Afterword: The Architecture in Nepal: By Pratapaditya Pal

I was enchanted when I first visited Nepal as a tourist in the autumn of 1957, a visit which may have inspired me the following year to choose the architecture of Nepal as the subject for my dissertation for my doctorate degree of the Calcutta University. However, it is one thing to write a thesis and another to convert it into a book. Imagine my surprise when around my 88th birthday in 2023 I received a letter from my friends and esteemed colleagues Niels Gutschow and Erich Theophile informing me that the Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust wished to publish a limited facsimile edition of my Nepal architecture dissertation.

Published: May 17, 2024

Empty Niches of Nepalese Licchavi Caityas: By Ulrich von Schroeder

There has been much speculation and disagreement regarding the empty niches of Licchavi caityas. Some scholars maintain that the empty niches are part of the original features, others claim that the empty niches are the result of forcibly removed images. There is strong evidence that sometimes in the past a purge directed against Licchavi caityas happened during which their sculptural decoration was replaced with empty niches. Its existence is manifest through the almost three hundred of desecrated Licchavi caityas dispersed all over the Kathmandu Valley. The exact date and length of this purge remains unknown, but all affected caityas pre-date the Malla Period (circa 1200–1769). The principal reason for the purge of Licchavi caityas was their resemblance with Śiva-liṅgas.

Published: March 18, 2024

Stella Kramrisch and Ananda Coomaraswamy: By Pratapaditya Pal

In 1921, four years after Ananda Coomaraswamy settled in Boston, Stella Kramrisch arrived in India. The diminutive, slim, shy, 25-year-old woman from Vienna—with a German accent and a soft voice—must have been quite awkward and uneasy on her arrival in India. Moreover, she was transplanted not to a metropolitan and cosmopolitan city like Bombay or Calcutta with urbane and sophisticated society and atmosphere, but to Santi Niketan in rural Bengal. The only person she knew was the poet whom she had briefly met in England and who was a larger-than-life celebrity.

Published: February 03, 2024

A New Bronze Age for Nepal: By "Alexander Duncan"

Almost every time I have asked a sculptor what his father did, the answer is that he made pots and plates. Were it possible to follow the family occupation back several more generations, it would almost certainly be found that the original family occupation was image making. Now the earlier trend from statues to utensils has been reversed, and sculptors are rediscovering the skills of their ancestors, which for two centuries lay in hibernation. Little by little, the casters relearned the techniques they had lost. Working from antique examples, the sculptors began to recapture the grace and elegance of earlier Nepalese statues.

Published on asianart.com: October 19, 2023 from an 1980 original

Prolegomena to the Study of an Early Wood Bodhisatva from the Himalayas: By Pratapaditya Pal

In an important recent publication, the late Mary Slusser convincingly presented results of scientific examinations of many Nepalese wood sculptures, which revealed surprisingly early dates. Apart from carved timber struts in situ in Kathmandu Valley urban centers, she published at least two freestanding sculptures now in private collections in the west that, thanks to carbon-14 tests, can be dated to the Licchavi period. To these two we are happy to add a third, and certainly the earliest and most attractive example, with this brief prolegomena.

Published: February 18, 2023

A bronze statue of a standing Buddha in the Cleveland Museum of Art: By Dr. Nayanath Paudel (English Translation, Ian Alsop)

In the thirteenth chapter of his recently published Nepali language book Lichchavi Lipi, Dr. Nayanath Paudel presented a detailed study of the numerals available in the records of the Lichchavi period. In a section of that chapter Dr. Paudel studied in detail the inscription on the pedestal of the bronze statue of the standing Buddha located in the Cleveland Museum. Dr. Paudel decided that Dr. Gautamavajra Vajracharya's date of 513 is not correct: the date of this inscription is 113. In the Nepali version of this article we present this section of Dr. Paudel’s book verbatim.

Published: August 16, 2022

क्लिभल्याण्ड म्युजियममा अवस्थित, उभिएका बुद्धको कांस्यमूर्ति: डा. नयनाथ पौडेल

Christians at the Malla Court: The Capuchin 'piccolo libro': By Ian Alsop

No single group of Westerners had a longer or more intimate connection with medieval Nepal than the Capuchin missionaries of the province of Ancona, who were given charge of the Tibet Mission in 1703 by the Congregation of the Propaganda Fide in Rome. Over the years , scholars in Nepal have managed to find several Christian texts in Newari left behind by the Capuchin fathers. One of these, the most original and the most interesting, is the "piccolo libro" composed by Padre Vito da Recanati and the other fathers of the Bhaktapur mission of 1740, presented in this article.

Published: March 11, 2022

Image Casting in Oku Bahal: By Ian Alsop and Jill Charlton

The Thoughtgem and Wheel Avalokiteshvara and Lokeśvara of Wish-fulfilling Gems Revisited: By Pratapaditya Pal

In this two-part article which spans over 50 years of scholarship, Dr. Pal revisits an article published in Calcutta in 1968, in which he examined two important forms of the great bodhisatva Avalokiteshvara: the Cintāmaṇi Cakra Avalokiteśvara in China and Japan and Nepal’s Cintāmaṇi Lokeśvara. In a detailed afterword, Dr. Pal traces the international scholarship in the study of Buddhist iconography and expands our knowledge of both forms of Avalokiteshvara, particularly the Nepalese form of the Lokeśvara of Wish-fulfilling Gems, which Dr. Pal traces back to an Indian sculptural tradition.

Published: September 20, 2021

In the Khasa Malla Tradition: A Thangka of Vikram Shahi (r. 1602-1631) King of Jumla: By Ian Alsop, Kashinath Tamot and Punya Prasad Parajuli

This painting is a unique representation of King Vikram Shahi, an early 17th century King of the Kalyāla dynasty of the Jumla valley, one of the hill states of Nepal that were the heritors of the great Khasa Malla kingdom of the 13/14th centuries. It is an unprecedented combination of Tibetan thangka painting format and style and Indian courtly portraiture. King Vikram Shahi was known for his close relationship with and protection of the Buddhist lamas and monasteries of his kingdom, a continuation of the remarkable bi-cultural and bi-lingual tradition of the Khasa Malla kings.

