Deepak Shimkhada

He is the founding president of the Foundation for Indic Philosophy and Culture (Indic Foundation) and the Himalayan Arts Council. He has served on the boards of several organizations, including Asian Studies on the Pacific Coast and the America-Nepal Society of California (the latter as president). He served on the Board of Visitors of the School of Religion at Claremont Graduate University as Chair of the Hindu Council from 2006 to 2012. He is also a founding board member of the South Asian Studies Association.

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.

Although his articles on Nepali art, culture, philosophy, and religion began to appear in various newspapers and journals in Nepal in the early 1970s, Shimkhada's major research writings about them took place in 1973 when his first paper was published by "Arts of Asia" followed by a series of articles by "Artibus Asiae" and "Oriental Art" in 1983.

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.

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.

Deepak Shimkhada (Nepali: दीपक सिंखडा) (born September 5, 1945) is a Nepali American educator, artist, art historian, author and community leader. He currently serves as an adjunct professor at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, California. He has previously held visiting and adjunct appointments at several universities in the United States, 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 although he is fully retired from full-time teaching, he currently teaches Asian art part-time at Chaffey College.

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.