Kathmandu, July 19 -- Artist Chering Gurung's first solo exhibition, 'Duthik: Stories from Dolpo', is currently on display at The Kala Salon in Thamel. The exhibit showcases 34 artworks rooted in the culture and everyday life of Dolpo, Gurung's ancestral home.

The show is named after Duthik, a Dolpo word that refers to the scent of smoke. Gurung associates this sensory memory with his homeland. His paintings, both on canvas and the Indigenous Bojh Patra (bark paper), aim to preserve and celebrate Dolpo's traditions at a time when they are under threat from modernisation, climate change, and outward migration.

"This is my way of returning to and reconnecting with a place I call home," says Gurung, born in Dolpo but raised in Kathmandu. "...