the help of his sons, who told me that such figureshad been recently “copied” by Chinese art dealers (however, it should be pointedout that the treatment of this—originally Indian—theme is traditionally Chinese allover the Far East, even in Tibet). In the family workshop, in December 2000, I wasshown several 213-cm-high lokapala images in Japanese style, which Jagat Manaand his sons have also produced in a smaller size: 107 cm in height. The sons alsowork independently for clients from Japan and made a statue for a Japanese mon-astery at Makan.

Naga Baha is the second main artistic centre in Lalitpur and its greatest livingsculptor is probably “Babu” Kaji Vajracarya (b. 1942). The son of a tailor, he beganhis apprenticeship as a sculptor in 1960, being trained for about eight years by hisuncles, Bodhi and Siddhi Raja Sakya. An avowed enemy of mass-produced statuesfor the tourist market, he prefers to fashion a limited amount of choice small-sizeimages, generally portraying Buddhas, bodhisattvas, goddesses and Hindu godswith peaceful miens, in different materials: copper, brass and even silver. Although“Babu” Kaji enjoys a high reputation, his output is small because—unlike all theartists surveyed so far—he works alone and is unwilling to take on pupils who mightnot work up to his expectations; so he is not in a position to accept large commis-sions. It takes him from one to two months to complete a statue; but the quality ofhis craftsmanship is extremely fine and precise as may be gathered from a 16.5-cm-high brass statuette of Tara fashioned in 1976 and purchased by the Victoria andAlbert Museum (Fig.13).

Several statues by “Babu” Kaji are found in private shrines and one is housed ina Tibetan monastery; he generally receives orders from middlemen or dealers, but atthe time of our last interview, on the 17th December 2000, he had been commissionedby a Tibetan monk living in Ladakh to fashion an image of Sakyamuni measuringbetween 76 and 81 cm, after the famous statue known as Jo bo and kept in the maintemple of Lhasa.

During my fieldwork in the 1970s I heard of another sculptor from Naga Baha,Bhuvana Sakya (b. 1956), who also worked alone, not only modelling and castingimages, but also chasing, gilding and painting them, as well as mounting stonesonto them. That artist is less known and appreciated than his cousin, Santa KumaraSakya (b. on the 6th day of the ninth month of the Vikrama year 2004, correspond-ing to 1947 C. E.), a self-taught sculptor from Uku Baha, who shares Jagat Mana’smusical interests, participating as a musician in local festivals and ceremonies,where he plays the flute, harmonium and drum. Santa Kumara gained his knowl-edge of wax-modelling by visiting the sculptors’ workshops and watching otherartists at work. In 1962 he broke with his family tradition of goldsmith’s art, inwhich both his father and grandfather had been trained, and set up a workshop ofhis own in order to model wax images. His statues are exported to various parts ofthe world, but—like most major Newar artists—Santa Kumara receives orders alsofrom Tibetan monasteries, especially to fashion images of the BodhisattvaAvalokitesvara in his eleven-headed manifestation, in the production of which he


has specialized and of which half a dozen gilded copper specimens will be men-tioned below.

In 1990 the artist fashioned a 76-cm-high a statue of Avalokitesvara in his eleven-headed manifestation and one-thousand-armed manifestation for the personal shrineof the abbot of a Tibetan monastery at Svayambhu, possibly the often mentioneddGe lugs pa foundation devoted to Maitreya. Three years later he made the sameimage for the shrine of the assembly hall on the first floor of the already mentionedmonastery of Jatha Baha, at Lalitpur, where Mana Jyoti’s Guru Rin po che, RadakrariAvalokitesvara and Amitabha were already housed. Another image of identicalsubject, but measuring 112 cm in height, is kept in Lama Gang can’s private room athis residence in Ca Bahi. In 1995 Santa Kumara fashioned a 274-cm-high statue ofthe same subject for a Tibetan monastery in Taiwan and in 1998-1999 he made anotherimage, which was taken to Lhasa: he was particularly pleased with the latter, be-cause the Tibetan monks who had commissioned it were fully satisfied with theresult.

Again in 1999-2000, Santa Kumara fashioned a 198-cm-high image of identicalsubject, but following his client’s iconographic and iconometric specifications(Fig.14), for the altar of the assembly hall in the ris med monastery of Byang chenChos grub Gling (Mahabodhi Dharmasadhana Dvipa), founded in 1995 at Chobar—6 km south of Kathmandu—and still under construction at the time of my visit, onthe 16th December 2000. Like most of the previous images, also this statue waspartially painted after fire-gilding, in accordance with Tibetan custom; its nimbuswas made in clay by another sculptor, perhaps one of the two Bhutanese artists—dKon mchog and Seng ge—who fashioned the two other main statues in clay onthe altar of the same assembly hall. At the time of our last meetings, in December2000, Santa Kumara was working on yet another image of eleven-headed Avalokit-esvara, commissioned by a Japanese monastery; the statue, which was going tomeasure 457 cm in height, was being fashioned in about twenty-four different parts.The artist was satisfied with the improvements he had made and proud of havinglearned to produce larger and larger images by himself.

