Darjeeling all set to revisit its bonds with Nicholas Roerich

Crookety House, Kalimpong,

Amitava Banerjee, MP, 27 Nov 2023, Darjeeling: The Queen of Hills is all set to revisit her bonds with the great Russian scholar, philosopher and painter Nicholas Roerich who had arrived in Darjeeling at the end of December 1923, accompanied by his wife Helena and eldest son George. 

The Himalayan Institute of Goodwill and Living Ethics (HIGLE) in collaboration with the Darjeeling Goodwill Center and the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute is organising a painting exhibition to celebrate 100 years of Reorich in Darjeeling. Nicholas (1874-1947) was an internationally acclaimed Russian artist (responsible for over 7,000 paintings), philosopher, author, daring explorer, conservationist, archeologist, scientist, humanitarian and peacemaker. 

Nicholas Roerich

Roerich along with his wife and son George arrived in Darjeeling in 1923. In Darjeeling, Nicholas created many masterpieces. During their stay in this region (Darjeeling and Sikkim), the Roerichs planned their famous Central Asiatic expedition. 

On March 5, 1925 the Roerichs left Darjeeling for the expedition and the caravan finally returned to Darjeeling in May 1928 after the completion of the expedition. 

“The opening ceremony is on November 30 at 11 am at the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling. The exhibition entitled ‘Messages from the Great Mountains’ will display more than 50 big size art replicas organised in 5 different sections from thousands of paintings realised by Nicholas Roerich after his arrival in Darjeeling in 1923, and during the Central Asia Expedition (1925-1928) and again in the Kullu Valley, where he resided until his death in 1947,” stated Dr Fiorenza Bortolotti, curator of the event and of the Roerich Museum at Crookety House, Kalimpong, while talking to Millennium Post. 

Helena Roerich

A ‘Local Artist Exhibition’ will also be part of the commemorations with artists from Darjeeling, Kalimpong and other parts of Bengal and Sikkim taking part. “Visitors will not only be able to see the paintings physically but will also get to feel the messages that Nicholas Roerich was giving life and shape to through his unique Himalayan paintings along with the urgent messages that we are able to listen and witness even today, 100 years later,” added Bortolotti. 

One of outstanding works of Nicholas on Kangchenjunga 

After Nicholas’ death in Kullu, in 1947, his wife Helena and eldest son George, settled in Crookety House, Kalimpong, a British cottage built in the ‘30s by Norman Odling, the son in law of Dr Graham. Since 2005, HIGLE, a charitable trust, has been taking care of the Crookety House. 

The three-day-long commemorations (till December 2) will feature workshops ‘art in nature, nature in art’, ‘the great vision of work of Nicholas Roerich, the painter of the Himalayas’, ‘remembering and reconnecting with nature’. 

Courtesy & source: https://www.millenniumpost.in/bengal/darjeeling-all-set-to-revisit-its-bonds-with-nicholas-roerich-542013