Published:April 20, 2021

About the portraits of Tibetan masters: By Jean-Luc Estournel

Laureillard, Marie and Cléa Patin (eds.): À la croisée de collections d’art entre Asie et Occident: Du XIXe siècle à nos jours: By Freya Terryn

Born of Two Cultures, but a Man for all Seasons: By Jane Thurston-Hoskins

The Changkya Huthugthu Rölpai Dorje – Grand Lama of China, Buddhist Teacher of the Empire, Imperial Art Consultant, 1717–1786: An exquisite image in the Zhiguan Museum, Beijing: By Michael Henss

Rölpai Dorje was for half a century during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor the principal authority of Tibetan Buddhism at the Chinese court. Dragpa Sonam– his personal name – was born in 1717 in a prominent Tibetanised Mongol family near Tsongkha in the modern Gansu-Qinghai border area. Having been recognised as the reincarnation of the First Changkya Huthugthu, Ngawang Losang Chöden (1642–1714), the spiritual mentor of the Kangxi and Yongzheng Emperor, Rölpai Dorje entered the nearby Gönlung monastery at the age of three; he was the abbot until 1769.

Published:November 08, 2020

About the 18 stupas and other treasures once at the Densatil monastery: By Jean-Luc Estournel

The Standing Buddha of Guita Bahi: Part I: By Ian Alsop

A standing Buddha in Guita Bahi in eastern Patan, over life-size and probably the largest Nepalese metal sculpture now known, must be counted as one of the great marvels of Nepalese metalcraft. This Buddha presides as the main deity of Prathamaśrī mahāvihāra, the largest of the three viharas that make up Guita Bahi. At 6 feet 8 inches, (2m 3 cm) it is the largest of the main deities of the viharas of Patan, and likely of the entire Kathmandu valley. A recently discovered inscription leads us to conclude that it is also the oldest dated Buddha sculpture in Nepal.

Published: June 30, 2020

Engaging with Jain Visual Culture: By Pratapaditya Pal

My engagement with Jain art and architecture began when I was 10 years old in 1945. I still vividly remember being taken to the Jain temple of what we Bengalis call Pareshnāth in Kolkata (then known as Calcutta in English). It was a memorable visit as it was so different from the famous Kālı temple in south Calcutta (the Jain shrine was in the north of the city) for it differed notably from the former with its large crowds and hustle and bustle where getting a glimpse of the image of the goddess was an intimidating experience for a Hindu lad.

Published: June 27, 2020

BOUNDLESS: Contemporary Tibetan Artists at Home & Abroad: By Gary Gach

The Dancing Men of Kanchipuram, an Anomaly in Pallava Land: By Drs. Liesbeth Pankaja Bennink

The courtyard of the Kachabeshwarar temple is a wide-open space with shrines arranged around its periphery, except for the Ganesha shrine which is standing free in the open space by the side of the temple tank. At the northern corners of this North-facing mandapa we find two unique artifacts standing lost in space, in retrospect seemingly forgotten in plain sight. These two remainders of pillars are, on the one hand clearly Indian in their artistic vocabulary, but on the other hand they don’t fit in with any of the categories usually applied to classify South Indian art.

Published: July 30, 2019

Faith and Empire: An Overview: By Karl Debreczeny

The Sacred and the Profane – Part Two: On the Representation of the Third to the Eighth rJe btsun dam pa Khutukhtus in Mongolian Buddhist Art: By Dr. Elisabeth Haderer

In my recently published article, The Sacred and the Profane - Part 1, I analyzed in detail some portraits of the first and second rJe btsun dam pa Khutukhtus or Bogdo Gegens, the highest Buddhist representatives of Outer Mongolia, from the seventeenth century forward. In this paper, I will continue to investigate some portraits of the third to the eighth rJe btsun dam pa Khutukhtus (Figs. 2-25) in terms of their iconographic features, the portraiture and the style of the paintings and sculptures.

Published: February 27, 2019

Nepal Saṃvat and Vikrama Saṃvat: Discerning Original Significance: By Gautama V. Vajracharya

Defining the Style of a Group of 13th Century Tibetan Gilt Copper Statues: By David Weldon

Fourteen Tibetan gilt copper statues with distinctive sculptural characteristics form a hitherto undocumented style group. Works from Densatil, commonly dated to around the fourteenth century and generally considered to have Nepalese influence, afford a convenient comparison with the sculptural style of this group. While Densatil figures are predominantly well rounded, flamboyantly modelled and richly embellished with jewel settings, this group follows a rather different aesthetic with emphasis on athletic posture, clean lines and relatively restrained jewel adornments.

Published: September 13, 2018

Review Article of Robert Elgood, Rajput Arms & Armour: The Rathores & Their Armoury at Jodhpur Fort: By Stephen Markel

The spiritual career of Buddha Śākyamuni on the portal of Khorchag (Khojarnath): By Christiane Kalantari and Eva Allinger

At Khorchag (’Khor chags,), or Khojarnath, the mandala as perfect divine structure is manifested not only in the medium of wall painting for the first time in historical Western Tibet, but a complete mandalic programme is also represented on a monumental wooden doorway. The iconographic programme on this doorway represents the earliest known example in this region. Khorchag Monastery was founded in 996 by Khorre, ruler of the kingdom of Purang, who—together with his brother Yeshe-Ö—transformed the region into a Buddhist kingdom.

Published: May 14, 2018

Taschen: Murals of Tibet

Seeing these fragile treasures endangered and still relatively undocumented, Thomas Laird developed new methods to capture three hundred of the greatest murals painted in Tibet during the past thousand years, at life size resolution: gigapixel images. When a 10th century mural is 5 x 15 ft. his image is the same size, at a resolution of 300 dpi. Prior to the digital revolution images of murals in Tibet of this scale and resolution were impossible. These images allow global access to one of the greatest artistic treasures of Tibet for the first time.