Candra Bhai Sakya (b. 1949) lives at Shichahiti, also in the southern area ofLalitpur. He had a rather difficult life until 1981, working from 5 a. m. to 11 p. m. Helost his mother when he was still a child; between the age of 12 and 13 (1961-1962)he began to work as a chaser. Later he started modelling small images in waxwithout anybody’s tuition and subsequently perfected his skills working for nineyears (1972-1981) in Bodhi Raja Sakya’s workshop; he now fashions statues rang-ing from 15 to 36 cm in height, following the instructions of his customers, mostlydealers. The softness and graciousness in the shaping of his images—as repre-sented by a 37.5-cm-high gilded copper Vajrasattva fashioned in 1993-1994 andkept in his home (Fig.15 reflect the aesthetics of the late Malla period, and arereminiscent both of his late master and of “Babu” Kaji Vajracarya’s style, as may begathered from a 15.2-cm-high statuette of Manjusri inscribed with the date of theNewar year 1106, corresponding to 1986 C.E.49 One of the images of which CandraBhai is especially proud is a 25-cm-high gilded copper statue of the open-moutheddeity Malakuta (fashioned to be used as a censer), which he completed in March2000, after one and a half month’s work. The output of this Newar artist is relativelylimited since he does not have pupils apart from his son, Sacin (b. 1976), but of afine quality.


SCULPTORS BORN IN THE 1950S AND 1960S

One of the most representative Newar sculptors of the second half of the 20thcentury is Rajes Kuma (born on the 6th day of the seventh month of the Vikramayear 2011, that is in October 1954 C.E.),50 a promising and skilled artist already in the1970s. The son of Kalu Kuma, he has built the largest casting facilities in Lalitpurand is able to produce very big statues (Fig.16) with the help of a team of pupils;also his wife helps him in modelling wax, while his father is present at casting. In2000, under his father’s supervision and with the help of three of his youngerbrothers, he fashioned two 299-cm-high statues representing the bodhisattvasMaitreya and Mañjusri for the newly extended college of Byang rtse, in the dGelugs pa monastery of dGa’ ldan, in Mundgod; the statues were cast in copper andconsecrated in Karnataka the following year.

Some of Rajes’s images are found in the Tibetan monasteries of the Nepal Valley;others (such as those fashioned in Japanese style) are exported as far as Japan.Around 1975 Rajes made a 122-cm-high gilded copper image of Vajrasattva for thealready mentioned monastery of dGa’ ldan Byams mgon mDo sngags bShad sgrubThar ’dod Gling, at Svayambhu; the statue is housed in the same section where hisfather’s Vajrayogini is placed, at the western end of the western shrine, along thenorthern wall of the main assembly hall. About 1980-1981 Rajes modelled two con-crete images of Sakyamuni—one making the earth-touching gesture, the otherdisplaying the teaching gesture—for the assembly hall of the Thai Theravadamonastery at Kirtipur, Nepal Valley; it was his first and last attempt at working inthat material.

In 1999 Rajes fashioned a life-size copper portrait of the late Dashratha Chand, ahero of the 1950 revolution that brought the Gorkha royal house back to power; thestatue, protected by a black varnish, was placed in the Dashratha stadium atTripureshvara, Kathmandu. Rajes’s interest in realistic portraiture had already beenforeshadowed by the bust of his paternal grandfather, which he had made in 1991;it was cast in copper, varnished in black paint and placed above the entrance to theartist’s own house at Shichahiti, Lalitpur. In 2000 Rajes fashioned two 132-cm-highgilded copper statues for the already mentioned rNying ma pa monastery of lHungrub Chos ’khor Gling, rising on the hill behind Budhanilkantha: a portrait of Padma-sambhava, which is housed in the eastern section of the main shrine, along thenorthern wall of the assembly hall; and an image of Vajrasattva, which is kept in thewestern section of the same shrine.

Not all Newar sculptors resort to metal as their medium: stones of various kind,wood and ivory are also used by experienced carvers. One of the most prominentfamilies excelling at the use of such materials is that of Indra Raja Vajracarya (b.1956), an artist who lives at Shichahiti, Lalitpur. His father, Pañca Raja Vajracarya(b. 1916), was born at Bhiñce Baha, in the south-eastern area of Lalitpur, andlearned the craft from his own father, a professional stone carver. In 1941-1942 (V.S.1998) he carved a 320-cm-long stone image of Sakyamuni’s demise for theParinirvana monastery at Kindol, south of Svayambhu, and in 1951-1952 (V.S. 2008)he sculpted eight 91-cm-high lions for the sanctuary of Vajrayogini, 22 km east-north-east of Kathmandu. In 1956-1957 (V.S. 2013) he was commissioned to fashiona white stone relief representing Mayadevi giving birth to Siddhartha, after anearlier piece bearing a four-line inscription kept at the Lumbini Museum, wherealso Pañca Raja’s copy is kept.51 The following year he fashioned a 91-cm-high


stone statue of the same subject for the already mentioned Parinirvana monasteryat Kindol.

