The Perfectionist

A Japanese lady sits in his studio, engrossed totally in painting a Paubha depicting the  Rimpoche, Padma Sambhava (The Lotus Born). From time to time she studies a similar but finished Paubha hanging on the wall. The Rimpoche in this painting has startled eyes that express shock and outrage. I point out the eyes to Lasta, the Japanese lady, and she explains, “He has a shocked expression because of the blue flowers he is holding. My painting will have him holding white coloured flowers and so he will have a calmer expression. This is all according to the texts.”

Lasta , who has been in Nepal for the last seven years is only one of the many students, local and foreign, who study the art of Paubha painting under Lok Chitrakar at Simrik Atelier in Patan Dhoka, Lalitpur. As is evident from the above, Paubha painting requires some knowledge about religious shastras (sutras), or texts. All Paubha paintings are religious in nature but not necessarily based only on Buddhism according to the self taught master, Lok Chitrakar.

However, if one were to look around his studio, one would see mostly Buddhism inspired Paubha paintings. Such as the 68x68 cm Garbadhatu Mandala, the 65x65 cm Vajrabhairaba Mandala and the 68x68cm Chakra Sambhava Mandala: all of which according to Lok Chitrakar were painted by students  A strikingly elegant Paubha, the 39x34 cm Samantha Bhadra-Samantha Bhadri (Yam-Yum) hangs in one corner and was painted by the master himself as were the 33x47.5 cm Nilotpala, the 21x24cm Mahakala and the 27x87 cm White Tara. However, it is not uncommon, and indeed, the norm, for many artists to work on the same canvas- so intricate are the details, and so long is the time taken.

In fact, Lok Chitrakar is currently at work on a massive 5 ft x 7 ft Amitabha which still remains unfinished three years down the line. “It might be another year before this is finished,” say Chitrakar. The painting, although large, does not have as many intricate details as is present in many of the smaller Paubhas, but this is explained easily enough by the artist, “ Since it is so big, I want the painting to draw people’s attention like a magnet and so I would like to make the details large enough for long distance viewing”. In addition, he confides, “Many of the finer detailing has yet to be done.” Because of the time consuming nature of Paubha painting, it is understandable that Lok Chitrakar manages to finish but four or five Paubhas a year.  And one of the reasons for the paucity of his own works in the gallery is simply because most of what he paints is sold as quickly as  they are finished. In fact the artist reveals that on more than one occasion he has had to request buyers to lend him their collections for exhibiting.

To a question about the time factor in the art, this is what Lok says, “There are no time limits whatsoever.” He points out a large (about 3.5ftx4ft ) HeVajra Manadala which still has a lot of work left to be done and a Vasundhara in which only the ink sketching has been finished.  “At any time you will find me working on a number of pieces. As soon as I get tired of working on one piece and monotony sets in, I start work on another. When I get in the mood again, I go back to the previous unfinished piece. That is why I cannot say with certainty when a work will be finished.”

Explaining his craft, Chitrakar says, “Paubha actually comes from two words, ‘Pau’ and ‘Bha’ derived from the Newari term Patra Bhattarak, which means, ‘depiction of god in flat form’”. He adds, “Paubha painting is an ancient art form and the oldest one ever found, a Ratna Sambhav, is lodged in Los Angeles County Museum in the United States. I believe it is either from late 12^th century or early 13^th century.” Lok Chitrakar is disappointed that this art form has not been given much importance within the country  itself and rues, “ There are no grants and no research done on this traditional art form in Nepal.” Most of his customers are from abroad and his largest works, a set of 2 m by 1.5 m Garbadhatu and Vajradhatu Mandalas is housed in a temple in Saitama Perfecture in Japan. “It took me four years to finish ” he informs. But it seems the time taken was worth it as it fetched him a whopping Rs.25 lakhs. It is true that many of his Paubha paintings have earned him a pretty penny but of course this is only one of the reasons for his satisfaction at taking to the art at the early age of twelve.  As he says, “When I started, Paubha was not valued as an art and the work was more of a chore but nowadays there is greater appreciation of Paubha painting as an art form and this makes me happy.” His happiness is all the greater because he was able to carry on even through those hard times, times in which many others became frustrated and left the vocation.

Lok Chitrakar has a ten year old son and a daughter who is 15 years. His own father passed away when he was still very young. An only son, Chitrakar was born in 1961. He has two elder sisters and two younger sisters.  Lok has participated in numerous exhibitions here and abroad and has won a number of awards including Best Artist Award in 1993 presented by Handicraft Association of Nepal. And even if self taught, he has taken short courses in Finland and participated in workshops in Japan, Finland and the United States. Lok Chitrakar’s works can be seen in the Mohatta Palace Museum in Karachi; the Kemi Museum of Arts in Kemi, Finland; the Shouji Temple in Saitama, Japan; the Museum Kanzouin in Tokyo and the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in Japan. His works also have been collected by various private collectors all over the globe.

The starting point of Paubha painting is the making of the canvas which is referred to as ‘Patbhumibandhan’. The white canvas is stretched on a wooden frame and rubbed with ‘kamaro’ (white clay) and ‘saras’ (buffalo hide glue). ‘Kamaro’ provides the colour that covers all the minute pores while ‘saras’ acts as the binding medium. Next come the colours. There are five basic colours: red, blue, yellow, white and black and all are mineral and vegetable based, produced in the workshop itself. Lapis Lazuli, costing about Rs.18000/kg, comes from Afghanistan and is the source of blue colour. The minerals Orpiment (costing about Rs.9000/kg) and Cinnabar (Rs.8000/kg) are available in the Solukhumbu mountains of Nepal and are sources for yellow and red respectively. Conch Shell Powder from Japan provides the pure white colour while black colour is derived from the soot of burning pine wood. The colour Gold , much used in Paunha paintings, is produced from gold dust while additionally, the Indigo Plant from South India is the source of rich indigo colour.

The beginning of the art itself is the fine free hand sketching by pencil. Each drawing is based on particular themes based on the religious texts. In most Buddhism based Paubhas, the central figure is usually of the icon which normally is not portrayed as a singular identity. Rather, the central figure sits on a pedestal and figuratively speaking, is the central point of a figurative temple. Thus there will be a canopy above, and cornices at the four corners with various associated figures (Buddhas, Boddhistavas, Monks, Disciples, Yakshas, Apsaras, etc.) at particular points around the central figure. The second stage involves permanent ink sketching, after which the painter gets down to the long and tedious task of putting colour to the work. And the colours used in Paubha paintings are truly a sight for sore eyes, so varied are the hues. However, as Lok Chitrakar says, “Some of the details have to be painted a certain tint according to what the texts prescribe. One cannot deviate from that. But for others, we can use our aesthetics in the choice of colours.”

And there is no doubting the fine aesthetic sense of Lok Chitrakar. Nor his strong sense of discipline and his power of deep concentration. “Oh yes, one has to be very very disciplined in order to be a success in this field. Concentration is a given otherwise one cannot achieve the high levels of perfection required in Paubha art,” he says. This discipline and concentration, combined with his immense talent, has made Lok Chitrakar into one of the finest of Paubha artists in the country, if not in the world.