Published: March 16, 2018

Paul F. Walter (1935-2017): Personal Memories: By Pratapaditya Pal

I once read a book by Sir Erwin Panofsky which asserted that all artists were born under Saturn; today I would say that so are all curators and collectors of art. Paul Walter, however, must have been an exception; as a collector he was so passionate, avaricious, curious, eclectic, impulsive, gregarious and generous that I always felt he must have been born under all the planets and shared bits of all the zodiacal signs. He was a big man, with a big appetite and a big heart, like Mr. John Wayne of Hollywood fame.

Published: October 24, 2017

Mary Slusser: Remembrance of things past: By Mary Shepherd Slusser

A lawyer recently told me that for institutional beneficiaries of my Estate I should write something about my life since often they like to know a little about the donor. Since there already exists on file in the Library of Congress an oral history recorded by the Society of Women Geographers, additional information seemed unwarranted, but the lawyer’s advice raised a storm of far more intimate, near century-long memories that will not be stilled until I set them down as I do here.

Published: August 16, 2017

A Tale of a Collector and Curator: The Ross-Coomaraswamy Bond: By Pratapaditya Pal

When I first encountered Coomaraswamy’s multivolume catalogue of the Boston Museum collections in the Calcutta University library as a student in 1956, I learnt that the great Indian collection for which the museum was famous at the time was identified as the hyphenated “Ross-Coomaraswamy Collection.” The “Ross” part of the moniker, however, remained a mystery until I came to occupy the position of Keeper of the Indian Collections in 1967 – exactly two decades after Coomaraswamy passed away.

Published: August 16, 2017

On the Use of Carbon-14 Dating in the Study of the Art History of Nepal; A note on the Use of "Old Wood" in Nepalese Carving: By Ian Alsop

Mary Slusser in her 2010 book, The Antiquity of Nepalese Wood Carving: A Reassessment (2010, University of Washington Press), made a remarkable reassessment of the previously accepted dating of the earliest Nepalese wood sculptures, relying in large part on the modern technique of carbon-14 dating. In a review in 2012, Gautama Vajracharya challenged her use of C-14 testing, writing that … "the custom of keeping a huge log protected within a monastery…. may indicate the historicity of the monasterial tradition of preserving aged tree trunks for carving divine images."

Published: July 31, 2017

Indian Art “Auditions” in Hollywood: By Pratapaditya Pal

…My initial encounter with Hollywood occurred on my first visit to Los Angeles in the summer of 1964: I must admit the tiled star-studded stretch of Hollywood Boulevard and the Grauman's Chinese Theatre (as it was then known), were not what I expected of Tinseltown. There really was no arcadian, territorial Hollywood; only a state of mind. In any event on that initial visit, as I did walk the walk of fame on Hollywood Boulevard, I never dreamt that I would one day work in the neighborhood or meet any real movie stars.

Published: May 11, 2017

Review of Pratapaditya Pal, In Pursuit of the Past. Collecting Old Art in Modern India, circa 1875-1950.: By Anne Vergati

The most recent book of Dr. Pratapaditya Pal is an important contribution to the history of Indian art. While Indian museums are well known to specialists, Indian private collections and collectors are largely unknown to both the specialists and the larger audience. Le dernier ouvrage de Pratapaditya Pal est une contribution importante à la connaissance de l’art indien. Les grands musées indiens sont assez bien connus par les spécialistes mais les collections privées indiennes et les collectionneurs restent relativement ignorés par les spécialistes et le grand public. In English and French.

Published: April 07, 2017

Mānadeva Saṃvat: Old Problem, New Evidence: By Gautama V. Vajracharya

The Mānadeva and Śaka eras, both of which were referred to in inscriptions made during the Licchavi period (C. 200-879) in Nepal, have been a subject of scholarly debate for over a century. However, a highly significant piece of information unfortunately escaped the attention of international, as well as native, scholars. None of them realized that the Licchavi period inscription carved on the pedestal of the monolithic statue of Śiva and Pārvatī at Sikvabahi (or Siku Bahi) Patan is actually the Rosetta Stone; the date of the inscription being recorded there in two different eras, namely, the Mānadeva and the Śaka eras.

Published: February 14, 2017

Yongle Period Metalwork: The British Museum Sakyamuni: By David Weldon

While the authenticity of the da Ming Yongle nian shi mark on the BM gilt brass statue of Shakyamuni Buddha is now generally accepted, doubts have been raised over the age of its separately made throne back (torana or prabhamandala) and the throne base into which the figure is secured. The authors of a technical and stylistic study concluded that the sculpture of Buddha was of the Yongle period but the throne and torana were probably of a later date. This article contests that conclusion, maintaining that both sculpture and throne are of the same period.

Published: January 19, 2017

Revisiting a Kashmiri-Style Buddhist Image of Vajrasatva with Consort: By Pratapaditya Pal

This exquisitely rendered sculpture debuted in the seventies of the last century when it was included in the exhibition of the renowned Pan-Asian collection formed by the prodigious collector of Asian art, Christian Humann. It is a pleasure to revisit the object almost half a century later, as it has remained not only an intriguing and rare representation of Vajrayana Buddhist deities but, with a great deal of material from Kashmir and the contiguous regions in Western Tibet published since, it is now possible to throw more light on its origin and iconography.

Published: September 19, 2016

The Xi Xia Legacy in Sino-Tibetan Art of the Yuan Dynasty: By Yury Khokhlov

The Mongol adoption of Tibetan Buddhism has been traditionally ascribed almost solely to missionary activities of Tibetan clerics. Recent scholarship, however, has revealed a more complex picture, which shows the Xi Xia background of Tibetan Buddhism in Mongolia and Yuan China. This essay aims to highlight the Xi Xia traits in Sino-Tibetan art of the Yuan Dynasty. In addition, it challenges the notion of the existence of a dominating Nepalese style-based tradition, allegedly established within the Yuan Imperial workshops by Anige (also known as Aniko and Arniko/Araniko).

Published: September 15, 2016

On the Loss of Cultural Heritage in Quake-Ravaged Nepal: By Mary Shepherd Slusser

Beneath the Kasthamandap railing was a band of intricate carving and lower still a narrow strip of floral design fringed with pendants. As an unexpected anomaly, on one face only the band of floral design became a charming frieze. Neither this frieze nor any part of it has yet turned up among the meagre corpus of pieces salvaged from the building. I am emboldened to share my old photographs of this frieze, both in some way as my duty to preserve through photographs at least a part of the vanished frieze, and in another way, to symbolize through this one small object the magnitude of what Nepal — and all of us — have lost.

Published: July 04, 2016

Statue Stolen from Gakar Gompa in Dolpo, Nepal, on 4/10/2016: editors

On the evening of April 10th, 2016 at about 11 pm, several armed thieves stole four statues and a fine Buddhist manuscript with wooden covers from the house of the caretaker of Gakar and Mekin gompas in upper Dolpo, Nepal. Two of the thieves have since been apprehended and the manuscript and three of the four statues stolen were recovered. However, the most precious and important of the sculptures, a 16-18 inch, ca. 15th c. bronze figure of Sakyamuni is still missing, and may be in the Kathmandu area with one of the other members of this gang.

Published: April 25, 2016

Two Medieval Nepalese Buildings: An architectural and cultural study: By Mary Shepherd Slusser and Gautamavajra Vajrācārya

Asianart.com is pleased to republish this important early article - originally published in 1974 - as part of the documentation on the damage inflicted by the earthquakes of April and May 2015, the first of which totally destroyed Kāṣṭhamaṇḍapa. Please also see the article by Dipesh Risal published on Sept. 13, 2015, Kasthamandap: Microcosm of Kathmandu's Living Culture and Storied History. Another important article by Mary Slusser on this important and now lost structure will be published soon.

Published: April 25, 2016

The ruins of Sen palace and temple in Saptari district of Nepal: By Sanjib Chaudhary

Thought to be the ancient kingdom of Sen kings, Saptari district in Eastern Nepal houses the ruins of a palace and a temple in Kanakpatti village and Chandrabhoga jungle in the Chure hills. Though some select artefacts have been collected and established in temples at Shambhunath and Aginsair, most of the valuable items lie unattended and uncared for at the fate of nature, with many pieces being stolen by art thieves. It seems the area was a hub of ancient settlement long before Sen dynasty rule. The whole area, if excavated, can perhaps unearth an ancient settlement like Lumbini.

Published: February 02, 2016

The Splendor of Wall Paintings in Bundi: A Review Article of The Bundi Wall – Paintings in Rajasthan (Rediscovered Treasures): By Pratapaditya Pal

What is striking about the murals at Bundi and other palaces of the period is that they are merely larger versions of the portable pictures, mostly on paper, that were also produced at court simultaneously. Often the wall paintings are one gigantic assemblage of a group of smaller and complete pictorial compositions, each of which, if cut out from the plaster and affixed to paper, would become a complete picture in its own right.

Published: January 26, 2016

Newar urban settlements: the evolution of Newar seismic engineering solutions?
An Occasional Paper from The Bhanimandal Evening Earthquake Seminars, Kathmandu, May 2015: By James Goodman with Meryl Dowman

The April and May 2015 Great Gorkha earthquakes in Nepal destroyed over half a million "low strength" houses in the rural areas to the north, east and west of Kathmandu. The stand-alone temple structures in the Kathmandu Valley suffered considerable if not catastrophic damage. However the historic densely packed high-rise tenement style urban settlements of the Kathmandu Valley were generally relatively unscathed. The question that this paper seeks to address is why was there not more damage to the main Newar urban centres?

Published: January 25, 2016

Nataraja, Mysteries and More…: By Drs. Liesbeth Pankaja Bennink

At first glance the two Natarajas appear to be the same. But careful observation reveals a few differences. Where the larger Nataraja's locks are spread sideways from his head, reflecting the sculptor's intention to suggest the wild gyrating movement of his dance, the small Nataraja's locks fall on his shoulders and down his back, suggesting a much softer, quieter movement. Two diminutive figures sit at his feet, accompanying his dance with percussion instruments. Less obvious differences can be found in the divine dancer's headdress. These differences represent a mystery that has not yet received much attention.

Published: November 23, 2015

Giuseppe Tucci's remarks on the state of preservation and conservation of Tibetan monasteries in the 1930s and 1940s: By Erberto Lo Bue

Throughout his writings Giuseppe Tucci complained frequently, sometimes bitterly, about the poor state of conservation of important ancient temples and religious images in Tibetan monasteries, especially those not belonging the Dalai Lama's religious order, at the time of his expeditions to Tibet. This contribution is meant to analyze the Italian scholar's remarks on the conditions and problems of conservation of religious buildings, images and texts, as well as on Buddhist practice, as he could observe them particularly in West Tibet and Southwest Tibet, prior to the Chinese invasion.

Published: October 19, 2015

Looking at "Himalayan style" following the earthquake in Nepal: By Claire Burkert

The writing of Himalayan Style, took seven years. I could not have presaged the earthquakes in the spring of 2015 that damaged or destroyed each of the buildings in Nepal that we depicted in our book. Many of the traditional houses in the Kathmandu Valley and in 14 outlying districts were damaged or destroyed. After the earthquake, Thomas Kelly revisited and photographed the lost or damaged sites we'd earlier documented. We realized that our book had become an important record for Nepal, as well as a source of inspiration for rebuilding.

Published: October 09, 2015

Questions Regarding the Word Mudra: A Preliminary Survey of Gestures on Indian Icons and their Designation: By Richard Smith

If we look at this Indian Buddhist figure, who would not agree is shown forming the Bhumisparsha Mudra? This term for this hand position, or its translation into modern languages, has become standardized and is used by art historians with little question of its appropriateness. This essay is an attempt to raise questions about such designations, especially the usage of the word mudrā, its history, and what it may actually refer to when it is used in various periods. Or perhaps, not refer to.