In 1958-1959 (v.s. 2015) Pañca Raja carved a stone fountain spout for TribhuvanPark in Kathmandu and two years late he sculpted the stone support for a big bellfor the temple at Guhyesvari, which has already been mentioned in connection withBodhi and Siddhy Raja’s bell; for the same temple Pañca Raja fashioned a statueportraying king Mahendra. In 1963-1964 (V.S. 2020) the Newar artist made a stonestupa at Kapilavastu, southern Nepal. In 1974-1975 (V.S. 2031) he fashioned a stoneimage of “Ananda Buddha”, depicting Sakyamuni resting on an elbow, for themonastery of Nagarmandapa, near the Great Stupa at Kirtipur, Nepal Valley; thestatue measures 122 cm. The last important order he remembers is that for a stonepillar for the garden of Godavari.

Pañca Raja’s son, Indra Raja Vajracarya (b. V.S. 2013, corresponding to 1956 C. E.),extended the family trade from stone to ivory (1986) and then to wood carving; nowhe also carves turquoise, lapis lazuli as well as rock crystal. Crystal is employed toproduce yantra and mandala diagrams, as well as statuettes, whereas ivory isused, for example, to fashion the fine elements making up the aprons used in tantricrituals. Around 1970 he accompanied his father to Muktinath—in northern Nepal,110 km north-west of Pokhara—to carve a 61-cm-high white stone image ofSakyamuni. Around 1973 he carved two 53 cm-high stone reliefs for the premises ofthe temple of Kumbhesvara at Lalitpur: a figure of Narayana riding Garuda (a com-mon iconographic theme in the Nepal Valley), standing on a stone pedestal near awell north of the main temple; and a group of Siva and Parvati (in a compositionfound all over the Valley) as well as a spout for the fountain in the pool used forcollective ritual bathing during festivals. The Garuda-Narayana replaces a 13thcentury image of identical subject stolen from the courtyard of that temple.52 Healso carved several wood windows, one at the front, the others at the back of thebuilding at the entrance of the same temple.

In c. 1981-1982 Indra Raja fashioned twelve 244-cm-high wooden images of theBodhisattva Avalokitesvara and furthermore repaired the rooftop of the SamkaradevaSamskarita Mayurvarna monastery at Bhiñce Baha, to whose religious communityhis family belongs; in 1991-1992 (V.S. 2048) he carved a 183-cm-high wooden statueof Amoghapasa Lokesvara for a chapel found along the southern side of the court-yard of the same monastery. By the end of the 1990s Indra Raja had reached a highstandard of craftsmanship. In 1998 he fashioned a number of wooden images,including an 89-cm-high Sakyamuni, a 109-cm-high Mañjusri, as well as the god-dess Tara surrounded by the symbolic manifestations of her twenty-one invoca-tions, measuring a total height of 244 cm (Fig.17). One year later he fashioned a 143-cm-high wooden statue portraying Sakyamuni seated while displaying the teach-ing gesture. During our meetings in December 2000 he showed me a fine 120-cm-high wooden image of the goddess Tara, the various parts making up a three-dimensional wooden mandala devoted to Prajñaparamita—whose iconographywas being based on a mandala painted in the Three-Storey Temple at A lci, Ladakh—and measuring about 160 x 160 cm, as well as the various parts making up a largewooden image of Cakrasamvara dancing with his consort, which he had carved in1988 and which had been brought back to him for restoration.

Many of the images fashioned by Indra Raja have been sent abroad, but a few arefound in a Tibetan monastery belonging to the bKa’ brgyud pa tradition and rising


at Chapagaon, 10 km south of Kathmandu: sTag dpal bKa’ brgyud bShad sgrubbKra shis Dar rgyas Phun tshogs Gling lung, where he also carved the shrineshousing the statues as well as the main doorways.

The greatest of the sculptors born in the 1960s is probably Mohan Raja Sakya (b.1962), who used to help his father modelling wax to fashion the traditional Newarritual lamps known as sukunda (including an elaborate pot meant to hold their fuel,mustard-seed oil): lost-wax casting is a family tradition. He lost his father at the ageof 13 and the following year he began his apprenticeship under Kaji Ratna Sakya, inwhose workshop he stayed for five years (1976-1981). Subsequently he moved toSiddhi Raja’s workshop and remained there until he started working on his own, atthe age of 24 (1986), specializing in the manufacture of peaceful deiteis: Buddhas,bodhisattvas and goddesses. Two years later he received an important order forChinese clients in Taiwan: a 213-cm-high statue of the 11-headed manifestation ofAvalokitesvara, which was cast in copper and subsequently gilded. His customerslater ordered two more pieces of the same subject, asking him to bring a few correc-tions to the proportions of the image. The artist resorts to a good Tibetan handbookas his iconometric and iconographic source, but occasionally uses pictures for hisiconographic references.

Mohan Raja also receives orders for Tibetan monasteries, but (as it often hap-pens) contacts take place through middlemen, so that it is difficult to locate theimages made by the artist. In 1995 he fashioned a 213-cm-high brass statue ofSakyamuni and in 1996 he modelled two 152-cm-high clay images, one of Amitabhaand the other of Maitreya, for the already mentioned monastery of Thaukhel, nearGodavari. In 1996-1997 he made the 213-cm-high gilded copper statue of Sakyamunioccupying the central position in the shrine along the northern wall of the assemblyhall in the already mentioned rNying ma pa monastery of lHun grub Chos ’khorGling. In 1998 he received an order for a number of statues, including one thousandand one hundred 13-cm-high images of Vajrasattva to be sent to the United States.His skills may be appreciated from a beautiful 107-cm-high gilded copper Sita Taraset with turquoise, which he made the following year under the supervision ofMaitri Ratna Sakya (Fig.18).

