Asianart.com | Associations | Articles | Exhibitions | Galleries

Articles by Ian Alsop

Ian Alsop is an independent scholar specializing in the art and culture of Nepal and Tibet with a special interest in the language and culture of the Newars of Nepal. He is founder and editor emeritus of asianart.com. He was a member of the Nepal Bhasha Dictionary Committee which was formed by Cwasa Pasa's founder Prem Bhahadur Kansakar in 1980 under the chairmanship of Kamal Prakash Malla, and whose work resulted in the Dictionary of Classical Newari published in 2000.
 
A New Bronze Age for Nepal
Almost every time I have asked a sculptor what his father did, the answer is that he made pots and plates. Were it possible to follow the family occupation back several more generations, it would almost certainly be found that the original family occupation was image making. Now the earlier trend from statues to utensils has been reversed, and sculptors are rediscovering the skills of their ancestors, which for two centuries lay in hibernation. Little by little, the casters relearned the techniques they had lost. Working from antique examples, the sculptors began to recapture the grace and elegance of earlier Nepalese statues.
Published on asianart.com: October 19, 2023 from an 1980 original
 
Christians at the Malla Court: The Capuchin 'piccolo libro'
No single group of Westerners had a longer or more intimate connection with medieval Nepal than the Capuchin missionaries of the province of Ancona, who were given charge of the Tibet Mission in 1703 by the Congregation of the Propaganda Fide in Rome. Over the years, scholars in Nepal have managed to find several Christian texts in Newari left behind by the Capuchin fathers. One of these, the most original and the most interesting, is the "piccolo libro" composed by Padre Vito da Recanati and the other fathers of the Bhaktapur mission of 1740, presented in this article.
Published: March 11, 2022. Originally published 1996 in Change and Continuity - Studies in Nepalese Culture of Kathmandu Valley
 
Image Casting in Oku Bahal with Jill Charlton
Of all the ancient art forms still practiced in the valley of Kathmandu, the one which is most vibrantly alive is that of image casting in metal. The city of Patan is the modern as well as traditional center of the practice of casting, and within the city itself it is the Newar community of Oku Bahal to which Nepal's most respected and skilled sculptors and casters belong. This report will focus its attention on these men and their traditions, on the past which formed their vision and technique, on the changed present in which they work, and on the future of their art which so many assume to be dead.
Published: March 02, 2022. Originally published 1973 in the first issue - Vol. I, No 1 - of Contributions to Nepalese Studies
 
In the Khasa Malla Tradition A Thangka of Vikram Shahi (r. 1602-1631) King of Jumla with Kashinath Tamot and Punya Prasad Parajuli
This painting is a unique representation of King Vikram Shahi, an early 17th century King of the Kalyāla dynasty of the Jumla valley, one of the hill states of Nepal that were the heritors of the great Khasa Malla kingdom of the 13/14th centuries. It is an unprecedented combination of Tibetan thangka painting format and style and Indian courtly portraiture. King Vikram Shahi was known for his close relationship with and protection of the Buddhist lamas and monasteries of his kingdom, a continuation of the remarkable bi-cultural and bi-lingual tradition of the Khasa Malla kings.
Published: April 20, 2021
 
The Standing Buddha of Guita Bahi: Part I with Kashinath Tamot and Gyanendra Shakya
A standing Buddha in Guita Bahi in eastern Patan, over life-size and probably the largest Nepalese metal sculpture now known, must be counted as one of the great marvels of Nepalese metalcraft. This Buddha presides as the main deity of Prathamaśrī mahāvihāra, the largest of the three viharas that make up Guita Bahi. At 6 feet 8 inches, (2m 3cm) it is the largest of the main deities of the viharas of Patan, and likely of the entire Kathmandu valley. A recently discovered inscription leads us to conclude that it is also the oldest dated Buddha sculpture in Nepal.
Published: June 30, 2020
 
On the Use of Carbon-14 Dating in the Study of the Art History of Nepal; A note on the Use of "Old Wood" in Nepalese Carving
Mary Slusser in her 2010 book, The Antiquity of Nepalese Wood Carving: A Reassessment (2010, University of Washington Press), made a remarkable reassessment of the previously accepted dating of the earliest Nepalese wood sculptures, relying in large part on the modern technique of carbon-14 dating. In a review in 2012, Gautama Vajracharya challenged her use of C-14 testing, writing that … "the custom of keeping a huge log protected within a monastery…. may indicate the historicity of the monasterial tradition of preserving aged tree trunks for carving divine images."
Published: July 31, 2017
 
