Manwang Lowang: A story in fine arts

[ Indu Chukhu ]

RONO HILLS, 9 Mar: Seventy-three-year-old Manwang Lowang, from Pansumthong village in Borduria circle of Tirap district, was the first from Arunachal Pradesh to have earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts.

He took voluntary retirement from the post of industries deputy director.

During the lieutenant governorship of KAA Raja, Lowang was appointed as an artist at the industries department’s Research and Design (R&D) Centre in Doimukh in 1978. Within a year, he was promoted as the R&D assistant director.

“I had never thought of joining government service, but the then lieutenant governor, KAA Raja, through the Khonsa DC, directed me to join the R&D Centre in order to prepare a prototype centre for handicrafts. The government wanted a creative person to be involved to develop new samples and to ensure that the identity of traditional designs and motifs did not disappear,” said Lowang.

Lowang did his early schooling at Vivekananda Kendra Vidyalaya in Digboi, Assam, and went to RK Mission Purulia, West Bengal, for his higher secondary education. It was during his RK Mission days that he decided to graduate in fine arts after being encouraged by his teachers who had seen his artwork.

“We were taught art subjects at RK Mission Vidyapith in Purulia, and the teachers there saw my calibre and encouraged me to do a bachelor’s degree in fine arts,” he said.

Lowang graduated from the fine arts faculty of Visva Bharati University in West Bengal.

Lowang is also the person behind the designing of the erstwhile mithun gate, near the present Nyokum Lapang in Itanagar.

 “I designed the mithun head for the gate initially as part of the inauguration of the state capital Itanagar. During that time, the then president, Neelam Sanjiva Reddy, accompanied by the then chief minister Gegong Apang and lieutenant governor RN Haldipur,was present,” Lowang informed.

He added: “During that time in Arunachal Pradesh, no one was aware of the existence of fine arts. The idea of a profession was limited only to military, politics, or bureaucracy. Arunachalis, without any formal training, are well-equipped when it comes to hand crafts. Everything, including baskets, handicraft, and pottery, are done by hand. We are already equipped with such talents.”

Lowang said that every government and private school in the state should have separate art teachers. “We can’t compete with the mainlanders because we are in an infant stage in fine arts, but our students have a lot of potential. They need to be provided with proper scope,” he said.

Currently, Lowang is into wood carving, working independently in his village. He participates in sculpting exhibitions throughout the country. Apart from this, he is serving as the chief of Pansumthong village after his father’s demise.

Lowang was the first one to make flexible wood carvings and motifs of local deities and objects. He says that the tribal mode of carving is always static and straight, “but through subjects in fine arts, such as life, anatomy, and animal study, I modified the regular straight sculpture into flexible ones.”

Interestingly, he is also the first person to have carved a log drum for the rangsom hum (prayer place) in Khonsa township.

Lowang said that there are advantages and disadvantages in every field.

“If there is scope, our children are not less than anyone else. I secured first position in sculpture in Shanti Niketan. We should know how to compete with people,” he said.

He encouraged the younger generation to be committed, enthusiastic, courageous, dedicated, devoted, and disciplined. “One should not be distracted and out of track,” Lowang said.