CONCLUSIONS

The comparison of the data gathered during my survey in the Nepal Valley inDecember 2000 with those collected during the fieldwork I carried out in the NepalValley in the 1970s and in the Tibetan settlements of India in the early 1980s53

confirms that Buddhist Newar artists continue to hold the virtual monopoly in themanufacture of metal, wood, stone and ivory images as well as ritual objects in theNepal Valley. The information gathered during my last survey also reveals a consid-erable increase in the artistic production for both local and foreign Buddhists; thelatter are above all Tibetans, Bhutanese, Japanese and Chinese. The main reasonsfor the Newar sculptors’ success and for the renaissance of Newar sculpture in the20th century must be related not only to the former’s high standards of workman-ship and reputation, but also to the soaring construction of Buddhist monasteriesin the Nepal Valley, following the lifting of an old ban by the Gorkha kings thanksprimarily to Slob dpon Tshe chu’s diplomatic efforts.

Comparing the number of Tibetan monasteries built in the Svayambhu andBodhnatha areas in a span of 24 years—ten from 1951 to 1974—with the figure of


those subsequently erected within ten years—17 from 1975 to 1984,54 it appearsthat there has been a progressive acceleration in the foundation of Buddhist mo-nastic institutions in the Nepal Valley during the second half of the 20th century.This phenomenon is partially the consequence of better economic conditions inthe Tibetan exile community as well as of the financial support it has received fromlargely Western Buddhist individuals and institutions. The proliferation of mo-nastic foundations has led to an enormous increase in the demand for new im-ages: a higher number of large-size statues was produced in the last quarter of the20th century than before, as a consequence of the construction or renovation ofmonasteries not only in the Nepal Valley, but also in India, Japan, Taiwan, Tibetand the West. The demand of Buddhist institutions for statues is in fact so highthat the important images produced by Newar artists for them far outnumber thoseproduced for Brahmanical temples and shrines, in spite of the fact that Hinduism isthe official religion of Nepal; and within the production of large Buddhist images,many more are ordered for Tibetan monasteries than they are for Newar monasticfoundations.

On the whole the iconographic sources, materials and techniques used by Newarsculptors, chasers and gilders have undergone few changes in last 30 years of the20th century. Western art books and catalogues have been more widely used thanthey were at the end of the 1960s, alongside with traditional iconometric drawingsand contemporary Tibetan handbooks on iconography and iconometry. Clay alongwith hard wax have continued to be used to fashion the prototype of a statue, whilethe elements used for moulding the various parts of the wax image are still madefrom hard wax or clay, although since 1992 some artists have started resorting tosilicone to manufacture the moulding elements. Hairdryers and electric stoves havebegun to appear in workshops along with the traditional stoves used to soften thewax: the former enable the artists not only to soften, but also to harden the wax moreeasily. Copper—almost pure, in an alloy of about 90 percent copper and 10 percentbrass—has become more and more favoured as a material at the expense of brass(New. li, a term which in Tibet designates a copper alloy) since around 1968: itallows finer chasing than brass and can be fire-gilded without difficulty.

Most of the sculptors’ themes continue to belong to the Buddhist pantheon,while their style is influenced — as it has been in the last four decades — by theNewar idiom of the Malla dynasties as well as by the taste of their clients, particularyTibetan ones, who seem to appreciate the style of images produced during theMalla period. Some artists have continued to specialize in the production of certainclasses of deities (wrathful ones in the case of Kalu Kuma), or of specific icono-graphic types, such as the eleven-headed manifestation of Avalokitesvara pro-duced by Santa Kumara or the image of Siddharta as a child fashioned by JagatMana Sakya. Competitiveness among sculptors (some of them self-taught) seemsto have exerted a positive influence upon the standards of craftsmanship in generaland upon the quality of wooden statuary in particular. The social background of theartists is the same as in the past: with the notable exceptions of Kalu Kuma and ofhis son Rajes, Newar sculpture in the Nepal Valley is largely the prerogative of thetwo Buddhist castes that continue to be regarded as the highest, in spite of theofficial abolition of the caste system: Sakya and Vajracarya.55 Finally, the economicand social status of Newar sculptors—some of them owning workshops attendedby several pupils—has improved, although competition has increased as a conse-


quence of a higher number of artists involved in the production of images and of agreater output.

I thank all the friends who have contributed to illustrate this article with theirpictures and in particular Elena Preda—a former student at the Department of Lin-guistic and Oriental Studies of the University of Bologna—who assisted me duringmy fieldwork in the Nepal Valley in December 2000 taking pictures of the artists atwork in their workshops and of their statues in temples and monasteries. I also wishto thank all the Newar artists who have opened the doors of their workshops (oftenof their homes) to me, as well as those members of their families who accompaniedus during the fieldwork, in particular Rakes Awale, Umes Sakya and Maitri RatnaSakya. Finally I thank my wife, Stella, for accompanying and assisting me duringand after my fieldwork.

