Ahead of International Women’s Day on 8 March, CPF celebrates one of its many women-led projects.
In Nepal, Janakpur Women's Development Center is preserving and reviving Maithil women’s paintings and mud art heritage, a form of earthen architecture used to decorate mud houses with imagery that represents Maithil religious traditions.
Elephants, peacocks, fish, turtles and lotus are just some of the symbols which Maithil women in Nepal traditionally featured in paintings and in mud bas relief on their houses in villages around Janakpur. This ritual and decorative practice was a custom passed down from mothers to daughters for hundreds of years.
While Maithil women have great pride in their heritage, to date the elderly village masters of these traditions have not been recognised or documented and their arts were taken for granted.
Today younger women have not been learning these skills, so a whole repertoire of imagery and designs, their cultural and religious meanings, and knowledge of how to use natural materials to create these traditional artworks is at risk of being lost.
By training local women in Maithil painting and mud work, the project team will ensure local people have developed skills to protect the heritage and practice the unique craft of Maithil tradition. Interviews with elderly Maithil artisans will allow local communities to better understand and value their cultural heritage.
By decorating the houses in Kuwa village, using the acquired Maithil artwork tradition, local communities will play an active role in protecting their cultural heritage through training and practice – and the local area is enhanced for the benefit of communities and visitors.
To find out more about the Preservation and revival of Maithil women’s wall painting and sculpting arts project, visit https://cultural-protection-fund.britishcouncil.org/projects/maithil-womens-wall-painting-and-sculpting-arts
