Nepal, Oct. 31 -- Worshippers gazing reverently at the face of a deity in a temple rarely wonder whose hands gave it shape. Unknown master artists of the Kathmandu Valley passed on their skills within the family: a father, an uncle, a grandmother's brother, or someone who learned the work at a family bench and inherited with it the duty of keeping it alive.

That chain of hands is the subject of the Siddhartha Art Gallery's 39th anniversary exhibition, which brings together 36 traditional artists and artisans working in wood, stone, metal and paint.

Curated by museologist and artist Pradip Shakya, Sacred Splendor begins with a question rather than an answer: "What could be more profound than a life without suffering?"

He describes the V...