Nepal · Painting / Religious Craft
पौभा (Paubha)
Paubha is the Newar Buddhist scroll painting tradition in the Chitrakar caste's distinct iconographic vocabulary. The defining technical element is the mandala: the entire composition derived from a single founding circle drawn with compass and string whose diameter is specified by the relevant Tantric text for each commission. Six-fold subdivision (compass set to radius, arc marked six times) locates all deity positions at intersection points — no grid, pure geometry. The Chitrakar must know both the compass geometric derivation AND the Tantric textual specification.
Risk level: Critically Endangered · Nepal national ICH list; UNESCO Kathmandu Valley Heritage context
Tamrakar is the hereditary Newar metalworking tradition of Patan, producing gilt copper repoussé deity images exported throughout the Himalayas for over a thousand years.
Lakhe Kam is the Newar tradition of producing lacquered wooden vessels on a pole-lathe (Dhand) — one of the few surviving pole-lathe turning traditions in Asia.
Nau is the hereditary Newar carpenter-carver tradition producing the elaborate architectural wood carving of Kathmandu Valley temples — the peacock window of Bhaktapur, erotic temple struts, and the torana (door pediments).
Shilpakar is the hereditary Newar stone carving caste producing the sandstone and schist reliefs of Kathmandu Valley temples, most famously at Changu Narayan (UNESCO, 5th century CE).
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