Problems in Dating Nepalese Metal Sculpture: Three Images of Viṣṇu (corrected)
This article was first published in 1984 in  CNAS journal of Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu. In an article published in 2012, Gautam Vajracarya made an important correction to the dating of the first Visnu sculpture presented in this paper. This correction shows how over the years, those interested in the art history of Nepal have made consistent strides to better our understanding of this important tradition. Internet publishing allows us to publish this paper once again with this important correction.
Published: February 04, 2015. Originally published 1984 in the Journal of the Centre for Nepal and Asian Studies (CNAS)
 
The Sculpture of Chöying Dorjé, Tenth Karmapa
Establishing a chronology and a meaningful inventory of the sculptures of Chöying Dorjé, the 10th Karmapa, is a daunting task. There is considerable confusion and disagreement regarding who made what, and when. Six extraordinary sculptures analyzed in this article are believed by Ulrich von Schroeder to be ancient works of artists from the seventh to eighth century, while Ian Alsop, the author of this article believes they are the works of this master himself. This article attempts a new examination of this great artist's sculptural works.
Published: January 07, 2013. Originally published 2012 in The Black Hat Eccentric : Artistic Visions of the Tenth Karmapa
 
The Metal Sculpture of the Khasa Mallas of West Nepal/ West Tibet
The Khasa Mallas must be counted among the least known and the most fascinating of all the Himalayan ruling families. In their heyday from the 12th to the mid 14th century they ruled a sizeable kingdom made up of large portions of West Nepal and West Tibet. They were patrons of the arts, and they oversaw and encouraged a bronze casting tradition that produced metal sculptures of great beauty.
Published: August 26, 2005. Originally published 1994 in Orientations (June 1994)
 
A Kushan-period Sculpture from the reign of Jaya Varma, A.D. 185 with Kashinath Tamot
In April 1992 workers digging a trench for the foundation of a house in Māligāon stumbled across the most important art historical discovery in the Kathmandu Valley for many years. Lying face-down at a level of about three feet they found a life size (171 x 49 cm) standing male figure carved in pale sandstone. The sculpture is the donation of an early Licchavi or pre-Licchavi monarch, named Jaya Varman in an inscription on the pedestal. This article is the version published in Orientations magazine in September of 2001.
Published: July 10, 1996. Printed version published 2001 in Orientations (September 2001) and posted on asianart.com on December 25 2001
 
A Kushan-period Sculpture from the reign of Jaya Varma, A.D. 185 with Kashinath Tamot
In April 1992 workers digging a trench for the foundation of a house in Māligāon stumbled across the most important art historical discovery in the Kathmandu Valley for many years. Lying face-down at a level of about three feet they found a life size (171 x 49 cm) standing male figure carved in pale sandstone. The sculpture is the donation of an early Licchavi or pre-Licchavi monarch, named Jaya Varman in an inscription on the pedestal. This article is the original version published on asianart.com on July 10, 1996, and subsequently updated several times.
Published: July 10, 1996. Updated several times with last update on March 28, 2000
 
Phagpa Lokeśvara of the Potala
Who is Phagpa Lokeśvara? How old is his image and where was it made? For the answer to the first question we must turn to Tibetan religious history; for answers to the other two, we must attempt a stylistic analysis without, alas, a direct view of the figure itself, working only with the shadows left by countless pious copyists.... (originally published in Orientations, April 1990).
Published: December 14, 1999 (Updated August 4, 2000). Originally published 1990 in Orientations (April 1990)
 
The Conservation of Tibetan Thangkas
The Conservation of Tibetan Thangkas consists of a series of articles presented at papers to the Western Association for Art Conservation (WAAC) Annual Meeting in Santa Fe New Mexico in September 1992. The articles include technical notes and procedures and photographs of various stages of conservation. Published in Asian Arts 3/5/98, with kind permission of WAAC and the authors.
Published: March 5, 1998
 
Licchavi Caityas of Nepal: A Solution to the Empty Niche
Among the curious puzzles of early Nepalese sculpture and architecture are the empty niches of the lovely Licchavi stone caityas that dot the Kathmandu valley. These elegant caityas are fully decorated, often with exquisitely detailed carvings, but the niches where one might suppose the figures of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas would normally reside, are vacant.
Published: March 17, 1995 (Updated Feb. 10, 2000)
 

Asianart.com | Associations | Articles | Exhibitions | Galleries