The metallurgical arts of ancient Nepal have long been famous and their antiquity well established.¹ Moreover, despite the well-entrenched opinion that "no living art supports [Nepal's rites and festivals] any longer,"² the metallurgical arts at least, yet thrive in the creation of quality sacred art that can hold its own with the best of the past. This view has been championed by Erberto LoBue who, however, like many others has focused more on the art and artists of lost wax casting.³ Perhaps this is because the apparent complexity of this process has aroused greater interest than in what is presumed to be the "simple" process of working in repoussé. Actually, it is the reverse. Repoussé is the more difficult and demanding, a fact recognized even by the practitioners of lost-wax casting.⁴ The purpose of this paper is to redress the balance somewhat by an examination of the work of Kuber Singh Shakya, the most eminent recent practitioner of the art of repoussé, whose numerous works sanctify the nation and many surrounding countries.

Fig.1 Kuber Singh Shakya 1930

Kuber Singh Shakya was born in the Oku-bahal and Mahabauddha temple quarter of Patan about 1881 and died in 1957 (fig. 1 left).⁵ Like most Nepalese metallurgists, he was a member of the Newar community of that city. He belonged to a lineage of scholars and artists whose genealogy can be traced at least as far back as Abhaya Raj Shakya, who founded the illustrious Mahabauddha temple about 1564.⁶ Out of this lineage it was Kuber Singh's family that the Malla kings of Patan selected to be their royal artificers in repoussé.⁷ Kuber Singh learned his craft in the workshop of his father, Bhima Narasimha Shakya (d. 1931), also a highly regarded artist, but who because of religious duties - he became the thakali (elder) of Oku-bahal - abandoned the work in favor of his son. Kuber Singh soon became the most sought after artist in this medium. He was called upon to decorate and provide images and cult objects for the most prestigious temples, Hindu and Buddhist, in the Kathmandu Valley, for the Buddhist monasteries of the Nepalese northern borderlands, and for those of far away Ladakh, Tibet, and Bhutan.

Fig. 2 Copper repoussé

In the Kathmandu Valley there seems to be almost no monument that did not profit from the art of Kuber Singh. It was he, for example, who crafted in silver repoussé the doors to the sanctum of Pashupatinath, and (in company with his father and an uncle) provided the gilt-copper repoussé decoration of the spire (harmika) and the directional Buddha shrines of Svayambhunath stupa, two of the most sacred sites in Nepal.⁸ Kuber Singh also made the gilt-copper roof and the torana of the portal for the esteemed Hariti temple at Svayambhunath and, in Kathmandu, the gilt-copper roofing, prayer wheels and other decorative adjuncts of Jana-bahal, the temple of the White Matsyendranath. Again, it was he who provided repoussé decoration for the chariot of this deity, that of the Red Matsyendranath and companion chariot of Minnath of Patan (fig. 2), and was called upon even from distant Bhaktapur to fashion repoussé crowns for that city's famous Navadurga dancers. Following the destructive 1934 earthquake, he was much in demand in the restoration of the damaged metalwork of the temples and shrines, including a hand in the restoration of the Mahabauddha temple in his neighborhood.⁹ For Kathmandu he made a gilt-copper repoussé replacement of the damaged seventeenth-century portrait image of King Pratapa Malla and family, which crowns a tall pillar in the royal square. His descendants also affirm that he made a replacement for one of the nearby pillar images which face the Taleju temple, but they are unable to identify it.

Kuber Singh's output was by no means restricted to the Kathmandu Valley. Commissions for sculptures and other work in repoussé seem to have poured in from distant places in Nepal and nearby Buddhist countries. Often with the aid of his sons and other family members the works were completed in his Patan workshop but frequently required travel to far away places to be made in situ. According to his descendants, one of Kuber Singh's Nepal destinations was Nubri in the upper valley of the Buri Gandaki river, then (and to a large extent, still) some two weeks' arduous walk into the roadless mountainous region northwest of Kathmandu. Kuber Singh and his family refer to this region as the Eighteen Hundred Rivers (Athahrasayekhola). It embraces the territory beginning a little north of Arughat, the adjoining districts of Kutang, Nubri (Nup-ri), farther north, and Tsum, or Shar, to the east.¹¹ The upper reaches of the valley and its principal tributary, the Shar, or Tsum, Khola, is beaded with a succession of villages whose Tibetanized inhabitants practice Vajrayana Buddhism in common with their Tibetan neighbors over the border. In these valleys one wonders if there is a temple or monastery (gonpa, dgon-pa) that has not benefited from the art of Kuber Singh.