Published: September 09, 2015

Kasthamandap: Microcosm of Kathmandu's Living Culture and Storied History: By Dipesh Risal

Kasthamandap is no more. It collapsed into a pile of rubble in the first of the earthquakes that rattled Nepal in April-May, 2015. Kasthamandap, originally a public rest-house (sattal), has also served many social and religious functions over its lifetime. It was easily the oldest standing building in all of Nepal, dating back to at least 1143 CE. … Let us locate the treasures lost in the debris of Kasthamandap, and let us rebuild it back to its original iconic status. If we do not act, a significant part of Nepal's heritage will be lost forever.

Published: September 03, 2015

Living masks of the Newars: The itinerant masked dances of the Kathmandu Valley: By Gérard Toffin

The author situates the goddess choreographies of the Kathmandu Valley within the wider context of masked dances among Newars mainly by opposing Devī pyākhã to the well-known Nava Durgā goddess troupes. The opposition between these two traditional pageants highlights contrasting features of dance and theatre in Newar culture. In Devī pyākhãs, the deities are pacified and mild, whereas in Nava Durgā performances, they are wild and untamed.

Published: August 28, 2015

The Enigmatic Image: Curious Subjects in Indian Art: By Stephen Markel

The Eight Cornered Gift: Why was the Mandap not destroyed this time?: By Götz Hagmüller and Suresh Shrestha

The three Durbar Squares of the Kathmandu Valley captivate with the richness of their architectural heritage. But those who know what they were like before the 1934 earthquake also feel the loss when they look at them. In the late 1980s, two architects decided to rebuild one of Bhaktapur Durbar Square's most iconic buildings, the Chyasilin Mandap, in an effort to give back to the square its most gorgeous building.

Published: June 14, 2015

Nepal Earthquake: Rebuilding Hope, Rebuilding a Nation: By Dina Bangdel

If the world has imagined and experienced the beauty of Nepal and its people as an idyllic Shangri-la, the brutal aftermath of the April 2015 earthquake has forever shattered that dream. The massive quake changed the fate of Nepal—from a fragile, emerging democracy still recovering from a crippling decade of civil war, to a nation in crisis and mourning.

Published: June 10, 2015

Nepal Earthquake: An appeal to our visitors: Asianart.com

Ten days ago, on April 25, Nepal experienced a major earthquake, which caused widespread destruction throughout a large portion of central Nepal. So far the death toll from the quake is over 7000, and the number of injured is more than double that. These figures are expected to climb much higher as the devastation in the remoter areas comes to light.

Published: May 05, 2015

Problems in Dating Nepalese Metal Sculpture: Three Images of Viṣṇu (corrected): By Ian Alsop

This article was first published in 1984 in  CNAS journal of Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu. In an article published in 2012, Gautam Vajracarya made an important correction to the dating of the first Visnu sculpture presented in this paper. This correction shows how over the years, those interested in the art history of Nepal have made consistent strides to better our understanding of this important tradition. Internet publishing allows us to publish this paper once again with this important correction.

Published: February 04, 2015

The Date of the Chandi Murals in the Hanuman Dhoka Palace: By Deepak Shimkhada

The paintings under investigation in this article come from Mohan Chowk in the Hanuman Dhoka palace of Kathmandu, Nepal; they are neither dated nor signed. Additionally, there are no literary, historical and oral accounts giving information about their existence. In the absence of this information, how does an art historian find out when they were painted and by whom? In this paper, the author goes one step further like a criminal investigator as to why they were painted.

Published: October 28, 2014

Buddhist Feminine Divinities beloved and adapted by Mongols and Buriats: By Surun-Khanda D. Syrtypova

The significance of the cult of Tārā is exceptionally high in Tibet and Mongolia, as well as in Buriatia. Numerous research works dedicated to the cult of Tārā are already published. However the regional features of female deities are still poorly understood and there is still much room for interesting studies on the adaption of cults to the different historical, cultural, and geographical specifics of different regions of the Buddhist world.

Published: June 26, 2014

Buddhist Initiation Paintings from the Yuan Court (1271-1368) in the Sino-Himalayan Style: By Jane Casey

This essay examines a group of Buddhist initiation paintings. They are likely to be rare surviving examples of a Himalayan-inspired school of art that flourished at the Chinese Yuan court. The style combines Tibetan Buddhist iconography and mid-thirteenth century Newar painting traditions with elements of style—notably textile and costume design—that are demonstrably Chinese Yuan. Moreover, two paintings within the group portray a Yuan Mongol emperor and a Tibetan Buddhist Sakya hierarch.

Published: June 16, 2014

An early Tibetan mandala of Ekallavira Achala in a private collection: An Art Historical Analysis: By Pratapaditya Pal

The history of portable Tibetan painting can now be confidently pushed back to the eleventh century. Buddhism was officially introduced to the country under the great ruler Song-tsen Gampo (r. 609-649) of the Yarlung dynasty and one can form a good idea of the architecture and sculpture of this early historical period; but significant evidence for Tibetan painting of any kind, cannot be traced back much earlier than the tenth century.

Published: September 09, 2013

Shiva's Karanas in the temples of Tamil Nadu: the Natya Shastra in stone: By Liesbeth P. Bennink, and Kandhan, Jayakumar and Sankar Raja Deekshithar

Karana means 'action' and in the context of dance it indicates a coordinated action of the body, the hands and the feet. 108 such karana or units of dance are named and defined in the Natya Shastra, the most ancient text on the performing arts composed by Bharata Muni. This text is dated to a period of around 2000 years ago, within a margin of 500 years and has been the most influential in defining and shaping Indian performing arts.

Published: August 20, 2013

Metal sculptures of the Tibetan Imperial period: By Yury Khokhlov

The fully developed production of metal sculptures during the Tibetan Imperial Period (600-842 AD) has been extensively documented by Tibetan historical sources. However, only a few Tibetan statues have been attributed to that time and the stylistic features of Buddhist art at this stage remain debatable. On the basis of two published sculptures attributed to the Tibetan Imperial period and two examples from the author's collection, this article provides additional data and highlights the key features of sculptural art during the Tibetan Imperial period.

