As an artist trained in Nepal, Mr. Rabindra had long felt for his fellow Nepali artists to be taken seriously as professionals outside Nepal; they needed exposure, self-confidence, publicity and a way of reaching their patrons directly. Besides, he thought that the theme of religious harmony, which lends subdued and subtle meanings to Nepali sculptures, could serve as an ambassadorial message of goodwill and peace to the rest of the world.

And so, in early 2002, Mr. Rabindra gathered his friends, and shared his idea with them of organizing an Exhibition in Germany, the country where he studied development studies for his degree, and had a six-month experience as a visiting student at the Fine Arts Academy in Bremen in the mid-1990's.

The response from the other three artists was encouraging. Buoyed by their reaction, he then set out to make contacts with his friends in Germany, successfully confirming exhibition venues. Before proceeding for Germany they also decided to organize a pre-event exhibition in Nepal, which was successfully conducted in Model House Bhaktapur.

RABINDRA PURI:
Rabindra,39, studied fine arts at Nepal Lalit Kala Campus in Kathmandu, where he specialized in sculptures His previous creations can be found in private collections in Europe and in Nepal. His most famous creation , a white stupa of Bouddhanath,is on permanent display at Nepal's Patan Museum.

For his sculptures, Rabindra starts off with wax and clay, slowly bringing out desired shapes before casting it all through a"lost wax process" in bronze and copper. His sculptures show a blending of ancient religious motifs with contemporary art. He has been creating sculptures for the last 15 years.
 

RADHE SHYAM SHILPAKAR:
Radhe shyam Shilpakar,50, has been carrying on his ancestral work of woodcarving for the last 25 years. Radhe shyam starts with a design idea. He then makes a drawing on paper. Wood that he normally uses comes from saal and sisau trees, and for nails, he uses bamboo picks. His specialties lie in making windows, thaam, idols and custom-made, high-end furniture.

An artist of high integrity, Radhe shyam won professional acclaim when he served as the Chief Carver, supervising the works of many young sculptors at the Chyasaling Mandap (Pavilion) for three years in the late 1980s. In between, he has won several art prizes for his work.
 

INDRA KAJI SHILPAKAR:
For the last 27 years, Indra kaji Shilpakar,46, has been carving wood to create intricate and delicately textured three-dimensional images of Hindu and Buddhist deities. Indra Kaji won professional plaudits when he served as a master carver for three years at Chyasaling Mandap (pavilion), which is an ancient building in Bhaktapur. That building was reconstructed in 1990 as a gesture of frendship between the people in Germany and in Nepal.

Like Radhe Shyam, he too starts with designs on paper, before going on to estimate tje size of the finished sculptures. Once the design is set, he then chooses appropriate pieces of wood from saal, sisau and chaamp trees, using up his days to carve the pieces into stunning finishes. It takes up anywhere from a months to a year of full-time dedication to complete his creations.

The works he has created for his exhibition bring forth religious themes taken from ancient Hindu and Buddhist myths. In Nepal, Indra kaji is famous for these religiously- influenced sculptures which have earned him coveted art prizes.
 

SURJA BAJRACHARYA:
A vivacious artist who left school at a young age to shoulder household responsibilities, Surja worked in the basement of her house as as apprentice to her stone carver father for 15 years before setting out on her own. As a result, today, in her 30s she remains the first female stone carver in Nepal widely praised for her brilliant, life-like creations and decorated with awards, among the others, from the king of Nepal.

She says that she starts with a slab of stone, which she then divides into seven parts to make sure that the body proportion come out right. She then chips at it for months with a hammer to bring out the desired patterns, shapes and smoothness. She says that each of her stone sculpture takes anywhere from two months to half a year of full-time commitment to be ready for shipping.