Kathmandu:

If you have wanted to know more about Arniko, but didn’t know where to go, here it is. The Arniko White Dagoba Gallery at the Nepal Bhasa Academy (NBA), Kirtipur, seeks to provide all that is there to know about the 13th century master artisan.

The gallery is equipped with, among others, historical documents, books, articles, news clippings, photos and paintings pertaining to Arniko. Arniko’s most enduring artifact in China, the White Dagoba, has also been much focussed on — its photos, architecture, and philosophy have been properly laid out. The materials compiled are in Nepali, Chinese and English languages.

The gallery has been the result of an effort of long led by noted cultural expert Satya Mohan Joshi, who is also the Chancellor of NBA. The resources have been mainly compiled from China and Nepal.

A life-size sculpture of Arniko anchors the gallery. The art work, Chinese artifact that suggest heavy Nepali influence have also been depicted. On the whole, the materials collected start from the chapter dedicated to Arniko in Yuan dynasty’s chronicle to the latest works relating to him and his masterpiece in China.

“Arniko’s works had also managed to influence the then Chinese art tradition. He has helped to politically unite Nepal and China. The White Dagoba was among few of the monuments that were not destroyed during the Cultural Revolution,” Joshi says.

The attempt to compile all these has not been easy. But Joshi says this is not all. “We want to make the Academy a resource centre for figures from other Nepali cultures as well,” he says.

The formal inauguration of the gallery is yet to be done.