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Thanka Painting School Supports Community in Nepal

Region: Nepal, South and Southeast Asia
Author: Buddha Darshan Club
Consortium Member: Himalayan Lights Foundation
Status: Completed - Final Report Budget: $3482 Collected: $3482 Needs: $0
Result: The Buddha Darshan Club is providing the local community with painting skills to be used for job development.
Donors: Yutaka Okamoto; Yoshiko Okamoto; Virtual Foundation Japan - Kyoto Branch; Ryukoku University Students; Individual Japanese citizens; Virtual Foundation Matching Funds; Kim Wolf; Shannon Simrell [May - July 2000]
Comment: This project will bring greater independence through development of skills (teaching the ancient art of Thanka painting, and also basic literacy). Provision of a sustainable source of electricity (a solar photovoltaic system)enables classes to be held at night.

Project Description

The Buddha Darshan Club began the Thanka Painting School Project in May of 1997. The project was highly successful and played a large and important role in income generation in the Kavre district. The Kavre district is east of Kathmandu, just outside of the valley. To reach the school it is a one hour drive to the village of Dhulikhel, then a three hour drive via dirt road to the Buddha Darshan Thanka Painting School, perched on a hill top. During the monsoon season, however, the road is inaccessible by vehicle and the journey is undertaken on foot, taking approximately six hours. The village here is comprised of 50-60 households, a health post and market.

Thanka paintings have increasingly become a major source of income from tourist sales. The project provided skills to the uneducated youth of the area, overcoming the high unemployment rate and thus poverty which prevailed in the region. Despite the high demand from students to attend the classes, Buddha Darshan Club has been forced to close its doors due to lack of adequate lighting and lack of funds.

Many of the participants worked in the fields during the day, and thus could only attend the Thanka Painting School at night time. The school previously relied on kerosene lamps for lighting, which were not only costly but provided inadequate light to paint such fine detail required in the thanka painting technique. In addition to this, kerosene is detrimental to the the health of the students, evident from their blackened noses after inhaling the fumes.

Project Goals

The main goals of the Buddha Darshan Club in the Thanka Painting Project are as follows:

• To overcome the high unemployment rate in the district and hence alleviate the local poverty;
• To provide environmentally sound electricity to the rural community via the installation of solar PV system;
• Reduce the drudgery of women and promote women participation and women empowerment in the society by teaching them new skills;
• Combine the rural renewable energy development with skill enhancement, employment creation and an income generation activity.

The 75 Watt solar electric system powering 6 lights will be supplied and installed by Lotus Energy Pvt Ltd. Lotus Energy is a Nepal-based company that manufactures, installs, and services solar electric equipment. Lotus Energy has already installed 550 solar electric systems in 60 of Nepal's 75 districts.

Not only will the Buddha Darshan Club's Center function as a Thanka Painting School once it has adequate lighting, but it will also serve as a literacy class. The literacy class will be funded by the government, which in turn will enable the Center to sustain the Thanka painting classes after the 10 month period.

The funding requested will cover a period of 10 months, after which the Center will be able to sustain itself, receiving funds from the literacy classes which will be possible after the Center is installed with sufficient lighting. Once this project has been funded, art materials can be purchased, and the solar electric systems prepared and installed. The actual installation will only require four days, however the benefits will be felt long term, by both the Thanka Painting School and the literacy classes that will commence soon after the installations.

Funds Requested from the Virtual Foundation: