On the outskirts of the medieval town of Bhaktapur, the road that turns into Laxmi Silpakar's woodcarving workshop is easy to miss - an unpaved street with a small paddy lot just right in front of it. But the sound of gentle hammering on wood is the perfect sign that will help you find it. There are neither big machines nor fancy tools. The most important tools for the carvers are their own hands, their patience, essential wooden mallets and rudimentary hammers, iron chisels in several sizes and shapes for the different designs, and the skill of knowing how to work the wood. At 56, Silpakar - his Newar clan name means "artisan" - is but one of the few skilled woodcarvers by profession in Nepal who is struggling to survive with all that he knows: wood. He spends his entire working day in the humble little workshop he owns at Surya Binayak.

Three of his carvers are just outside working on a small chest. Although it is not an order, it is their way to keep themselves busy and hoping someone will buy it later on. "It's a risk," Silpakar agrees, but it is the chance he takes to maintain his carvers working. Their work might not be original, but there is no question about their perfection of creating exact replicas from thankas and holy sculptures depicting various Hindu and Buddhist deities into art on wood. One of Nepal's attractive characteristics is its exquisite woodcarving tradition. The work displayed in and around the different Durbar Squares in the three principal cities of the Kathmandu Valley is a vivid example of such a magnificent craftsmanship. Laxmi Silpakar has 40 years of woodcarving experience under his belt. He was one of the carvers who restored Kathmandu's Durbar Square woodwork some 30 years back. His great ability gained him an invitation to be part of the team to work and assemble Nepal's pavilion at the 2002 Expo Fair in Germany. The work was outstanding, and Nepal won first place. Now the pavilion stands proud in the city of Munich. "Knowing that my work is going to be exposed in foreign countries makes me happy. I know it will mean business down the road," said Silpakar.

There are not many tourists right now, but his small shop in Bhaktapur brings a little extra income to support his family and the workshop by selling smaller items such as photo frames and statues that are popular souvenirs among tourists. After such a lifetime of experience, Silpakar still struggles to keep the tradition alive and faces many challenges. His scarce orders are not columns or window frames anymore. The new architectural style taken over the personality of old Kathmandu is endangering the centuries old customs. The renaissance style has replaced the woodcarved columns for cement ones, and the flat window frames are used instead of the Newari style masterpieces. When Silpakar does get orders, they are mainly for furniture pieces such as coffee tables and chests. Besides that, "the wood is getting worse and worse every year," Silpakar says. "Most of the good wood is being used in the constructions around the Valley for window frames and doors." Premium wood from the jungle, the rough and seasoned kinds, is rare these days. The government has imposed several policies to avoid deforestation in the Terai region where most of the wood comes from. But he believes the new lumber companies will provide quality wood in a few years.

OTHER NEWS

• Number of Indian tourists declines by 8.2% Tourist arrivals surges: Following a long continuous upswing in Indian tourist arrivals in Nepal, arrivals this June were down 8.2 percent on those recorded in the same month last year. According to statistics released by the Ministry of Culture, Civil Aviation, and Tourism, a total of 10,986 Indian tourists entered the country by air in June, while the number was as high as 11,967 in the corresponding month last year.
  
  
• Waste management action plan: Discussion on the Draft Action Plan (DAP) prepared by the Municipalities of Kathmandu Valley - Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, Kirtipur and Madhyapur Thimi - regarding solid waste management took place recently at the joint initiation of the Ministry of Local Development and JICA. Representatives from various ministries, donor agencies, non-government organizations and affiliated professionals took part in the 2nd Seminar of the Clean Kathmandu Valley (CKV) Study. The main agenda of the seminar is to discuss the progress made and necessary actions to be taken as per the inception report. Presentations on activities of the CKV in its Phase I and II, suggestions from the JICA study team for the formulation of DAP concerning landfill site, overall facility plan, collection, transportation and waste minimization were made at the program.
  
  
• CA to launch Delhi service: Hoping to tap the business potential of the Kathmandu-Delhi sector, Cosmic Airways (CA), a leading Nepali private airline, is set to commence its flight operation on the route from the last week of July. "The Airways has just received permission from the Indian government to operate in this sector," said MB Mathema, Managing Director of the Airways. He said that the airline will operate two flights daily on the route.
  
  
• Sthapit finalist for World Mayor 2004: Keshav Sthapit, former mayor of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), has made it to the list of finalists in the City Mayor's Internet contest, "World Mayor 2004". Some 50 mayors from Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe have been selected as finalists for the title.
  
  
• Westerlies hamper monsoon activities: Much of the country is wondering - where has the monsoon disappeared? Monsoon did enter Nepal and reached central parts in the second week of June. Two weeks later, there's no sign of monsoon rains neither in the ground nor in the horizon - at least in the capital and central Nepal. Meteorologists say a wave of 'warmer westerly winds' is continually pushing the moist-laden monsoon winds entering Nepal from the southeast for the last couple of days. And that's unlikely to stop anytime soon.
  
  
  

By Hari Shrestha, Resident Representative in Kathmandu