Monument to Miķelis Pankoks
Jūrmalciems, Nīcas pagasts
Miķelis Pankoks (1894-1983) was a woodcarver, carpenter, fisherman, self-taught with parish school education. He was born on May 1, 1894 in a fisherman's family in "Veckupši" of Jūrmalciem, Nice parish. During his life, he created more than 700 works in which he expressed his unlimited fantasy.
During his youth, in 1919, M. Pankoks went to military service with other boys from Jūrmalciems. First, he participated in the battles for the defense of Liepāja, but then he followed the battles for the liberation of Latvia on the Latgale front, where Miķeli was saved from death by bullets surrounded by only a few stumps in the battle. In 1920, Pankoks said goodbye to the front and was sent to paramedic courses at the Riga War Hospital, where he gained knowledge in the field of medicine.
Miķelis graduated from the Rūce school in the village of Paipu, but has always tried to expand his knowledge through self-study, reading various books about health care, about the structure of the universe, while learning to speak English.