Picture by Tania Thorne

Above: Kyle Tortora, the proprietor of Lotus Sculpture in Oceanside, brushes off a sculpture with a brush. July 1, 2021.

Kyle Tortora, the proprietor of Lotus Sculpture in Oceanside, works carefully with sculpture artisans in India.

All the items on the Buddhist and Hindu sculpture retail and wholesale retailer are rigorously crafted.

“Every one is handmade, one among a sort. Artists spend 5 months on this one statue. Their love and their ardour and their perception system and Hinduism comes out in it,” stated Tortora.

He traveled all through Southeast Asia and India, the place he discovered the inspiration for his retailer.

“This statue of Shiva and Nataraja is what influenced me to begin Lotus Sculpture,” he stated. “I’m going to search out out the place these are made, I’m gonna purchase them, ship them again house, and construct an internet site.”

For 21 years, Tortora has been assembly Indian artisans and buying their sculptures to promote worldwide.

Tortora returned from a shopping for journey in India final January, when the coronavirus pandemic hit and shut all the pieces down. However he stated his enterprise truly thrived.

“We noticed the other impact. Folks have been staying at house, fearful about their fast environment, re-doing their gardens and so demand for our product went sky excessive,” stated Tortora.

Whereas enterprise for Tortora flourished, his artisans in India have been seeing various things.

“What they earn within the morning, they use at night time to feed their household. So whenever you provoke a full lock down on a rustic, these people who find themselves farmers, they can not exit and farm their land, they can not feed their household,” he stated.

Certainly one of Tortora’s artisans, Balan, traveled to villages to see the affect COVID-19 was leaving on the poorest folks of India. What did Balan discover?

“One household had a child with cerebral palsy and one other household had two boys with down syndrome,” Tortora stated. “(Balan) went into their kitchen and principally they (solely) had water of their kitchen. That proper there stated ‘it is a downside.’ Individuals are hungry.”

Balan and Tortora agreed that they wanted to do one thing and started working.

Their plan was to distribute 25 kilogram sacks of rice to poor households.

“The poorest of the poor, the people who find themselves actually hungry and wanted it,” stated Tortora.

Balan began an inventory of individuals in want in small villages in India. Tortora started asking his clients for donations.

“Throughout the first hour we raised $8,000. I used to be fully blown away on the generosity of my clients. India, I believe, was on lots of people’s thoughts, and so they needed to assist, however they did not understand how. So I gave them an avenue to do this,” he stated.

Tortora raised $57,244. Of that, $48,906 have been donated by clients and $8338 have been donated by Lotus Sculpture.

The donations paid for 4180 sacks of rice that Balan distributed all through 63 villages.

Balan described his expertise distributing the rice.

“One girl got here along with her daughter. She cried. She couldn’t eat for 2 or three days. Once I gave her one bag of rice … it is tough right here … she says ‘I really feel like I’m going to die however now it is okay,’” stated Balan.

Balan stated there may be nonetheless a lockdown in Mumbai the place they’re coping with the COVID-19 delta variant. Tortora stated this venture introduced extra wants in India to gentle and plans on doing extra.

“We’re going to focus on folks, people, households, and do one good factor a month. I believe that is our objective,” stated Tortora.

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Tania Thorne

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