Lain Singh Bangdel

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Lain Singh Bangdel (Rai) (1919-2002) is the former Chancellor of Nepal's Royal Academy and a renowned scholar, novelist, painter and art historian. In addition to being a leading authority on Nepalese art, Bangdel was responsible for introducing the modern trend of Western art into Nepal with his pioneering one-man exhibition in Kathmandu in 1962.

Bangdel was born in 1919 in Darjeeling, India to a family from Eastern Nepal. He spent his youth in a Himalayan village and, later, graduated with a degree in Fine Arts from the Government College of Arts and Crafts in Calcutta in 1945. In 1952, he traveled to Europe where he studied art in Paris, associated with the likes of Pablo Picasso and George Braque and made a name for himself as an artist with his distinctive, non-traditional Nepalese style.

Bangdel stayed in Europe until he was invited by the king to work in Nepal in 1961. From 1968-69, he was a Fulbright Professor at Denison University in Ohio and taught Nepali History of Art. He was elected to head the Royal Nepal Academy in 1972 and, during two terms, he dedicated himself to further research of Nepalese art and art history.

In the years from 1982 to 1989, he published three works, including "Stolen images of Nepal".

His many accolades include the "Commendatore" from the Italian Government for his contribution in the field of Arts and the "National Order of Arts and Letters" from the Republic of France (France's highest honor in the field of Arts). In addition, he was awarded Knight Commander of Royal Victorian Order by Great Britain. After his retirement from the Royal Nepal Academy, Bangdel engaged with renewed effort and success in his painting activities, and further documented the rich and unique art history of the Kathmandu Valley. Lain Singh Bangdel died in 2002.

His extraordinary life has been documented in a book entitled 'Against the Current: The Life of Lain Singh Bangdel-Writer, Painter and Art Historian of Nepal', by Don Messerschmidt and Dina Bangdel (Bangkok: Orchid Press, 2004; ISBN 974-524-052-4).