~ Detail Photos ~

Here we have a wonderful old Newari dance mask in the form of a lion. Newar people have an extremely active religious life and it has in fact been said that there is hardly a day in a day in any given calendar year when there is not at least a minor religious festival.  Some of the more significant festivals will involved masked dancers.  This piece is a beautifully executed example of the composite mask making technique created by incorporating clay and wheat flour paste with cloth strips to form a stiff clay like base in a manner similar to papier mache.  It has wonderful hand painted finish work that is in strict accord with traditional specifications set down long generations ago within the Chitrakar clan who are a caste associated with the arts..