Fig. 9 Village on the rocky banks

Fig 10 A copper prayer wheel

Fig. 11 Image of Padmasambhava

There is no record of what the company made except that in the memory of Rudra Raj, the only one of the four still alive.¹³ The list is rather sketchy, is likely incomplete, and for the most part, without fieldwork, it has not been possible to identify most of the gonpas involved. It is clear, however, from the return addresses on Kuber Singh's letters home that in 1954, at least, he and his helpers spent time in the village of Samagaon, or Rö, its Tibetan name, at an altitude of about four thousand meters in the shadow of Manaslu. It is one of the northernmost outposts in Nubri, not far from the Tibetan border and the headwaters of the Buri Gandaki as it spills from the Himalayas. In this village, for "Nhubari" monastery (Khargu Cho ling), the largest in Samagaon, they made seventeen two-meter high prayer wheels. Rudra Raj states that they were commissioned by three lamas, all brothers, and installed in their quarters. Apparently it was for the same three that the large gilt-copper repoussé chörten decorated in silver was made in Kuber Singh's Patan workshop (fig. 1). For Khargu Cho ling monastery Kuber and his assistants also made a gilt-copper repoussé image of Padmasambhava. It was based on a drawing prepared by Kuber Singh, occasionally a preliminary step in making large, multipart images, particularly if the commissioner requests a preview. Fortunately the drawing has been preserved in the home of his descendants (fig. 11 above). The drawn image only measures 89.5 centimeters so may not be to scale, because Rudra Raj, Kuber's son who helped make it, states that the finished image was twice that size, 208 centimeters. Hemraj Shakya tells us the Padmasambhava was "five cubits tall."¹⁴ Snellgrove, who unfortunately provides the scantiest of information about the physical appearance of the sculptures he saw during his passage through Nubri and Tsum, made particular mention of it: a large Padmasambhava "in bronze" which is "the recent work of craftsmen summoned from Patan."¹⁵

Curiously, it seems, it was in Nubri, rather that at home in his workshop, that Kuber Singh fulfilled a Bhutanese commission for a large silver image of a seated Vajrasattva. Hemraj Shakya gives its height as four and one-half cubits. If correct, this is an impressive size, especially for an image made of costly silver. Ninety-two kilograms were employed which arrived from Kathmandu in sheets so thick that they had to be first pounded thin by a local blacksmith. Although a Bhutanese commission, the image is said to have been for "Bigun," an unidentified monastery in this region. The name suggests that it might be at Bi village, famous for its exquisite engravings on stone slabs piled in windrows to comprise the omnipresent mani walls in the village environs (fig. 16 below). The name also might represent a deformation of rang byung (The Self Originated), the name of the principal monastery in that village.¹⁹ Michael Aris, who explored Bi in 1973, also reports that nearby is "the little temple of Bal.po.Chos.sgang (The Religious Hill of the Newars)." He was unable to enter but, he remarks, "its name implies that there are images of Newari craftsmanship inside."²⁰

Fig. 16 Mani Walls

The Buri Gandaki was by no means the only region in Nepal to which Kuber Singh and his assistants traveled to construct large multipart copper repoussé images for the practitioners of Buddhism. They went several times to Helambu, a region several days' climb north of the Kathmandu Valley that remains staunchly Buddhist in the Hindu kingdom of Nepal. With Kuber Singh's descendants there are a number of letters written home in 1940 (V. S.1997) from a work site in Helambu called Rani Ghyan, a location yet to be identified. In that year he was accompanied by his son Kesh Raj, nephew Sankha Raj, and a relative named Chandraman. Hemraj Shakya specifies a Helambu monastery by name "Bagam" (identified as "Badhan" by Rudra Raj) for which Kuber Singh made two "three cubit tall" images, one of Padmasambhava, the other of Sakyamuni Buddha. Kuber Singh traveled even farther afield, to a monastery in the Rolwalling region of Nepal, east of the Sun Kosi River, to fulfill a commission for a large gilt-copper Ekadasa Lokesvara. In V.S. 1993 (1936), the family wrote Kuber Singh at another workplace in Nepal called Cuva gonpa but it is yet to be located.

The reigning Nepali master of repoussé sculpture was also called to Tibet to fashion images for several gonpas located at Kyirong (sKid-grong), just over the border. He made, for example, a "four and a half cubit" tall image of Avalokitesvara for the town's Samlin gonpa and for another, on the testimony of Rudra Raj, he carried out repairs that included replacing the gilt copper roof. He also beautified the portal with gilt repoussé decoration. For this monastery, or perhaps another, he made an image of Sakyamuni Buddha flanked by his two favorite disciples. He also made a large prayer wheel for Pansin (Tib. sPang-zhing) gonpa, an establishment founded by the same Bhutanese hierarch as Mu and Ra-chhen in nearby Tsum. The same gonpa also commissioned a large image of Mahasahasrasurya Lokesvara, one of the 108 forms of Avalokitesvara popular in Tibet and with nearby coreligionists.²¹ Because the deity has eleven superimposed heads it is usually simply called Ekadasa (Eleven-headed) Lokesvara. Indeed, several of the previously mentioned sculptures identified thus may in fact represent this particular form.