Published: January 24, 2013

The Sculpture of Chöying Dorjé, Tenth Karmapa: By Ian Alsop

Establishing a chronology and a meaningful inventory of the sculptures of Chöying Dorjé, the 10th Karmapa, is a daunting task. There is considerable confusion and disagreement regarding who made what, and when. Six extraordinary sculptures analyzed in this article are believed by Ulrich von Schroeder to be ancient works of artists from the seventh to eighth century, while Ian Alsop, the author of this article believes they are the works of this master himself. This article attempts a new examination of this great artist's sculptural works.

Published: January 07, 2013

The Arts of Tibetan Painting: Edited by Amy Heller

Published: September 20, 2012

The Rise and Fall of the Hindu God of War: A Review article by Pratapaditya Pal

The Rise of Mahāsena: The Transformation of Skanda-Kārttikeya in North India from the Kusāna to Gupta Empires, by Richard T. Mann (Brill: Leiden. Boston 2012. pp. XIV and 282. Figs 43), is a study of the early history or development and decline of the god of war in the Brahmanical/ Hindu pantheon.

Published: August 01, 2012

Nepal's Oldest Himalayan Buddhist temple and monastery threatened by Floods: An eyewitnness account by Astrid Hovden

Published: July 16, 2012

THE INVISIBLE ENVISIONED: Phantoms of Asia : contemporary awakens the past: By Gary Gach

One of the great, deep-water ports of the world, San Francisco is a natural gateway to a cosmopolitan diversity of people, goods, and views. Now its Asian Art Museum opens its first large-scale exhibition of contemporary Asian art. This renewal of vision is well-timed, given current, unprecedented global interest in Asian art. As always, the Asian delivers the goods in its distinctive, signature style.

Published: July 13, 2012

Shiva's Dance in Stone: Ananda Tandava, Bhujangalalita, Bhujangatrasa: By Liesbeth Pankaja Bennink and Kandhan, Jayakumar and Sankar Deekshithar

Published: June 29, 2012

Tibetan Traditional Art and Contemporary Painting: By Sherab Gyaltsen

Sherab Gyaltsen of Lhasa explores traditional Tibetan themes in painting and the possibilities of expressing and relating to them in his own painting style within a contemporary art context. "When a work of art or any phenomena touches my soul, no matter whether beautiful or ugly, I believe this impression to be art. Naturally, my art is seeking to always express my internal spirit world; the wide and generous Buddhist world is my artistic resource."

Published: May 30, 2012

Contemporary Japanese Ceramics: By James Singer

The ceramic tradition in Japan is the most ancient on earth, yet one that has found vital forms of expression in the modern world. Some contemporary Japanese ceramics reflect centuries old traditions while others incorporate elements from an increasingly international arena. Many do both simultaneously. The ceramics presented in this exhibition include work by a number of contemporary artists and illustrate, in a necessarily subjective fashion, their creativity, technical virtuosity and diversity.

Published: May 03, 2004

Metal and Stone Vestiges: By John Vincent Bellezza

This article focuses on two of the most important artistic media in ancient Tibet: rock art and small metal objects. We will examine petroglyphs (carvings on rock surfaces), pictographs (rock paintings) and copper alloy artifacts known as thokchas, which range in age from deep in the pre-Buddhist period to the first five centuries of Tibetan Buddhism.

Published: April 29, 2004

Exaggerated Enmity in Early Modern Indonesian Painting: By Adrienne Fast

On October 23, 1938, a group of young Indonesian artists met in an elementary school classroom in Jakarta for the inaugural meeting of Persagi, the first platform for the organisation of Indonesian artists. Persagi members wrote art critiques and reviews, held classes and discussion groups, and organised exhibitions until 1942, when the group was forcibly disbanded. Yet many of the artists associated with Persagi then went on to help found other artists' groups and to teach members of the next generation of Indonesian artists.

Published: February 23, 2004

Tantric Hinduism in Khmer Culture: By Emma C. Bunker

Tantric Hinduism already had a significant presence in India by the middle of the first millennium CE, when scriptural texts (tantras) began to be compiled. “Tantras (texts) clearly state that scripture is the necessary complement to the oral teachings one receives from the mouth of one’s guru.” Much of this literature contains descriptions of deities in the form of precepts for meditation and complex mythologies that served as verbal models for artists.

Published: November 18, 2003

Ivory Carving in Thailand: By Daniel Stiles, Ph.D

Very little is known about the history and artistic aspects of ivory sculpture in Thailand. No art book has ever been devoted to it. This contribution aims to present an introduction to ivory carving in Thailand based on two months of research in Bangkok and central Thailand in early 2003 supported by the National Geographic Society.

Published: August 14, 2003

Thangka Restoration and Conservation: By Marion Boyer & Jean Michel Terrier

One of the defining technical characteristics of a thangka, its most distinctive feature, is that it is painted on both sides. Thangkas are painted on a canvas support prepared and coated on both sides. Thangkas are rolled, as Chinese and Japanese works often are. The back of a thangka is as carefully prepared as the front, so that consecrated formulas, mantras, and other religious or historical writings can be inscribed on it.

Published: June 19, 2003

Conservation Notes on Some Nepalese Paintings: By Mary Shepherd Slusser

Five of the paintings presented here are now, or will be, in the collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia. All have undergone conservation, for the most part minimal but occasionally quite extensive. This report, including pre-restoration photo documentation, is therefore prepared as an aid to scholars and conservators who may be concerned with them. In case of doubt it clearly establishes what is original and what is not.

Published: May 19, 2003

Correlating Paintings of Indian Decorative Objects: By Stephen Markel

Scholars of South Asian sculpture are well aware of the complications involved in attempting to correlate various iconographic textual descriptions with surviving images. Due to the wide range of regional, temporal, sectarian, and artistic variations, it is often unusual to find a close one-to-one match in terms of form and attributes. The situation in correlating decorative objects represented in Mughal and Rajput paintings with extant examples is, unfortunately, much the same as the text-versus-image dilemma.

