Bhaktapur is one of the most inspiring places Nepal has to offer,
especially if you’re into an artistic mood. The city’s many squares offer a
variety of crafts, craftsmen, and workshops, from woodcarvers to jewellers, potters,
and thanka painters. So, of course, staying a week here gives anyone a
chance to work on their creativity.
Which is what happened to me: after Bhaktapur enriched my resourcefulness
in just one day here, I came back only to find that I have too many options to
choose from to enhance my artistic skills and too little time. So I finally
settled on something I did before at home: pottery. Something that basically
involved getting mud all over myself while sweating over a potter’s kick-wheel
and trying to throw something resembling a vessel at the same time. Usually,
the result was no more than me finding it extremely difficult to remove all the
hardened clay off various parts of my body, and a small roundish object that
would have to be called – for lack of a better word – a small pot. At the time,
my teacher always joked around trying to make me feel better, saying I’m really
getting good at making various kinds of ashtrays: nothing much ever got higher
than a respectable cigarette-discarding receptacle.
But now, in Bhaktapur, I would have the chance to have a go at pottery
again and prove myself worthy of the term amateur potter. So, I went to –
unquestionably – Potters’ Square
where a true-blue potter said he would teach me the secret of this
ancient art. I would only have to watch closely and practice, practice,
practice.
For starters, he said, I should try something easy and, once I got the
hang of it, have a go at other, more complicated designs. And guess what he
chose as the starting point! That’s right: ashtrays!
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Similarly, when life gives
you clay, make ashtrays.
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