ABOUT

Snakes & Shanti

This is the story so far..

My parents named me Mary Shrestha; ( I have since changed my name to Shanti, something I had wanted to do for a long time) I was born and raised for most of my years in Australia.

Spending a solid amount of my first 5 years in Nepal as a child had a lasting effect on my out look on life.

As it is said that the quality of a child’s experiences in the first 5 years of life – positive or negative – helps shape how their brain develops.

My father is from Chitwan, a small village along side the jungle in Nepal.

A place where living is simple, families live in communities and the jungle is your backyard.

My path took my life away from Nepal when my parents divorced when I was 5 years old. Sending my mother and I back to living in Australia.

The years I spent in Nepal as a child are some of my strongest and most cherished memories.

I revisited Nepal 20 years later as a grown woman in 2017.

This was a huge moment in my life for me as I had been dreaming of this day for so long.

A part of my heart that felt lost and suppressed, felt refilled, with love, with joy and the cherished memories of my childhood came flooding back.

The smells, the sights, the tastes of fresh brewed chai and dal bhat, the embraces and love from all of my long lost family. A large part of me was home.

I was feeling inspired and my heart was now open to life.

The idea of Snakes and Shanti was then brought to life whilst I was traveling in 2017 back to Nepal, through India and visiting South American along the way.

I was inspired by the culture of the Peruvian’s shamanic influences and the intricate hand crafted textiles.

Re-visiting Nepal, seeing all the beautiful hand made crafts and ancient stupa temples awoke a feeling inside of me.

Memories of a young girl visiting Kathmandu, my mother and father would often take me to the tailors in let me choose a t-shirt to get hand embroidered. I chose a tiger every time. From this memory Snakes and Shanti was born.

This is my path, Snakes and Shanti is the essence of my life, my happiness and my sadness, my heart and my tears.