Notes 1. “Buddhist Himalayan Art in the XXth Century”, Himalayan Culture, I/1 (October

1978), pp.19-35; “Himalayan Sacred Art in the 20th Century,” Art International, XXIV/5-6 (January-February 1981), pp.114-128; “Statuary Metals in Tibet and the Himalayas”,British Museum Occasional Papers, 15 (1981), pp.33-67, and Bulletin of Tibetology, 1-3 (1991), pp.7-41; “Casting of Devotional Images in the Himalayas”, British MuseumOccasional Papers, 15 (1981), pp.69-86, and Bulletin of Tibetology, 1-3 (1991), pp.43-75 (this last publication reproduces wrong illustrations); “The Artists of the NepalValley”, Oriental Art, XXXI/4 (winter 1985-1986), pp.409-420; “Cultural Exchange andSocial Interaction between Tibetans and Newars from the Seventh to the TwentiethCentury”, International Folklore Review, VI (1988), pp.86-114; “Iconographic Sourcesand Iconometric Literature in Tibetan and Himalayan Art”, in Tadeusz Skorupski (ed.),Indo-Tibetan Studies, Tring: The Institute of Buddhist Studies, 1990, pp.171-197; “Mer-cury-gilding in Traditional Himalayan and Tibetan Sculpture”, in Helmut Krasser, MichaelTorsten Much, Ernst Steinkellner, Helmut Tauscher (eds.), Tibetan Studies. Proceedingsof the 7th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Wien: Verlag derÖsterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1997, Vol. II, pp.573-582; “The role ofNewar scholars in transmitting the Indian Buddhist heritage to Tibet (c. 750 - c. 1200)”,in Samten Karmay and Philippe Sagant (eds.), Les habitants du Toit du monde. Étudesrecueillies en hommage à Alexander W. Macdonald, Nanterre: Société d’ethnologie,1997, pp.629-658; and “The role of the scholars of the Nepal Valley in the transmissionof the Indian Buddhist heritage to Tibet with particular reference to the 13th and 14thcenturies”, in Renato Arena, Maria Patrizia Bologna, Maria Luisa Mayer Modena andAlessandro Passi (eds.), Bandhu. Scritti in onore di Carlo della Casa, Alessandria:Edizioni dell’Orso, 1997, pp.191-205.

2. Cf. Jacob Kinnard, Imaging Wisdom. Seeing and Knowing in the Art of Indian Buddhism,Richmond: Curzon, 1999, p.42.

3. There is no Indian text describing the iconographic origin and early development ofPrajñaparamita: while images of the goddess were made from at least the ninth centuryand most of the statues depicting her date to the tenth century, the earliest texts describ-ing her iconography were written in the 12th century (ibid., pp.22 and 134-135). Marie-Thérèse de Mallmann (Introduction à l’iconographie du tântrisme bouddhique, Paris:Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1975, p.463) points out that images ofYama on his own do not agree with the descriptions in texts. Pratapaditya Pal aptly drewmy attention—in the course of an enlightening conversation in October 2000—that thereis no text justifying the presence of the stupa on Maitreya’s head.

4. Kinnard, op.cit., p.12 and 137. One of the consequences of the current mechanicalapplication of textual knowledge to iconography is the fact that images representingSakyamuni have been arbitrarily identified with the Buddha Akrobhya on the mere

NEWAR SCULPTORS AND TIBETAN PATRONS… 153grounds that they are portrayed in the gesture of “touching the earth”—shared by bothBuddhas—whereas such images are in fact “decidedly polyvalent and involve a kind ofscale of meanings, a variety of devotional and hermeneutical possibilities” (ibid., p.112).

5. Ibid., pp.131-132. 6. Mary Shepherd Slusser, “Drawing of Seated Maitreya” (in Thomas Lawton & Thomas

W. Lentz (eds.), Beyond the Legacy, Anniversary Acquisitions for the Freer Gallery of Artand the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington: Smithsonian Institution—Freer Gallery,1998, p.177). The same author (with Nutan Sharma and James A. Giambrone) hasdevoted a very important article to the metal repoussé sculpture in the Nepal Valley:“Metamorphosis: Sheet Metal to Sacred Image in Nepal” (Artibus Asiae, LVIII/3-4,1999), pp.215-232.

7. bSam gtan Gling? 8. Gong mda’? 9. The letters sent by the three sculptors from Tibet to Lalitpur—reporting the dates of

their stays at the various monasteries—are preserved by the family.10. This monastery was renovated and extended in 1970; see Corneille Jest, “Le Boud-

dhisme, son expression tibétaine dans la vallée de Kathmandu, Népal. Aspectssociologiques et économiques d’une expansion hors du Tibet, 1959-1984”, Acta OrientaliaAcademiae Scientiarum Hungaricarum, XLIII/2-3 (1989), p.434.

11. Hem Raja Sakya, Spi Svayambhu Mahacaitya, Kathmandu: Svayambhu Bikas Mandal,1978, p.534; the same author adds that the statue measures eight Newar cubits in height.