For Pansin's Mahasahasrasurya Lokesvara Kuber Singh also made a preview drawing, an accomplished work, artistically and iconographically, still in the custody of his descendants (figs. 17-18 above). Such a drawing, as we have discussed elsewhere, was not obligatory but sometimes requested by the commissioner.²² The drawings themselves have rarely survived since they were considered unconsecrated sketches with no intrinsic artistic or religious value. The five extant from the hand of Kuber Singh may be the only ones in existence. In the instance of this commission the image was made in Patan and sent to Tibet. However, according to Kuber's descendants, Pansin monastery was under construction and unable to receive the finished image so the lamas placed it for temporary safekeeping in neighboring Jhyamlin gonpa. When the time came for the Jhyamli lamas to return the image to the rightful owners at Pansin they refused to surrender it. Hence, Kuber Singh, as so often, trudged far afield to make a replacement in situ. All told, according to Rudra Raj, his father made eight of these large complex representations of Mahasahasrasurya Lokesvara.

Fig. 19 Maitreya

Kuber Singh made at least one image for a gonpa in Ladakh and another for the king of Bhutan, but in both instances he fabricated them in his Patan workshop and shipped them to the respective countries. Of the Ladakhi image and its whereabouts we only know from Kuber's descendants that it was "five cubits tall" and represented the popular Sadaksari (Six-armed) Lokesvara. However, for the Bhutanese image we are very well informed for as in the case of the Padmasambhava for Nubri and the Mahasahasrasurya Lokesvara for the Kyirong gonpas, the preliminary drawing of it still exists. It represents the enthroned bodhisattva and future Buddha, Maitreya, seated with pendant legs (fig. 19 left).²³ The enormous multipart, gilt copper repoussé image that ensued, more than three meters tall, was so large it had to be assembled in the street in front of the workshop. Disassembled for transport on its completion around 1938-39, the Maitreya image probably made its way to Bhutan in a number of pack baskets borne on the backs of Nepalese porters. Although yet to be ascertained, it may be the sculpture in the royal Maitreya temple in Tongsa Dzong, Central Bhutan (fig. 21 below). Françoise Pommaret, however, a specialist of Bhutanese culture who has seen and photographed the image, is under the impression that it is of gilded clay and was made at the turn of the century.²⁴ Given the facts that it is enshrined in a royal chapel and that Kuber's image was commissioned by the Bhutanese king himself makes this identification suspect. Moreover, given the unpopularity of Maitreya among the Bhutanese, it seems unlikely that there would be two such large representations of him in the small kingdom, one of clay and one in repoussé. Only physical examination of the image in question will settle the issue.

Fig. 21 Maitreya temple in Tsongsa Dzong

In order to fulfill his commissions, Kuber Singh appears always to have been accommodating in respect to travel to distant places in Nepal and Tibet, no matter how difficult the journey. Thus it seems strange that he did not also go to Bhutan to more conveniently make the enormous Maitreya image in situ but instead constructed it in Patan, leaving it to strangers to carry out the final assembly and gilding. The explanation is provided by his son, Rudra Raj, who affirms that the king's emissary, the "Dukpa lama" mentioned above, warned Kuber not to set foot in Bhutan for fear that the king would never release him. Rather, he would make him a prisoner of the court and install him permanently as resident artist. Thus despite the drawbacks attendant on constructing the Maitreya from afar, Kuber thought it wise to remain in the safety of his homeland. The story is mindful of those often told in Nepal about certain sculptures so skillfully executed that petty kings, so it is alleged, maimed the sculptor to prevent him from making comparable works for rival courts.²⁵

Among the old letters and other tattered papers in the custody of Kuber Singh's descendants one is particularly interesting, but disappointing in its brevity. It is a rough time sheet kept by the four men who made up the work party on the Buri Gandaki in 1942-43: Kuber, his sons Rudra Raj and Kesh Raj, and his nephew Sankha Raj. The document consists of four vertical columns headed by each worker's name and overlain by some two-dozen horizontal columns. Recorded in the resulting squares is each man's output on a particular project over a given number of days. Unfortunately, for the most part the entries concern for whom the work was done (i.e., whom to bill) rather than for what was made. In the rare cases to the contrary the work named is an unidentifiable prayer wheel, chörten, or unnamed icon. A typical entry in Kuber's column, for example, reads: "From Vaisakh-sukla 7, Tuesday [the Nepal era lunar calendar month], the work of Kusyothile Jhyamcho. Total days 23." Similarly, another entry records "From Jyestha-sukla 1, Thursday, again the gilding work for Lama Chirupa. Total days 5." As shown in the parallel columns, in the same five days Kuber's helpers were also engaged in the gilding project. The words "again the gilding" suggests it was the continuation of a process and this stage alone occupied twenty man days. How nice it would be, though, to know what they were gilding that busied them for so long - perhaps even the Padmasambhava image for "Nhubari" gonpa for which we have the drawing (fig. 11). Had the entries been less brief we might know a great deal more than we do both about Kuber Singh Shakya's profession and his legacy in the monasteries on the Buri Gandaki.

Just as Kuber Singh learned the art of repoussé from his father, Bhima Narasimha, so did his sons learn from him in what almost certainly represents a long continuum with roots in the Nepalese distant past.²⁶ Today, this legacy flourishes in the capable hands of Kuber's grandson, Raj Kumar. Fittingly, one of his current projects is the repair of the gilt roof and pinnacle (gajura) of the prestigious Hariti temple on which his grandfather worked so long ago.

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all text & images © Mary Shepherd Slusser and James A. Giambrone