South Asian examples show the centrality of nature in indigenous art · Global Voices
Sanjib Chaudhary

Rice sheaves artistry from southern plains of Nepal. Photo by CK Kalyan. Used with permission.
This article by Sanjib Chaudhary was first published on The Record (Nepal) and an edited version is republished on Global Voices as part of a content-sharing agreement.
In 2014, I was contacted by a Nepalese scholar who wanted me to take a closer look at a photo of a minutely carved door from the Chitwan district in southwestern Nepal. Although I was able to easily recognize the 30 or so figures on the small door panels—elephants, camels, oxen, cobras, donkeys, cranes, leopards, monkeys, deer, and horses, along with humans—the writing, although legible, didn’t make much sense.
This beautiful decorative door dating back to the 19th century was eventually revealed to belong to an indigenous Tharu household of elephant handlers. All the animals, except for the camels and the only bird depicted on the door, were from Chitwan, and the writing was eventually translated by the scholar himself to be the names and professions of the elephant handlers who lived in that home. The unique icons, motifs, colours and style spoke of the people’s local, living reality. More importantly, they depicted an age-old human relationship with nature—the trees, animals and birds—and its conservation. It’s a relationship that still persists, despite modernity’s intrusion into indigenous lives, and one that indigenous artists still attempt to recall through their work.
Every element in indigenous art tells a story. “The taproot of indigenous aesthetics,” says Cherokee writer Daniel Justice, “is our stories, families, lands, artists, ceremonies, and language.”
In the plains of northern India and southern Nepal, women have, for generations, taken time out from their daily chores to paint the walls of their homes with artwork featuring decorative motifs, birds, animals and trees from their surroundings.
The Kochila Tharu women, for example, decorate their houses, granaries and verandahs with motifs of recurring geometric and floral patterns, along with birds and animals—peacocks and elephants, in particular. Peacocks feature prominently because they are regarded as symbols of luck.
“The work is one moment in the continuum of time,” write Kurt W Meyer and Pamela Deuel, who spent four years exploring Tharu art in nearly 300 villages across Nepal, in an article for Asian Art, an online journal. “The anonymous artist borrows from the elders, makes some changes, is free to improve on it, within the constraints set up by the culture, and this culture belongs to all.”
Many indigenous people in Nepal depict nature in their art. For example, during the Hindu festival Krishnashtami, the Tharus of western Nepal adorn their adobe house walls with Ashtimki paintings. Basing their work on the Tharu folk epic Gurbabak Jalmauti, the artists start drawing from the bottom of the wall and move towards the top in the order, according to Tharu folklore, that the elements and creatures were created by Gurbaba, the creator of Earth: water, fish, crab, tortoise, crocodile, and other water creatures, along with a boat carrying Gurbaba, his disciples, and his books. Tharus believe that during a past apocalypse, Gurbaba (accompanied by his disciples and books) sailed to a sanctuary and created the new world.
The centre stage in an Ashtimki painting is occupied by the Kadam tree, with Kanha, or Krishna, on top of its canopy, along with the sun, moon, monkeys, and images of Ravana, Draupadi, and the Pandavas from the Hindu epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. In it, the artists include creatures like elephants, horses, camels and peacocks.
By adding auspicious figures and observing austere rituals while creating Ashtimki paintings, the artists imbue their work with religious significance. But Ashtimki has also evolved beyond religion to include quotidian details that are part of modern Tharu life. “While much of this art is rooted in devotional activities, today’s artist seldom knows the significance of the designs, but still clings to the graphics of the elders, occasionally introducing contemporary designs such as a bus or aeroplane,” added Meyer and Deuel.
Much of the subcontinent’s indigenous art still draws inspiration from how things were in the past, when man and nature coexisted far more intimately. They are informed by an ethos that, for instance, coloured the 10,000-year-old cave paintings in Central India’s Bhimbetka, which depict birds, animals, and human beings living in harmony. Man’s relationship with nature was of prime importance in the ancient cave paintings of South Asia, and it continues to be a central theme in indigenous wood carvings, house murals, and even rice-sheave artistry.
Sometimes, indigenous arts’ relationship with nature can be difficult to decipher. In Nepal’s southern plains, the tradition of making plaited rice sheaves probably derives from a tradition of giving thanks to birds, especially after harvests. People originally hung the plaited rice sheaves, called Jhutti, to provide food for birds and also to conserve the seeds of each species of rice harvested. The rice sheaf art pieces are shaped to represent various animals and household elements.
Today, indigenous art is also used to convey a more urgent message about conservation. Mithila art, or Madhubani painting, made by the women from Bihar, India, and Nepal’s eastern Terai, is known for its brightly painted geometric patterns and flowers, birds, animals, plants and deities. The widely popular art form has not only made its passage from house walls to handmade paper and cloth but has also been deployed in conservation campaigns. In 2012, artists in Bihar created Madhubani paintings depicting Hindu deities on tree trunks to save the trees from being cut down.
One way to regard indigenous art is to view it as a lesson in living. Its lineage extends far back in history and through the ages, it has documented mankind’s symbiosis with nature and taught us to revere that relationship. The indigenous artist’s notion of what nature comprises includes, beyond nature in its untouched state, the ecosystems that humans, animals, and plants jointly occupy and the indigenous people’s attitude towards nature’s providence. As is the case with all other art forms, indigenous art has continued to evolve in response to the changes that have occurred in its subjects’—that is, the indigenous people’s—lives. It’s thus not surprising that today’s indigenous art also includes particulars from the modern world. But it is also an art form that continues to place unwavering faith in the value of learning from nature, and respecting and conserving it. And that is a lesson in wisdom modern man truly needs.