12. For the actual meaning of this term in the social context of Helambu see Graham Clarke,“Lama and Tamang in Yolmo” (in Michael Aris and Aung San Suu Kyi (eds.), TibetanStudies in Honour of Hugh Richardson, Warminster: Aris & Phillips, 1980, pp.79-86).Other studies by Clarke on the cultural traditions in Helambu include “A HelambuHistory” (Journal of the Nepal Research Centre, 4, 1980, pp.1-38), “The Great andLittle Traditions in the study of Yolmo, Nepal” (in Ernst Steinkellner and HelmutTauscher (eds.), Contributions on Tibetan Language, History and Culture. Proceedingsof the Csoma de Körös Symposium Held at Velm-Vienna, Austria, 13-19 September 1981,Wien: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische un Buddhistische Studien – Universität Wien, 1983,Vol.1, pp.21-37) and “Nara (na-rag) in Yolmo: a Social History of Hell in Helambu” (inErnst Steinkellner (ed.), Tibetan History and Language – Studies dedicated to Uray Gézaon his Seventieth Birthday, Wien: Arbeitskreis für Tibetische un Buddhistische Studien -Universität Wien, 1991, pp.43-62).

13. Cf. Jest, op.cit., p.434, and Mireille Helffer, “A Recent Phenomenon: the Emergence ofBuddhist Monasteries around the Stupa of Bodhnath”, in Gérard Toffin (ed.), TheAnthropology of Nepal. From Tradition to Modernity, Kathmandu: French Cultural Cen-tre - French Embassy, 1993, p.118.

14. On the meanings of this term—which scholars had until recently assumed to be aNewarized variant of the Skr. Vihara—and on the related one, bahi, see Siegfried Lienhard,“On Some Key-Terms in Newar Buddhism”, in Siegfried Lienhard (ed.), Change andContinuity. Studies in the Nepalese Culture of the Kathmandu Valley, Alessandria: Edizionidell’Orso, 1996, pp.241-256, and in particular pp.247-248.

15. See for example “Himalayan Sacred Art in the 20th Century”, op.cit.16. John Locke, Buddhist Monasteries of Nepal. A Survey of the Bahas and Bahis of the

Kathmandu Valley, Kathmandu: Sahayogi Press, 1985, pp.101-103.17. Ibid., p.349. In 1977 the statue of Maitreya was restored and finely painted by the great

Newar painter, Siddhi Muni Sakya.18. On this site see ibid., pp.337-340; the fifth jina, Vairocana, is a later addition by another

sculptor. The statues are hardly visible because of the heavy chain curtains protectingthem as well as many other art works since thieves started plundering the artistictreasures of the Valley to satisfy the greed of Western collectors.

19. According to Hem Raja this image represents the transcendental Buddha Akrobhya.


20. Without including the lotus stand, which was made on the site from concrete.21. This statue may correspond to the image published in Thubten Legshay Gyatsho, Gate-

way to the Temple. Manual of Tibetan Monastic Customs, Art, Building and Celebrations,Kathmandu: Ratna Pustak Bhandar, 1979, opp. p.49, fig. 12.

22. Published in Le Tibet en exil, 2 (November 1974), p.1.23. Michael Aris’s personal communication as included in a letter dated September 22nd,

1980.24. This image apparently wears the crown of the Jo bo statue of the monastery of sKyid

grong or a copy of the latter made by a Newar craftsman.25. These last three statues were published—two of them with incorrect measures—with-

out the name of the artist in Erberto Lo Bue, “The Artists of the Nepal Valley”, op.cit.,pp.417-418, figs. 28, 29 and 32. The problem of the attribution of several images is dueto the fact that Buddhist monasteries abroad generally order their images from artists inLalitpur through middlemen or religious personages living in the Nepal Valley, such asSlob dpon Tshe chu, who has commissioned Newar sculptors on behalf of monasticfoundations in Bhutan and Nepal since at least the 1940s.

26. This sculptor should not to be confused with Manika Ratna Sakya (b. 1957), a cousin ofthe chaser Purna Mana Sakya; the latter is the son of the famous master chaser SiddhiRaja Sakya (b. 1934), who in turn should not be confused with the sculptor bearing thesame name.

27. Cf. Jest, op.cit., p.434, and Helffer op.cit., p.117. Jest gives Khra ’khrugs Rin po che asthe name of the leader of the monastery, whereas Helffer says that the latter was foundedby lTa rig Rin po che; I have been given the name and spelling Khra rigs Rin po che.

28. Helffer, ibid.29. Jest, op.cit., p.441, where the date of construction is given as 1971.30. Both dates are given by Jest (op.cit., pp.436 and 441), who mentions ’Phreng ’khor Rin

po che as the leader of the monastery and Grang sku Rin po che as its founder.31. The parcel-gilt copper alloy portraits kept at Sa skya brTse chen Gling in Kuttolsheim

(France) and published by that Sa skya pa centre in Les vingt ans de l’institut bouddhisteSakya Tsechen Ling, Kuttolsheim – Strasbourg – France, 1978-1998 (Strasbourg: SakyaTsechen Ling, 1998, pp.6 and 10) are certainly Newar and may well belong to the setfashioned in Siddhi Raja’s worshop.

