Woodwork: An incredible but dying art form

As her calloused hands deftly work the wood, carving the flower pattern, her face scrunches up in concentration. A small mistake could ruin the design. It must be difficult, I comment. She looks up. The studs in her ears catch the late afternoon sunlight. She smiles and says, “Only till you learn. After that, it’s not as hard as it looks.” Sanu Udas, 42, an employee at the Mangal Wood Carving in Satdobato, Lalitpur, has been carving patterns in wooden doors and windows for two years. She used to polish and paint them—for 10 years—before deciding to try her hand at wood-carving. Four other women work at the factory. They all say woodwork is strenuous but fun and gratifying at the same time. “I like the fact that your work isn’t wasted. It’s there for generations to see,” says Udas. Seeing her colleagues make designs on wood, she too wanted to do it. She gave up a couple of times and went back to polishing and painting till she eventually learnt how to hold a chisel properly, which, she says, is a crucial technique in woodworking.

Udas has two daughters and her job has made it possible for her to take care of them. The pay might not be great, but it’s decent enough, she says. Things have gotten worse in the past year though. They don’t get very many orders. Mangal Wood Carving employs 12 people instead of the usual 35.

Bijay Maharjan, whose father owns Mangal Wood Carving, says they get many orders from abroad. Their designs have made it to Japan, Australia, Dubai, the UK, and the US. But they don’t have local customers these days, he confesses. There are a lot of cheaper options like aluminum and laminates. The price of wood has gone up and its popularity has declined. “It takes my team of 12 people an entire month to make one piece of furniture. Add the price of labor to the cost of wood and you could very well have to shell out over Rs 200,000 for a front door,” says Maharjan. Bhuwan Shilpakar, owner of Shilpakar Wood Carving, located less than 100 meters away from Mangal Wood Carving, says earlier they used to make many household items like tables, chairs, and consoles. But now the orders are largely limited to main doors. Even then there aren’t that many. Before the pandemic, the company employed nine people. Now, there are just four woodworkers. Fifty-year-old Laxmi Shrestha is one of them. She says woodwork is engaging. It takes her mind off things. She also earns some pocket money and doesn’t have to depend on her family. But the lack of orders concerns her. She fears she will soon be without a job. Shilpakar makes them work on pieces to display at the shop for the occasional drop-in customer but Shrestha wonders how long that can go on. Most of the pieces she has worked on in the past few months are still gathering dust. There are over a dozen wood-carving businesses in less than a 200-meter stretch of road connecting Lagankhel to Satdobato in Lalitpur. Many more are located inside the Patan Industrial Estate, even though quite a few have closed down due to lack of business. I walked around the area and saw woodcarvers busy at work. None of them were working on customer orders. The pieces they were making would be put up for sale at the workshops. They said they were keeping their fingers crossed that someone would come to buy something soon. Manita Thapa, 42, who has been polishing and painting wood crafts for over two decades, says she finishes four to five pieces of door frames or a single door panel in a day, working from 10 in the morning to six in the evening. She’s happy with the money she gets. Despite not having much business, she feels her employer treats his employees well. “There’s a lot of fulfillment and joy in this line of work. It’s art, and not just a mundane, tedious work. The pay is alright,” says Thapa. Her colleague, Deepa Rai, 43, nods in agreement. She will have worked for nine years this year, and says it’s never been boring. She feels proud of the elaborate designs she makes. “Learning was the difficult part. Now that I know how it’s done, I love it,” she says. The work, as enjoyable as it is, comes with challenges. They have to sit in the same position for long hours. Everyone I spoke to said they suffer from backaches. Many have eyesight issues. Prem Bhakta Maharjan, 51, was bandaging a wound on his right foot—a heavy piece of wood fell on it causing a deep gash. Twenty-year-old Sanjeeta Rai from Dhankuta, who has been working at Ramesh Woodcarving, was nursing a splinter on her palm, below her thumb. She couldn’t get it out. Hari Gopal, 49, said his back was stiff and his legs numb. He had been sitting with his right leg sprawled out for almost four hours when I met him. As he works on a contract basis, which means he gets paid for the number of pieces he makes, he wants to complete as many as he can in a day. After all, he is the only working member in his family. Traditionally, the designs were deities and demons, religious symbols, or animals that were considered auspicious. This was when carved and lattice windows with peacocks were prominent fixtures in many homes. These designs aren’t much in demand these days, unless the orders come from Nepalis living abroad, agree business owners ApEx spoke to. They also confessed that since wood-carving is what their families have been doing for generations, they don’t want to make ‘contemporary’ designs just to attract a crowd. “The charm of wooden artifacts is in the traditional designs,” says Shilpakar. He says woodwork was once about showcasing the artist’s talents. Now the designs aren’t as intricate as slow, laborious work takes both time and effort. It also makes the price of the item go up. People aren’t willing to spend extra when they have options. But Shilpakar says wooden doors and windows are an investment. The upkeep is easy. If you know how to take care of it, a solid wooden door will last generations. You can also sell the wood after using it for years. Aluminum and laminates, on the other hand, look dirty and old once they lose their shine. The government’s construction guidelines that state houses being built at heritage sites should have wooden doors and windows has apparently kept many woodworkers in business. The government also offers subsidies and other incentives to buy construction materials. If this could be implemented on a large scale, it would be the biggest help for the revival of their business. The woodworkers fear the art form could otherwise soon be lost. “My son doesn’t want to take over the business. He says there is no scope in woodwork. We will perhaps be the last generation to make wood carvings if nothing is done to preserve the tradition,” says Shilpakar.