Many faces of Kathmandu’s mask market
You see many souvenir shops in Thamel and Basantapur. An interesting item they sell is masks. In Thamel, you can find Bhimeswor Mask Shop. Paul Wilkinson, a man in his 50s, is a regular customer here. He inspects the various masks on display and buys the ones he likes.
Wilkinson, who is from the UK, has been dealing with masks for the past 20 years. He is a collector as well as a trader of masks, which he says has two main markets—tribal art and practitioner. He sells masks that he buys, mostly from Nepal and Indonesia, to Western shamans. Wilkinson says the masks, which are usually passed down generations, have a certain kind of energy.
“If you can read the energy, you get information from it, just like reading a book,” he says. Wilkinson has been practicing meditation for the past 30 years and says he has learnt to be sensitive to energy. He says 99 percent of the masks on the market are not as old as the shop owners claim them to be. “You also need to see if they ‘feel’ right,” he says.
Most shop owners that APEX talked to said customers generally want masks that look old. They further said there are certain techniques to give new masks an antique look.
Most masks in Prakash Ratna Shakya’s Tibetan Mask Store in Basantapur look antique. “Customers mostly like buying antique-looking masks so even when new masks arrive, I apply a liquid which, when it dries, makes the masks look old in two or three days,” says Shakya. He says he makes the liquid himself using some chemicals. Maybe people think the masks that do not look antique are ‘artificial’, says Shakya, who has experienced a lower sale of masks that do not have an antique look.
Hari Bista, the owner of Bhimeswor Mask Shop, agrees. “People generally like buying antique masks, so the makers give them an old look by applying some black powder or by exposing them to smoke,” says Bista.
Binod Khanal, the owner of Antique Gallery in Thamel, says the government rule prohibiting the sale of masks older than 100 years has adversely affected the industry. The shop, which opened 45 years ago, sells antique jewelry, masks and utensils. Khanal says masks were the highest selling item 20 years ago, but tourists no longer buy many of them from his shop.
Currently, Antique Gallery has masks that are around 40 years old and these cost between Rs 7,000 to Rs 10,000. Earlier, it had antique masks that cost as much as Rs 200,000. Bista says his store has witnessed a 75 percent decline in the mask business over the last 15 years.
Wilkinson says his customers generally use masks as a decorative or contemplative object or to ‘embody a particular spirit’. There are masks of certain Hindu gods and demons that dancers wear during the celebration of some festivals. “Sometimes, the wearers get possessed by the character and go into a trance,” says Wilkinson.
Bimala Deuja, who has been running Prativa Wooden Handicrafts in Thamel for the past 12 years, says customers mostly buy masks because they consider them ‘good luck’. But some people also buy them for decorative purposes. Masks at Prativa Wooden Handicrafts cost anywhere from Rs 800 to Rs 50,000.
Shakya of Tibetan Mask Store says mostly it is the restaurateurs who want to showcase masks in their restaurants or people looking for gifts who visit his shop in Basantapur. His store sells masks of Kali, Ganesh, Bhairab, Shiva, Garud, Tara and Lakhe, among others. “As far as I understand, my customers see masks just as decorative pieces,” says Shakya.
When we were young
Driving along the duel carriageway from Kathmandu to Banepa last week I mentioned to my friend that on my first visit to Nepal that area was completely fields. We started to talk about the trolley bus on that route and my friend said, as a teenager, he would get on the trolley bus at its starting point in Kathmandu and ride it to Bhaktapur, turn around, and come back on the next one. Just for fun. For ‘timepass’ as they say here. That got me thinking of ways we used to ‘timepass’ when I was young.
I’m not so old that aeroplanes were a new thing when I was young! But when I was a pre-teen one of the things we used to do as a family on a Sunday was drive to Prestwick Airport, at that time Scotland’s only international airport. So on a Sunday we would get into the family car and drive the three hours or so to get there to go up to the viewing platform and watch planes take off and land! No doubt we had a picnic lunch on the way. We had a lot of picnic lunches in those days cheaper than taking us all to cafes and restaurants!
I could equate this to people in mountain areas (with the exception of busy airports like Lukla) where the arrival of a plane is quite an exciting thing! We still see locals who have perhaps come from a couple of days walk away from the district HQ where the airport is located, pressing themselves against the fence to watch the planes arrive. I can’t imagine anyone in the West now managing to cajole their protesting teenager to a family outing of a picnic and plane spotting.
Playing outside was another thing that we used to do in my childhood. It was what we did. What our parents did. What our grandparents did. But unfortunately today it’s not what kids do. This practice of playing outside seemed to have stopped a couple of decades ago when people became very security conscious in the West. I remember my aunt coming to visit me in Bardia in 1998, where I used to live. She loved to play with the local kids and they would all hold hands, as kids do. She said that there was no way she would ever contemplate holding a child’s hand in Canada where she stays. If a parent was not present she could not even talk to an unknown child in case it was misinterpreted. This is extremely sad. Especially when you think how babies and children are passed around here and thus grow up without a fear of strangers.
‘Stranger danger’ aside, my little gang would be found playing outside until dusk. And then up again early to get another round of play in before school. I used to go over to a deserted old house later converted into a country club-so it was a big place where a horse was kept on the grounds. I used to pet and feed carrots to the horse before school. In a deserted field, near a deserted building. With health and safety not such an issue as it is today, I also used to play in half constructed houses. The first two houses we lived in were newly built and situated in housing estates still under construction. Playing in, under and around half-built houses and on machinery was just part of the game!
Today’s kids, as well as the safety factor, real or imagined, probably couldn’t be dragged away from their phones, ipad or laptop long enough to get out into the street to play or gossip under the light of a street lamp. They are missing so much!
Quick questions with singer Prabisha Adhikari
Q. What is your favorite venue to perform in?
A. Hyatt.
Q. If you had only one day left to live, what would you do?
A. Spend time with my family, leaving everything else behind.
Q. Which celebrity do you most admire and why?
A. Rajesh Hamal as he is an intellectual person as well as a senior artist.
Q. Your pet peeve?
A. Attitude of pretentious people.
Q. Your favorite travel destination?
A. Rara.
Q. Your alternate career choice?
A. Entrepreneur.
Q. If you could go back in time, where would you go?
A. Back to my school days.
Q. Your favorite genre of music?
A. Classical.
Q. The best advice you’ve been given?
A. ‘Be yourself’.
Q. Which is the best of your released songs?
A. “Phool hoina”.
Quick questions with singer Prabisha Adhikari
Q. What is your favorite venue to perform in?
A. Hyatt.
Q. If you had only one day left to live, what would you do?
A. Spend time with my family, leaving everything else behind.
Q. Which celebrity do you most admire and why?
A. Rajesh Hamal as he is an intellectual person as well as a senior artist.
Q. Your pet peeve?
A. Attitude of pretentious people.
Q. Your favorite travel destination?
A. Rara.
Q. Your alternate career choice?
A. Entrepreneur.
Q. If you could go back in time, where would you go?
A. Back to my school days.
Q. Your favorite genre of music?
A. Classical.
Q. The best advice you’ve been given?
A. ‘Be yourself’.
Q. Which is the best of your released songs?
A. “Phool hoina”.
