Views on the Newars

"The Newars are best known to the world for their amazing artistic creativity and skilled craftsmanship producing a culture which a few centuries ago ranked among the highest in Asia. The Newars developed their own distinctive art style which is now thought of purely Nepalese. The heavily decorated many tired pagoda temple style peculiar to Newari builders and artisans is generally believed to have originated with them. Records show that Emperors of Tibet and China sent for Newari craftsmen to build temples in their lands, whence the style eventually spread to Japan"

-Mary A. Anderson

The salient trait of the Newar character is the taste of society. The Newar never lives isolated; he loves to dwell a little like the Parisian, in house of several stores and swarming with people, rather than live in solitude in town as well as in the village. He knows how to derive delight from the pleasures nature give him; he sings, he talks, he laughs, he loves the country side, delights in picnic of gay company; in a shadow spot near a stream of a rivulet, in the shelter of an old sanctuary, facing a beautiful and panoramic view. Careful and keen cultivator he also excels in all the manual arts, even the most delicate; he is a painter of taste, well-informed trader without rapacity and born artist. He is talented goldsmith and ironsmith, fanciful carver, dyer and a gifted artist. He has changed the art of India, built temples and palaces which have served as models to the Tibetans and the Chinese. The Classical pagoda hells from Nepal. The reputation of the Nepalese craftsmen, consecrated by the centuries, is still established in the whole Central Asia. The Gurkhas who recent their entry in the army have given them the reputation of cowardice; but the memory of the assaults delivered at Kirtipur testify their bravery

-Sylvan Levi
La Nepal

"Now a days the term Nepalese has a far wider significance, indeed almost a changed meaning, but when we speak of Nepalese civilization, we can only mean Newar civilization"

-David Snellgrove
'Shrines and Temples of Nepal'
Arts Asiatique
VIII,I,1961 Page#3