In April 2015, a catastrophic earthquake struck Nepal's Gorkha region, claiming nearly 9,000 lives, injuring thousands more, and destroying over... Read More
In April 2015, a catastrophic earthquake struck Nepal's Gorkha region, claiming nearly 9,000 lives, injuring thousands more, and destroying over 600,000 structures. Visiting Kathmandu in the aftermath, Lingling Zhao witnessed devastation on an almost incomprehensible scale — and amid the rubble, an elderly woman sitting quietly on a staircase, hands pressed together in prayer.
This hyper realistic portrait captures that woman with unflinching reverence. Rendered in luminous gold and deep crimson, her face bears the full weight of a life lived — every line a testament to endurance, her expression radiating a peace that the earthquake could not touch. The white tilaka mark on her forehead, her gold hoop earring, the ornately embroidered saffron sari — every detail is rendered with devotional precision.
It is Lingling's most direct statement about the power of the human spirit: that faith, in its purest form, does not require intact walls or unbroken ground. It requires only the decision to pray.
Selected for the international group exhibition "Diversia," August 2022.