32. The Geneva Musée d’Ethnographie reproduced Nhuchhe Raja Sakya’s Citipati on thefront cover of its Bulletin Annuel, 16 (1973), where a caption attributes the image toTibet and dates it 18th-19th century, in spite of the fact that the keeper of the collectionat the time of the acquisition was informed of both the origin and the date of that piece,coming from the former Aniko Collection of Tibetan and Himalayan Art, of which I wasthe keeper. Another specimen of Siddhi Raja Sakya’s Citipati, with silver or white metaleyes—previously in the late Lorenzo Alessandri’s “Dorje Collection”—was acquired in2000 by a private collector in Turin. The iconography of this image was briefly describedin my Ph.D. thesis, Himalayan Sculpture in the XXth Century. A Study of the ReligiousStatuary in Metal and Clay in the Nepal Valley and Ladakh, London: University ofLondon, 1981, pp.72-73.

33. Dharmacakra Art Traders, Darbar Square (behind Kprna’s main temple), Lalitpur.34. The paintings, framed under glass, hang just below roof along the back and sides of the

temple. Mnanda Muni’s paintings probably replaced the earlier series studied by BenoytoshBhattacharyya, who noticed it in the 1920s, regarded it as “at least two hundred yearsold”, described it and published its iconography (The Indian Buddhist Iconography, NewDelhi: Cosmo Publications, n. d., p.88, pls. XLIII-LXIX and pp.177-188).

35. Published by E. Lo Bue in Oriental Art, XXXI/4 (op.cit.), p.415, fig. 25.36. John S. Guy, “Medieval Kashmir Bronzes: Defining a Style” in M. F. Linda (ed.), The

Real, the Fake, and the Masterpiece, New York: Asia Society Galleries, 1988, p.32;related images were published in the same book, pp.30-31 (Nos. 16-17 and figs. 2-4). Cf.

NEWAR SCULPTORS AND TIBETAN PATRONS… 155also Pratapaditya Pal, “A Brahmanical Triad from Kashmir and Some Related Icons”(Archives of Asian Art, 27, 1973-74, p.36, fig.5), and Bronzes of Kashmir (Graz:Akademische Druck - u. Verlagsanstalt, 1975, pp.214-216, figs. 84a, b, c), and SadashivGorakshkar, “Three Metal Sculptures from Kashmir”, Bulletin of the Prince of WalesMuseum of Western India, 11 (1971), pp.40-45, figs. 36-42. A specimen of NhuchheRaja Sakya’s Caturanana Virnu is part of the Aniko Collection loan to the Victoria andAlbert Museum.

37. Cf. for instance the “highly important Chamba bronze figure of Visnu as Chaturvyuha”illustrated in Christie’s catalogue of the sale “Important Indian, Tibetan, Nepalese andChinese Works of Art” of the 11th December 1975 and dated “10th/ 11th century”(No.138, pp.68-69 and colour plate facing p.68): that statue measures about the samesize as Nhuchhe Raja Sakya’s (54.6 cm in height) and is also made up of several parts ofcopper—not “bronze”—assembled thanks to the technique used by Newar artists offitting them together with pegs and holes. The only real difference between the piece onsale at Christie’s and the one kept at the Victoria and Albert Museum is that the threeminor figures surrounding the main image were missing from the former, which is further-more poorly chased. For a further discussion of such modern copies, see Guy, op.cit.,p.32.

38. Published by Lo Bue, Oriental Art, XXXI/4 (op.cit.), p.418, fig. 34, where the captionwrongly places that monastery in Bylakuppe; the size of the image is meant from thebase of the throne to the top of the backplate.

39. Ibid., p.417, figs. 30 and 31, where the sizes given in the captions are incorrect.40. Ibid., p.418, fig. 35, where the size and place name given in the caption are incorrect.41. Cf. Jest, op.cit., pp.434 and 437, and Helffer, op.cit., p.116; the former gives 1953 as the

date of the “construction” of the “site”, and the latter 1959 as the date of foundation ofthe monastery following earlier extensions of the house which had been built there by theMongolian lama after he reached the Nepal Valley in the 1950s.

42. Cf. New. kumal, “potter”.43. Mallmann, op.cit., p.401.44. Ian Alsop & Jill Charlton, “Image Casting in Oku Bahal”, Himalayan Culture, I/1 (De-

cember 1973), p.47.45. Perhaps in the course of the same robbery mentioned above in connection with Siddhi

Raja Sakya’s making of the image of Balakaumari. The “original” brass statue of Bhairavastolen from the main shrine was itself a replacement for a previous image, stolen in 1971.

46. See for example the image published on p.44 of Thakur Prasad Mainali’s ContemporatyArt and Artists of Nepal (Kathmandu: Nepal Association of Fine Arts, 1975), illustratingan apparently hornless Vajrabhairava (“Megh Sambar”) by Jog Mana Sakya, a formermember of N. A. F. A.; Kalu Kuma had already modelled that statue in 1968, using aTibetan painted scroll as his source. It is hard to believe that Jog Mana Sakya happenedto find and use the same iconography known to Kalu Kuma for his own reference,considering that an image of hornless Vajrabhairava is, to say the least, unique andobviously the fruit of an error in the interpretation of its iconography.

