A Thanka businessman by profession, he owns a Thanka painting shop in New Road.Fifteen years ago, one of his foreign customers asked him about the details of Thanka painting.
“Why does Gautam Buddha look different in this painting?”
“What are the significances of the colors used in it?”
“What meaning can I get from the things seen in the picture?”
Kadel had no specific answers to give because he was unaware of such details. He decided to study the art and history of Thanka painting extensively through a Guru. Upon earning his dikshya (education) from Swami Akandananda, Kadel asked him what he wanted in return for educating him. In answer, the Swami said, “I don’t need any material wealth for me. If you really want to please me, then do something for your country that many haven’t even thought about.”
That was how he came up with the idea of collecting Nepal’s folk instruments and housing them in a museum. He has no specific answers why he particularly chose the field. “It just came to my mind, and I started investigating the prospect to make it happen.”
Finally, in January 1996, he paid his tribute to his Guru. He was successful in establishing a museum of folk instruments. But to run the museum and add more to it was not an easy job. With seven kinds of “Panche Baja” (Tyamko, Damaha, Jhurma, Dhalaki, Sahane, Narsingha, and Karnal) he opened his museum at Tripureshwor, on the land provided by the Ministry of Education and Culture.
Thirteen years down, Kadel’s museum possesses more than 300 traditional folk instruments. However, this precious collection stands unnoticed by most people in the city, and the Government of Nepal has said it can do nothing to promote and preserve the gems it has.
It is a great surprise to see folk instruments of almost all the indigenous nationalities of Nepal at one single place. The museum has most of the instruments played by various ethnic groups. From Damai to Newar, Brahmin to Rai, Chhetri to Satar, Magar and Gandharva, and Limbu and Tamang, the inner ambience of the wood-carved museum has ensembles of never-before-seen musical equips.
Though Kadel has enough euphonic tools collected so far, his search, however, is not over because he says there are altogether 527 instruments in Nepal, and he still has to find 227 more.
Without any help from donors and the government, Kadel visits the remote districts and villages of Nepal to find more about Nepali folk music, bearing his own expenses. By now, he has traveled to forty-five districts of Nepal, and he is sure he will be able to bring in all the instruments after visiting the remaining thirty districts.
“This isn’t easy. And this has nothing to benefit me commercially. Still, I don’t know why I get a different sort of satisfaction from it,” shares Kadel and reveals, This initiative requires a lot of time, energy and capital for Kadel. “For example, when I go to a village to learn their culture and music, many are introvert and they don’t open up. When I get to know about persons who can tell me all the details and can get me the traditional instruments, there have been cases when the said persons died before I could meet them. In such cases, I have to plan everything again. And it takes me more time and more money.”
He adds, “Can you believe that a woman in one of the villages in Nepal can hum more than seven folk melodies while cooking in the kitchen? There are altogether 60,000 folk melodies in Nepal and 2,000 types of dances. Most of us are unaware of them. There are set melodies to sing when there is death, there are songs to hum during childbirths, weddings and other ritual practices.”
All Photos Bijay Gajmer
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According to Kadel, hundreds of ancient melodies die when a musically sound person passes away in a village. Take for example Chhabi Raman Adhikary of Kaski district. Kadel was in constant touch with Adhikary who knew 250 types of typical folk melodies. Once, he sang 18 of them for Kadel and promised he would reveal the rest when Kadel visited him next. But before Kadel made his second tour, Adhikary had died. The remaining 232 songs died along with him, with no other people in the locality knowing them.
Kadel has made sure that he will have all the instruments preserved in the museum so people won’t have to labor to find about them.
Some of the interesting items in the museum are 200 years old. A “Dhalaki” is more 7.3 feet tall. The “Sarangi” and “Jhamtar” – instruments of Gaine-s who play the instruments and sing door to door for cash or kind – “Karnal,” a 200-years-old “Nagara Nishana” – a drum played during major announcements made by the kings in medieval Nepal – and “Kangling.”
The “Kangling,” a femur, is the most interesting instrument in the museum because it has a funny connection with Kadel. When he brought the bone device from a village, it scared him for three nights. He kept his lights on, fearing he would be haunted by the human bone, which is the most precious instrument now.
But what will happen to the objet d’art after him? That is his main worry. Perhaps “The state should provide security. Ironically, I know it won’t. It can never even dare to,” he says
When Kadel asked for help to preserve the heritage, Shankar Prasad Koirala, secretary at Ministry of Water Resource, replied that he should not hand the museum over to the government, or else it will rot, just like the library of Dilli Raman Regmi. With no hopes from the government, Kadel is now trying to make the museum a place to study ethno music under the purview of Tribhuvan University.
“I’ve been trying my best to protect our heritage. I’m not asking for financial help. But if you have creative minds, please suggest ways and means for me to help preserve these assets of our own. Love your music and love your culture, there’s more to gain,” he concludes with hope that his words will reach the ears of those who can help him preserve the Music Museum of Nepal.
