Sher Bahadur Tamang (R), Nepali Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, poses with Qiao Guojin, the Chinese award-winner, during the Araniko Art Promotion Special Award 2018 in Kathmandu, Nepal, on June 2, 2018. The Nepal Academy of Fine Arts, a government body formed to promote Nepali arts, hosted Araniko Art Promotion Special Award 2018 on Saturday, where two late Nepali artists and one collector from China were awarded. (Xinhua/Sulav Shrestha)
KATHMANDU, June 2 (Xinhua) -- The Nepal Academy of Fine Arts, a government body formed to promote Nepali arts, hosted Araniko Art Promotion Special Award 2018 on Saturday, where two late Nepali artists and one collector from China were awarded.
Sher Bahadur Tamang, Nepali minster for law, justice and parliamentary affairs, felicitated family members of the two late artists and Qiao Guojin, the Chinese award-winner, amid a function with fanfare in the capital of Kathmandu.
The award was established under the name of famous Nepali architect Araniko, who was born in the Kathmandu Valley in 1244 and spent over 40 years in the Yuan Dynasty of China, where he built many temples and promoted Nepali Buddhist arts. Among them the most famous one is White Stupa at Miaoying Temple in Beijing.
Qiao has been involved in promoting Nepali Thankas (a Tibetan Buddhist painting on cotton or silk usually depicting Buddha) and traditional Newari arts (art associated with the indigenous community of Kathmandu Valley) in China for a decade.
Upon receiving the award, Qiao, chairman of a cultural company, said the award was not just the recognition of his contribution to promote Nepali arts and culture, but it was also the responsibility to work toward deepening ties between the two countries in arts and culture.
"Under the initiative of the Belt and Road Initiative, the two countries could deepen culture exchanges further," the 49-year-old art-lover said while receiving the award.
Ragini Grela Upadhya, chancellor of the Nepal Academy of Fine Arts, told the audience that Newari arts are unique, but to create art works alone is not enough, there must be strong marketing to promote them all over the world including China, which is what Qiao and his Chinese friends have been doing for a long time.