Published: February 24, 2003

Wood and Transience: By Vinayak Bharne & Iku Shimomura

In Japan the notion of Setsuna, meaning transience imparted to wood the same materiality of life and death as at the heart of human consciousness. It embodied an architecture of ephemerality, every building type be it a house, shrine, temple or castle using wood as its building material to bear the unpredictability of Japan's typhoons and earthquakes. This philosophical and pragmatic resultant evolved a distinctly Japanese culture of wood - that through renewal and rebuilding ritualized the transience of timber as its greatest celebration.

Published: February 06, 2003

Ivory Carving in Myanmar: By Daniel Stiles

Very little is known about the history, technical aspects and artistic features of ivory sculpture in Myanmar (Burma). Kunz devotes one paragraph and St. Aubyn does not even mention Myanmar in their seminal reviews of ivory art around the world. This paper aims to help fill this gap in our knowledge of Southeast Asian art by presenting the results of six weeks of research in 2002 with ivory carvers in Mandalay, Myanmar, sponsored by the National Geographic Society.

Published: November 19, 2002

The Silver Jug of the Lhasa Jokhang: By Amy Heller

At present, a silver jug stands in a wooden frame in one of the chapels of the Lhasa Jokhang, traditionally regarded as the oldest temple in Tibet. The people represented on the jug reflect Tibetan familiarity with their neighbors’ appearance and customs. The Tibetans believe this jug to be associated with Songtsen gampo, the first historic ruler of Tibet.

Published: July 18, 2002

Darkness and Light: By Goetz Hagmuller

In Asia, light and darkness seem to be much closer together than in our minds. As two sides of the same coin they belong to each other. What our occidental intellect divides into particles, opposites, contrasts, and cause and effect, in the holistic world view of the Orient appears as a whole, a totality with no distinct borders, both this and the other, yin and yang, darkness and light.

Published: March 29, 2002

Vanishing Dances of Ladakh: By Joseph Houseal

Today, there remain only three monasteries of the Drikung Vajra order performing intact the great ceremonies of dance. Other orders perform similar dance festivals, but the caliber of dancing varies due to many factors. Among these others, Hemis monastery has led the way in turning the sacred dances into a regional Gilbert and Sullivan entertainment for tourists.

Published: February 14, 2002

A Kushan-period Sculpture from the reign of Jaya Varma, A.D. 185: By Kashinath Tamot and Ian Alsop

In April 1992 workers digging a trench for the foundation of a house in Ma-liga-on stumbled across the most important art historical discovery in the Kathmandu Valley for many years. Lying face-down at a level of about three feet they found a life size (171 x 49 cm) standing male figure carved in pale sandstone.

Published: July 10, 1996 (Updated December 25, 2001)

The "Art" of Conservation By Erich Theophile

Coming out of the closet about subjectivity and contradictions in an architect's conservation practice: This article grows out of Erich Theophile's introduction to building conservation in 1988 while assisting architect Götz Hagmaller in the restoration of an 18th century palace to house the Patan Museum, Nepal.

Published: October 4, 2001

Tashi Kabum: A Cave Temple associated with Luri Gompa in Upper Mustang, Nepal: By Gary McCue

Mary Slusser, in an article on this same cave temple, wrote in 1999 that other scholars "had sought (this temple) in vain following an American trekking guide's signal sometime after 1992, the year Mustang was opened to foreigners.”  (Slusser and Bishop, 1999, p. 20) Gary McCue was that guide, and this is his account of the cave temple.

Published: June 18, 2001

Pata-Chitras of Orissa: An Illustration of Some Common Themes: By Bernard Cesarone

The state of Orissa in northeast India has a long tradition in various arts, including dance, architecture, and painting. Among the painting traditions, the devotional art of the pata-chitras, or paintings on cloth, is a folk or popular style that centers around the worship of the god Jagannath (or Jagannatha) but that depicts many other religious themes as well, using the strong line and brilliant color that are typical of Orissan folk painting.

Published: May 16, 2001

Kuber Singh Shakya: A Master Craftsman of Nepal: By Mary Shepherd Slusser and James A. Giambrone

The metallurgical arts of ancient Nepal have long been famous and their antiquity well established. Moreover, despite the well-entrenched opinion that "no living art supports [Nepal's rites and festivals] any longer," the metallurgical arts at least, yet thrive in the creation of quality sacred art that can hold its own with the best of the past.

Published: April 19, 2001

Demons & Deities: Masks of the Himalayas: By Thomas Murray

The powerful imagery of the Himalayan mask tradition is drawn from the diverse traditions of shamanism, village myths and the classical traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism. In this essay the author probes the 'greater context' of Himalayan masks, finding in them stylistic and thematic affinities with cultures as widespread as those of Eurasia and the Americas, and covering a period extending from the upper Paleolithic era to the presen

Published: January 16, 2001

The Lukhang: a hidden temple in Tibet: By Ian A. Baker

The wall inscriptions that accompany many of the specific images are drawn from a 15th century work entitled Kunsang Gongdu, The Realization of Vast Beneficence, a compendium of Dzogchen teachings revealed by the Terton, or "treasure revealer", Pema Lingpa. The Lukhang murals illustrate key episodes in the life of this great master, a direct ancestor of the Sixth Dalai Lama who is credited with the Lukhang's original design at the turn of the 17th century.

Published: January 04, 2001

Images of Lost Civilization: The Ancient Rock Art of Upper Tibet: By John Vincent Bellezza

A rock art tradition found on the highest parts of the Tibetan plateau chronicles at least 3000 years of a fascinating but little known civilization. These images in stone are one of our clearest windows into the nature of early civilization in Tibet and they are invaluable to our understanding of the pre-Buddhist economy, environment and religion. They provide us with graphic evidence of early Tibet for they were wrought by the very hand of her inhabitants.

Published: November 22, 2000

Whiff of Luxury: By Norman A. Rubin

The Mary and George Bloch Chinese snuff bottle collection is a unique assemblage that combines the expression of artistic craftsmanship with creative Chinese ingenuity. Mary and George Bloch have accomplished a collector's dream. They have, within the relatively short period of fifteen years, assembled an extensive and valuable collection of one of the finest crafts of Chinese artisans.

