Locals add hues of Darjeeling’s culture & heritage to wall murals on Nehru Road
Times of India | 25 November 2024
Siliguri: A group of locals has turned Darjeeling's Nehru Road into an open-air art gallery with their vibrant artwork in the form of wall murals depicting the hill station's cultural diversity and rich heritage. Coming together under
the banner of ‘Better Darjeeling', they have painted five faces on the walls along the road, depicting the different communities and their traditions.IPL 2025 mega auctionIPL Auction 2025: Who got whomIPL 2025 Auction: Updated Full Team Squads
For locals, these murals have become a point of pride, preserving the cultural identity of Darjeeling amid the burden of urbanization and tourism. To the tourists, these paintings offer a visual journey through the town's past and present.
The key person behind the initiative, Ramesh Thami, said, "The motive of the painting was to show the mixed culture of Darjeeling."
"We wanted to show how the different communities live together in one place. We also aim at preserving the custom and traditions of the different communities in the Hills," said Thami, who took nine days to make the painting.
"We have used tiles so that the art does not fade away and moreover, the maintenance cost is reduced. The Darjeeling Municipality and the locals of Darjeeling have also helped us in this initiative," he said.
Yuraj Pradhan, one of the team members, said, " Each of the faces in the art has a meaning. The top right image is of an old Neplai man celebrating ‘Bhai Tika', a festival celebrated during Diwali. On the top, there is an image of Kumari — cthe hild goddesses , whose ‘Phulpati shovayatra' is taken out on the seventh day of the Durga Puja. The tradition dates back to the days of King Pritivinarayan Shah (1723-1775) of Nepal when the Phulpati procession used to start from Gorkha, his native place, and culminate at Kathmandu after covering hundreds of miles. On the top-left is a lepcha man and on the bottom left, there is a Tibetan old man's image. There is an image of a Neplai women, who is laughing." They have also reapplied fresh coats of paint on the old 3D paintings."We started the renovation work from Sept 16. But, it took time to complete the project as we had festivals in between. We completed both the renovation and the new painting in 35 days," he added.