Summary

National Doll produced to represent Nepal, it was purchased by Monica Gates in 1976 as they were climbing to a Buddhist temple. Local children approached them and offered a number of dolls which had been hand-made by the Tibetan refugee children. Nepal is ethnically diverse with a mix of Nepalese, Indo-Nepalese and Tibetan-Nepalese peoples, Hinduism is practiced by most of the Nepalese population although Buddhism is also common and in practice the two beliefs co-exist and there is intermingling between them. This doll is dressed in the style of clothing which would be worn for several Hindu ceremonies with elaborate jewelry and headdress.

The Gates collection contains 170 national dolls from 74 different countries and some correspondence relating to the acquisition of several of the dolls. The costumes of the dolls represent national costumes from the 19th Century to the 1990s. Monica Gates collected or was given these dolls between 1957 and 1990.

These dolls were purchased as souvenirs of particular countries and like many mass produced souvenirs they are often not accurate representations of a particular country or region, and may actually better reflect neighbouring counties or regions. This occurs because costumes are often stylised and simplified resulting dolls wearing generic costume elements which are common to many countries/regions. Often the fabrics and decorations used are selected to make the dolls cheap and easy to manufacture and aesthetically pleasing. This can result in the fabrics, colours and decorations of the doll's clothing having little or no reflection of the costume associated with a particular country or region they are meant to be representative of.

Physical Description

Doll, wooden, female. She has a burgundy coloured bodice covered in gold wire with attached gold beads. The yoke of her dress is green and the skirt is purple. There is gold edging on the hems of the yoke and skirt and around the neck and sleeves. She has a red scarf at the back of her head and a sunray headdress in gold, green and pink. She is mounted on a red painted rectangular wooden base.

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