The stonecarver Shakya family starts the workday with a short prayer to Lord Ganesh, a diety believed to bring good results to all endeavors. Often it is daybreak when offerings of rice, coins, vermilion, and betel nut to Lord Biswakarma, the diety of architects and artisans, precede the initiation of each piece of work.

According to Purna Bahadur Shakya, his family is Buddhist, but as is the tradition of the Newari people of the Kathmandu Valley, gods of Hinduism and Animism also find a way into their homes and hearts. Nowadays, though every Shakya lives like a Buddhist monk for at least four days of his life to commemorate the teachings of their Buddha, religious tolerance allows them to carve Buddhist, Hindu, Animistic and other statues derived from religions as far away as Cambodia.

A man of another generation and little influenced by Western cultures, Purna Bahadur Shakya, is the head of this Shakya stonecarver family. He also works as a Buddhist priest when need arises in the neighbourhood. They work at the temples as pujaris and have the Shakya guthi that assures that tradition, social fabric and duty, festivals, and other important aspects of their Newari lifestyle will not forgotten.

Through this guthi, they are involved in different social actions like during death of a guthi member, birth in a guthi family, and conducting festivals. No matter what other tasks await them, they invariably continue their offerings to temples and vihars around their locality. Sangu guthi ("sangu" literally means the first day of the month) is called on the first day of every month when they worship Lord Macchendranath.

Purna Bahadur Shakya and his family start sculpting together in good hopes for the day. Purna Bahadur has also been teaching his two daughters the craft. The younger daughter works as an apprentice helping with small works. The elder daughter, Sobha, has learned enough now to match her brothers in sculpting. His three sons, Nabin, Rabhi, and Sabindra, have been as naturally introduced to this field of work as they were to speaking their native language. They grew up playing in their workshop in the basement, which made the wood, the tools, and the art as an integral part of their everyday life. By growing up and learning in such close proximity to their craft, they find the modern education that other children accept as compulsory to be alomost alien to their needs. However, Nabin, the eldest son, has completed Bachelor's in Commerce and says that his studies aid the commerce of their products. It was a few years back when the demand for their artwork forced them into a bigger working area; they opened a small factory and employed four other people. The new workers are used for the rough work while the fine sculpting is still completed by the family.

The family efficiently divides their work amongst themselves. Purna Bahadur, as the head of the family, does most of the supervising in their work. Nabin, acting as the representative family businessman, is the busiest of them all. He has a motorbike that carries him to every corner of the city he is needed in. He divides his time between his shop, his factory, a school where he works as the vice president, and a renovation site of a vihar (a Buddhist temple). The younger brothers, Rabhi and Sabindra, help where they are needed.

Nabin says, "Our ancestors have been involved in arts since the 16th century when a terra cotta complex of Mahaboudda Temple was built in Patan. The architect, Pandit Abhaya Raj, is our ancestor. Among his seven sons, the first left the family, the second turned into a vichiu (Buddhist monk), and our lineage descends from the third son. Everyone agrees that our lineage and our link to this temple give us the responsibility to renovate it. We organized a renovating committee in which I acted as the chairman. Since the surface of the terra cotta was degrading, the task was basically covering it with plastic. We completed the project in around 12 months in March 2002. Right after that I was again elected the chairman of another renovation committee. This time the renovation was of a vihar right outside my house and the team is constituted with my own uncles who also live around the vihar. The work still continues and I'm not the least bit worried if I am not paid for this job. With all the skills I have learned in these crafts, I think it is my duty to voluntarily contribute something to the society in which I have grown."

The stoneworkers have not opened a shop to sell, as well as, to publicize their work. They mostly make stone sculptures according to the order given to them. At one time, foreigners were their chief costumers but now their numbers have decreased and with it the demand. Even the few orders which they get are hindered due to the prohibition claimed by the government towards the mining of stones. The best granite source for the workers in Kathmandu is at Gwaldo, on the way to Dakchinkali. Purna Bahadur says, "In the past the villagers there had been a good supplier to the stoneworkers in Patan; but recently the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry banned the digging of stone reasoning that such work created landslides and other destruction to the natural habitat. Now we are forced to work with limestones from Champadevi, in the East of the Kathmandu Valley. Limestone is good but granite is better for sculptures."

At their factory, they are completing a stone stupa 13 feet high and 9.5 feet wide. As a miniature replica of other large stupas around Kathmanu Valley, this stupa is made up of separable parts. It will be disassembled for easy transportation to Germany, where the work contract came from. It is said that when this stupa is completed it will be placed in a park in Bromin, Germany. While working on this bulky piece, Purna Bahadur remembers the time many years back when he finished sculpting a rock of similar size of around 8 feet by 11 feet. The Lords Laxmi and Narayan were sculpted on this rock which still stands in Devghat, outside the Kathmandu Valley. A copy of a water spout in Mangal Bazaar, Patan, was made for the Hotel Fulbari Resort, Pokhara and the family has also produced replicas of other ancient stonework found around the valley.

Due to the influx of modern art in the country, Purna Bahadur has also tried his skills in this field. He confesses that he has no idea about the modern arts but can copy a sculpture if an artist shows him a one. He has been working with Pramilla Giri, a prominent modern artist in Kathmandu. Among Giri's notable works is the stone statue at the front gate of Birendra Convention Hall, at Baneswor, Kathmandu. Rabhi and Sabindra have been doing some modern art sculpture on their own but seem relatively clueless in this modern field and prefer to work comfortably with their well learned sculptures of deities.

Purna Bahadur says that initially there were only two clans working with stone during his time: the Shakyas in Sundhara and the Bajracharyas in Bhinsebaal. The Shakyas and the Bajracharyas are the only ones who have earned the dikchya (knowledge) in this field. Previously it was arranged so that these two clans were the only ones allowed to carve the eyes of the deities; now it is not so. The stoneworkers in Patan are mostly those continuing in their ancestral occupation and others have been taken as apprentices by the experienced stoneworkers, and all of them can do as they wish in contrast to the earlier periods.

Pondering over the younger generations, whether their children will continue in this field or not, Nabin could not answer confidently. He has a niece and fondly says, "She, at the age of four, can easily hold a chisel and start hammering on stone creating some creaky lines. She uses it more as an amusing toy than a tool. Days are changing and I doubt that our following generation would really want to continue in our footsteps."