Repoussé art

Rabindra Shakya has spent more than 35 years practising repoussé, a centuries-old technique where the design is hammered into metal from the back. He works with copper and precious metals, carrying on a craft passed down through generations of his family.

What Shakya does isn't mass production. A single major piece from his studio takes almost two years to finish, with a team of five to six craftsmen hammering, chasing and tracing every detail by hand.

His statues are now in private collections, cultural institutions and exhibitions around the world, including in Germany, China and the Netherlands.

In a conversation with Kantipur’s Samikshya Adhikari, Shakya talks about the skill this work demands, the patience it takes to stay with one piece for years, and what it means to keep Nepal's metalwork tradition alive for the world to see.