The 14th Generation Woodcarvers of Bhaktapur
Photos by Exploredinary and Starr Studios
Daniel Driensky filming as we head into the narrow alleyways of Bhaktapur to meet with the Shilpakar family
As we are catapulted into the unknown with the rapid development of AI technology, I look back on our time in Nepal with a fair share over analyzation. What can we learn from ancient traditions still being practiced in far corners of the world? Is there a future for these traditional crafts? Are we destined for clinical, computer perfect surroundings peppered with digital screens and soul-less, uniform lives? All of these questions bother me as I see the rush towards a digital future, but revisiting our time in Bhaktapur, the ancient city outside Kathmandu, I feel like there’s hope.
Elaborate wood carvings are synonymous with the Kathmandu Valley. Our guide Susan Manandhar took us through the narrow alleys of Bhaktapur to meet up with Krishna Maya, the matriarch of the Shilpakar family, who have been making traditional wood carvings for 14 generations.
Krishna Maya Shilpakar and her husband outside their wood carving workshop in Bhaktapur
Their workshop is everything you would not expect to see coming from the west. It was basically an open-aired room down an alleyway with a small handful of craftsmen in bare feet with chisels in hand. You get the sense that they aren’t working with the wood, they are living with it, requesting things from it, communicating with it. As most great craftsmen, it all looks effortless and easy watching them flip the pieces around, sometimes holding it in place with their bare feet as they carve. Truly impressive.
Our guide Susan Manandhar translating as Sarah Reyes and Daniel Driensky film one of the carvers
Although surrounded by souvenir pieces in the workshop, the Shilpakar family of woodcarvers have been crafting the detailed wood pieces that enshrine many of the temples and buildings of Bhaktapur for 12 generations. Utilizing the same methods and nearly the same tools for hundreds of years, they continue to press forward.
One of the many carved pillars in Bhaktapur
Carved wood detail in Bhaktapur
The carved wood entrance into the Golden Temple in Patan Durbar Square
Filmmakers Daniel Driensky and Sarah Reyes in front of some of the carvings at Patan Durbar Square in Kathmandu
One of the stories we were told while in Nepal that gives me hope for the future of crafts like woodcarving, is that recently while renovating an old temple in Kathmandu, it was decided to recreate many of the damaged carved wood using CNC machines. There was apparently such an outcry that money was raised to tear all of the computerized woodwork out and to hire traditional carvers to recreate the pieces in the traditional methods. I can’t verify the story, but I hope it’s true.
