Artists in Khokana capturing waning beauty

Khokana, Lalitpur, Oct 28 . Khokana is famous for mustard oil and taichin beaten rice. It is further beautified by sloping farmlands and the green landscape.

Located in the southern outskirt of the Kathmandu Valley, Khokana is increasingly facing urbanization with sprawling concrete buildings. It has indeed taken toll on specificity of the village- the natural beauty getting dented. Agricultural production is dwindling massively every year, and the greenery landscape too is lessening significantly.

Bearing this in mind, a troupe of 20 painters has come up with an idea to capture the waning beauty of the village. “The green landscape that caught everyone’s eye as recent as five years ago is nowhere to see now. The remaining patches of green places will fade in the next two years or four. So we want to capture the present scene of the Khokana,” said Keshab Raj Khanal, member of the artist’s team.

The team had visited the village yesterday. They chose the village as a place to hold their eighth field art workshop in view of its beauty and traditional cultural uniqueness, which Khanal said, lured them.

At present, village is full of golden ripe paddy, while some villagers are busy harvesting the major crop. Domestic and foreign tourists are seen relishing the rusticity. The village is surrounded by Hattiban and Champadevi Hill across the sloping land and the Phulchoki, Sikali and Rudrayani.

“Nature is itself full of arts and artists should have the capacity to sense the essence of such gifts of the nature and reflect in their works through selections. Nature enjoys people with changing features. It speaks multiple meanings of life. The color of a live tree is green but the color green is varied and the capacity to reflect such tenets in the art is obviously a new learning,” artist Ram Krishna Thapa viewed while running his finger over his painting on the witness of the nature.

Thapa who had been in this sector since 2053 BS calls himself a lover of nature did not think twice to join the Khokona Campaign. Artists believe that nature is their teacher and it will whet their skills to ensure consummate works of art.

The team was briefed about the features of the historic city Khokana by locals Bharat Giri and Gyanratna Maharjan. The artists spend a whole day to spill and spray the colors in their works describing lifestyle, culture and history of Khokana.

“The present beautiful landscapes of Khokana are history for tomorrow because they vanish by the time, but the art would keep them immortal,” said another artist Rakesh Chandra Shrestha. The understanding of artists is that the government lacks a proper policy to protect land and soil. Beautiful landscapes are gradually vanishing with increasing urbanization. The Saturday campaign was the concept of Rakeshman Pradhan and Diweshman Singh Pradhan.

The team comprises new and senior artists and including those who have made their comeback to this field. It has a Facebook group with around 400 people in the friend list. They decide the venue for creating arts every Saturday through a voting. The team had already been the Hanumandhoka, Lalitpur Durbar Square, Bhaktapur, Thimi, Chandragiri and Teku to create arts.