(1) Video document on the Faguli Festival in Himachal Pradesh (2) Himachal Pradesh Thachi Fagli Festival (3) Himachal Pradesh Masks in the Museum of Folk & Tribal Art – Gurgaon – India
They were normally fixed on wooden pillars of the temples, while the larger ones are placed in the open courtyard around the temple by the villagers as a token of thanksgiving on the fulfilment of their wishes such as birth of a son, good harvest or rains, for the well-being of the family, protection of cattles, for recovery from diseases, etc. as Pahari villagers have unflinching faith in their deities, to whom they turn in adverse times for protection, help and solace.
Once their problems are solved and wishes granted, they get the image of their deity carved and leave in the temple precinct. This gesture is accompanied by appropriate sacrificial offerings. The figure of Durga (first three elongated ones), panels featuring a drummer and a devotee with unusual headgear; exquisite and rare wooden panel showing genre scenes. Shimla hills, Naldera to Kinnaur area. Late 19th century.
The museum is actually housed in the home of B.N. Aryan and Dr. Subhashini Aryan, Curators of the collection, Art Historians, son and daughter of the late K.C. Aryan, painter and collector of Indian folk artifacts.
Efforts are on to construct a new museum building in New Delhi.
April 26 2010 & 10.10.2022’s Updating of the Issue
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Ethnoflorence
Editorial Contents of this Issue
An Unique and Exclusive Point of View
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(1) – Khenis Ghost Eaters Figure In Kagbeni Village Nepal –
(2) – Western Nepal The Arhcetypal Iconography of an Artistic Living Tradition I –
(3) – Masques & Arts Tribaux Himalayens 2007 exhibition Galerie Le Toit du Monde Paris –
(4) – Richar Lair Collection – (5) – Extracts from Ethnoflorence Photo Archives Collection – (6) – Rural Art of the Western Himalaya – (7) – Masks of the Himalaya – (8) – Kanak Mani Dixit – (9) – Walking on the road of Western Nepal III – (10) A Nepalese figure
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63 IMAGES REPRODUCED
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(I)
KHENIS GHOST EATERS FIGURE
IN KAGBENI VILLAGE NEPAL
Kagbeni is a fortified two gates medioeval village located in a strategic place at the cofluence of two river valleys, situated in a fertile area.
During the 19th century the human guards of the gates become superfluous and were replaced with two human figure moulded from clay each named KHENIS or Ghost Eaters, primitive iconographic subjects probably remanants of the ancient BON religion.
Ethnoflorence Photo Archives Collection – Composition by Ethnoflorence
COMING SOON
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(VI)
RURAL ART of the WESTERN HIMALAYA
Ethnoflorence Composition
SUBASHINI ARYAN
(Mask inventory no 101)
Interesting the iconography of this Himachal Pradesh mask (Museum of Folk and Tribal Art Gurgaon New Dheli www.museumoffolkandtribalart.in ), collected by Mr KC Aryan for his Museum, and directly comparable with an item present in the Ethnoflorence Himalayan photo archive.
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(VII)
MASKS OF THE HIMALAYA
Old Southern Nepal animal mask, Terai area (?), traces of red natural color on natural wood (Inventory no.65)
Ethnoflorence Himalayan photo archive.
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(VIII)
KANAK MANI DIXIT
-Invitation card of the exhibition “Photo Document: Nineteen Seventies” by Kanak Mani Dixit at Siddhartha Art Gallery, Baber Mahal Revisited, Baber Mahal, Kathmandu , Nepal www.siddharthaartgallery.com
The prominent chin it is similar with the one of several Mohra brass effigies; in Rural Art of the Western Himalaya, Subashini Aryan published a male crowned mask from the collection of her father, that it is quite similar, with the present one.
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ETHNOFLORENCE INDIAN AND HIMALAYAN FOLK AND TRIBAL ARTS 