Deepak Shimkhada

Deepak Shimkhada (Nepali: दीपक सिंखडा) (born September 5, 1945) is a Nepalese-American with a diverse professional background, including work as an Asian art historian, educator, writer, editor, and painter. He currently serves as an adjunct professor at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, California, and has previously held visiting and adjunct positions at several U.S. universities, including Scripps College, Claremont Graduate University, California State University, Northridge, University of the West, and Claremont School of Theology. His teaching career began in 1980, and while he has retired from full-time teaching, he continues to teach Asian art part-time at Chaffey College.

He holds the position of founding president in two organizations, namely the Foundation for Indic Philosophy and Culture (Indic Foundation) and the Himalayan Arts Council. In his career, Shimkhada has actively contributed to several institutions, including Asian Studies on the Pacific Coast and the America-Nepal Society of California, where he also held the position of president. His leadership extended to serving as the Chair of the Hindu Council on the Board of Visitors for the School of Religion at Claremont Graduate University from 2006 to 2012. Furthermore, he played a foundational role as a board member in the South Asian Studies Association (SASA).

He has an extensive publication record, including journal and newspaper articles, book chapters, and edited books. His artistic endeavors encompass exhibitions of his paintings and graphics, which have been displayed in group and solo shows in various countries, including Nepal, India, Japan, and the United States. Additionally, he has made appearances as a commentator in several episodes of the History Channel series Ancient Aliens.

Shimkhada was born on September 5, 1945, in Darkha, Nepal to Ratna Prasad Shimkhada and Kausalya Devi Shimkhada. He attended JP High School in Kathmandu and completed SLC in 1960. He completed IA in Economics from Saraswati College in Kathmandu in 1962.

In 1962, upon receiving a scholarship from the Government of India, Shimkhada left for India to pursue higher education in fine arts. He studied at The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda and received a bachelor's degree in fine arts in 1968. He received his master's degree in fine arts with a focus on art criticism in 1970 from the same university. In 1972, he received a Fulbright fellowship to study art history and moved to Los Angeles in the United States. He is considered among the first few Nepalis to immigrate to the U.S. He earned his Master of Arts in art history from the University of Southern California in 1975. Shimkhada earned his PhD in Education from Claremont Graduate University in 2001. His dissertation was in art and religion using semiotics as a methodology to analyze them.

Shimkhada's professional career as an artist began in 1968 when he had his first one-man show of paintings in Max Gallery in Kathmandu, Nepal. In 1971, in the second Triennale of World Contemporary Art held in New Delhi, India, one of his paintings was selected as the best work from Nepal and was featured in its exhibition catalogue. He had several private shows of his works in Beverly Hills, California in 1973 and 1974. He exhibited his last work in Chicago Public Library in 1977.

Shimkhada began his teaching career as a lecturer of Asian art history at Scripps College in Claremont, California, in 1980. At that time he had just returned from India after conducting his field research for his PhD dissertation under the aegis of American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS). Since 1980 he has lived in Claremont and has performed various duties as administrator and professor teaching art history at various colleges and universities in Southern California.

Shimkhada began contributing articles on Nepali art, culture, philosophy, and religion to various newspapers and journals in Nepal during the early 1970s. His research work in these areas commenced in 1973 with the publication of his first paper in "Arts of Asia." This was followed by a series of articles published in "Artibus Asiae" and "Oriental Art" in 1983.