Debut: 'Lakzopa' Spotlights a Dying Art

In the mountains of northern India, artisan Ishey Namgail is keeping Ladakh’s craft metalwork and its ritual tradition alive.

Lakzopa is a short film following Ishey Namgail and his family, metal teapot artisans in the Northern Indian village of Chilling. Namgail, 82, has been crafting ornate metal teapots for more than 70 years, having learned the art from his father before him when he was just 12 years old. 

As Ishey discusses the metalworking process, emphasizing the importance of handcrafting and eliminating machination from the delicate art, director Duncan Parker intersperses shots of the man’s aging face with slow-motion scenes of his metal forging. Alongside richly-colored visuals of the Kongma, Chikpa, and Yokma houses’ previous work, the viewer is left in awe at the detail, skill, and time required to perfect the craft and make a single teapot.

The slow-motion and real-time shots of their work emphasize the care with which these artisans create their art. At no point does Parker rush the process. Instead, the director illustrates the process as painstakingly as Ishey performs it. As the audience is guided through the creation of a bronze pot, Ishey discusses how his craft is dying out. 

This craft has been around for an impossibly long period of time. Our people should be concerned by the thought of its disappearance. Losing something so precious would be an irreparable loss.

Though Lakzopa does not feature narration or explanation of the artisans’ decline, Ishey’s discussion of a dwindling number of artisans and the displacement of handmade art in favor of mass-produced objects is enough to communicate its demise. While the viewer is treated to close-ups of stunning teapots and cultural artifacts, Gonbo explains that there is only a smattering of remaining artisans in Chilling.  Close-ups of his lined and weathered face and focused eyes behind a pair of small wire-rimmed glasses convey deep thought and practiced mastery – and the profound loss on the horizon.

Lakzopa was shot over the course of five days when director Duncan Parker found the village of Chilling while on assignment in India. Nestled in the far north, west of the Himalaya Mountains, the village is small and well-kept. The Namgails explain that many of the remaining Northern Indian metal artisans are concentrated in this isolated community, and that once the art ceases to be passed down, it will die. 

Lakzopa is an intimate look at the internal world of a local artisan – a tale about the inevitable decline of traditions, no matter how powerful and moving they may be.

Alongside Parker’s breathtaking shots of Ishey’s work and village, discussions of the dying art of metal forging leave the viewer with a hollow feeling – the decline of which Ishey speaks feels inevitable, understandable. Yet beside his work, this loss also feels devastating. Over eleven minutes, viewers of Lakzopa quickly become entranced by the beautiful artisan teapots of Chilling, and just as quickly face the art’s sobering demise.