47. Locke, op.cit., p.232.48. See for example Ernst Waldschmidt & Rose Leonore, Nepal. Art Treasures from the

Himalayas, Calcutta–Bombay–New Delhi: Oxford & IBH Publishing Co., 1969, p.40,where the caption wrongly locates the image in the Nepal Museum of Kathmandu.

49. Erberto Lo Bue, Tibet: dimora degli dei. Arte buddhista tibetana e himalayana dal XII alXX secolo, Milano: La Rinascente, 1991, p.55, fig. 28.

50. According to the information I was given in December 2000 and again in August 2001;according to the information I was given in August 1978, he was born on the 18thNovember 1956. A similar episode occurred to me with Mana Jyoti Sakya; in that casethe difference was as much as ten years, so his astrological chart had to be consulted tofind his exact date of birth. A great importance is attached to the date of birth only from


an astrological point of view; birthdays are hardly celebrated and it may happen thatpeople do not even remember them.

51. Cf. Olga Amman & Giulia Barletta, Nella Terra degli Dei, Milano: dall’Oglio, 1982, fig.opp. p.81.

52. Both statues have been published in Lain Singh Bangdel’s Stolen Images of Nepal,Kathmandu: Royal Nepal Academy, 1989, pp.239-242, pls. 157-159. A group of Uma-Mahesvara was stolen from the same site in October 1985 (ibid., pp.85-88, pls.30-32).

53. As part of an individual project sponsored by the British Academy.54. Jest, op.cit., pp.434-437; cf. Helffer, op.cit., pp.114-131.55. The only exception is Chandan Pal—an artist apparently of Bengalese origin who came

to the Valley from Tarai, southern Nepal—who fashions metal images in Lalitpur.


FIG.1 Sakyamuni, by Kubera Simha Sakya. Gilded copper, 366 cm. 1954-1958 Karmaraja Monastery, Svayambhu. Courtesy of Nicole Authier.


FIG.2 Stupa, by Raja Kumara Sakya. Gilded copper,122 cm. 1986.Maitreya monastery, Svayambhu. Courtesy of Elena Preda.


FIG.3 Vajrasattva, Mana Jyoti Sakya. Brass, 99 cm. C. 1955. bKa’ rNyingbShad sgrub Gling, Bodhnatha. Courtesy of Italo Gilardi.


FIG.4 Sakyamuni, by Bodhi Raja Sakya. Gilded copper, 151 cm.1989. Uku Baha, Lalitpur. Courtesy of Elena Preda.


FIG.5 Karma pa Lama, by Siddhi Raja Sakya. Parcel-gilt copper, 91 cm. C.1980. Dril yag E wam dPal ris bKra shis Mi ’gyur monastery, Bodhnatha.

Courtesy of Elena Preda.


FIG.6 Siddhi Raja Sakya in his workshop. 15th December 2000. Lalitpur.Courtesy of Elena Preda.

FIG.7 Vajra-cross. Gilded copper, 115 cm. 1999. Maitri Ratna Sakya’scollection, Lalitpur. Courtesy of Elena Preda.


FIG.8 Metal image in its wax bed, ready for chasing. Bhima Sakya’sworkshop. 16th December 2000. Courtesy of Elena Preda.


FIG.9 Khri gtsug rGyal ba, by Nhuchhe Raja Sakya. Parcel-gilt copper,61.5 cm. C. 1994. Khri brtan Nor bu rTse Monastery, Ichangu

Narayana area. Courtesy of Elena Preda.


FIG.10 Remati, by Kalu Kuma (detail). Gilded copper, 107 cm.. 1986. Gangs canBla brang Srid zhi’i ’Dod rgyur ’Khril ba, Ca Bahi. Courtesy of Elena Preda.

FIG.11 Vajrayogini, by Kalu Kuma (detail). Copper, 101 cm. C. 1990.Guru Deva’s residence, Bodhnatha. Courtesy of Elena Preda.


FIG.12 Sakyamuni, by Jagat Mana Sakya. Gilded brass, 86 cm. 1973.Darbar Square, Lalitpur. Courtesy of Elena Preda.


FIG.13 Tara, by “Babu” Kaji Vajracarya. Brass, 16.5 cm. 1976.Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Courtesy of Hari

Bangsha Kirant.


FIG.14 Avalokitesvara, by Santa Kumara Sakya. Gilded copper, 198 cm.1999-2000. Byang chen Chos grub Gling, Chobar. Courtesy of Elena

Preda.


FIG.15 Vajrasattva, by Candra Bhai Sakya. Gilded copper, 95 cm.1993-1994. Sinchahiti, Lalitpur. Courtesy of Elena Preda.


FIG.16 Rajes Kuma near a huge mould in his workshop. 16th December2000. Sinchahiti, Lalitpur. Courtesy of Elena Preda.


FIG.17 Tara, by Indra Raja Sakya. Polychrome wood, 244 cm. 1998. UkuBaha, Lalitpur. Courtesy of Elena Preda.


FIG.18 Sita Tara, by Mohan Raja. Gilded copper, 107 cm. 1999. MaitriRatna Sakya’s collection, Lalitpur. Courtesy of Maitri Ratna Sakya.

Documents

Newar Sculptors and Tibetan Patrons in the 20th Century