Published: November 17, 2000

The Synthesis of European and Mughal Art in the Emperor Akbar’s Khamsa of Nizami: By Gregory Minissale

The purpose of this article is to examine the adoption of the European techniques of sfumato, modeling and stereoscopic perspective in the Khamsa illustrations and then to trace the European sources for the motifs of some the key miniatures. In this regard, it is necessary also to look at the use of motifs taken from European maps for Mughal background landscapes, which is a subject that has not been dealt with in Mughal art history.

Published: October 13, 2000

Trance-Dancers of the Goddess Durga: By Hamid Sardar

Ancient Nepali chronicles agree that "no dramatic performance equals that of the Harasiddhi priests." The manifestations of the Mother Goddess and her retinue of deities possess the dancers, intoxicated on sacrificial blood and alcohol. A hypnotic musical score, punctuated by symbolic gestures accompanies the spectacle whose secret meanings remain closed to the non-initiate.

Published: August 17, 2000

Phagpa Lokeśvara of the Potala: By Ian Alsop

Who is Phagpa Lokeśvara? How old is his image and where was it made? For the answer to the first question we must turn to Tibetan religious history; for answers to the other two, we must attempt a stylistic analysis without, alas, a direct view of the figure itself, working only with the shadows left by countless pious copyists.... (originally published in Orientations, April 1990)

Published: December 14, 1999 (Updated August 4, 2000)

Ghosts, Demons and Spirits in Japanese Lore: By Norman A. Rubin

Belief in ghosts, demons and spirits has been deep-rooted in Japanese folklore throughout history. It is entwined with mythology and superstition derived from Japanese Shinto, as well as Buddhism and Taoism brought to Japan from China and India. Stories and legends, combined with mythology, have been collected over the years by various cultures of the world, both past and present. Folklore has evolved in order to explain or rationalize various natural events.

Published: June 26, 2000

Wangden Meditation Weaving: By Rupert Smith

Wangden was once famous throughout Tibet for its unique style of carpet weaving, practiced nowhere else in Tibet, and in great demand by monasteries from Lhasa to Amdo to Ladakh. Wangden carpets were used as meditation mats by the Fifth Dalai Lama, and every year a new set of Wangden runners was woven for use by monks participating in the Great Monlam Prayer Festival in Lhasa, the first and largest religious gathering of the Tibetan Buddhist year.

Published: March 31, 2000

Conservation of a 5th century Buddhist Manuscript: By Susan Sayre Batton

In the fall of 1998, a professional numismatist, with a specialty in Classical antiquity, brought an early manuscript to my studio for consultation. The elongated leaves were brittle, compressed together, water damaged, and folded into a tight "S" curve, like a wad of dollar bills after the wash cycle. This manuscript was found in the Bhamiyan cave region in modern Afghanistan, purportedly from the 5th century, on birch bark, and written in the Kharoshti script.

Published: February 21, 2000

The History of an Indian Musical Instrument Maker: By Steven Landsberg

The shop of Kanailal and Brother was located in a cultural oasis, known as the Barabazar area of Calcutta. Both the renowned poet-philosopher Rabindranath Tagore and the maharaja Sourendra Mohan Tagore, a great patron of the arts, lived in the same area. Many musicians, poets, and writers inhabited this cultural belt of early twentieth century Calcutta and gave it the aesthetic color and feeling that is to this day an inspiration for many of Bengal's contemporary artists.

Published: February 4, 2000

A New Ceiling for the Roof of the World: By Broughton Coburn

The Thubchen Gompa, dedicated to Sakyamuni, Buddha of The Present, is located within the walled city of Lo Manthang, the capital of the formerly forbidden Kingdom of Mustang, a cultural relic of Tibet near the Nepal-Tibet border. The American Himlayan Foundation has embarked on an ambitious project to conserve and restore this ancient building and the precious paintings found within it.

Published: January 20, 2000

Changthang Circuit Expedition 1999: By John Vincent Bellezza

While Tibet is synonymous with Buddhist learning and culture, its civilisation extends much further back into antiquity than the Buddhist period. My findings demonstrate that Tibet supported a sophisticated culture long before the dawn of the Buddhist era in the 7th century. This earlier civilisation is closely connected with the Bon religion, an indigenous belief system which seems to have been enriched by various traditions coming from adjoining countries.

Published: December 9, 1999

The Giant Thangkas of Tsurphu Monastery: By Terris Temple and Leslie Nguyen

Each great monastery in Tibet once possessed giant silk applique hangings for public display and worship. These often huge banners comprise some of Tibet's greatest art treasures because of their spiritual significance, size and intricate design. Some survived the cultural revolution - most did not. The giant banners of Tsurphu monastery in central Tibet-traditional seat of the Karmapas-were both destroyed during this time.

Published: December 5, 1995 (Updated October 08, 1999)

Thogchags, The Ancient Amulets of Tibet: Text by John Vincent Bellezza

Thogchags are Tibetan talismans made of bronze and meteoric metals dating as far back as the Bronze Age. While precise dates for the Tibetan Bronze Age have yet to be formulated, archaeological evidence from various sites around the country indicate that it began no later than the beginning of the Second Millennium BCE. An unbroken tradition of producing amulets extends into the Iron Age and Buddhist periods creating a cultural legacy several thousand years old.

Published: June 1, 1999

The Murals of Baiya Monastery: By Jonathan Bell

The murals of Dege County's Pewar (Ch. Baiya) Monastery are truly exquisite works of art that embrace their subject matters with a mixture of vivid color and painstaking detail. From ghastly esoteric scenes of demons wearing human skins to the serenity of buddhas seated in meditation, the depictions on the walls of the temple and upper prayer room comprise a mixture of stylistic influences from within and outside Tibet.

Published: March 8, 1999

New Archeological Discoveries in Tibet: By John Vincent Bellezza

In August and September of 1998 the author discovered a series of pre-Buddhist archaeological sites in the western Tibet province of Ngari (mNga' ris). Located in close proximity to what had been important prehistoric sources of fresh water, these ancient sites include burial mounds, villages and ceremonial structures. Situated at 4500 meters in the Changthang (Byang thang), the vast northern plains of Tibet, these finds significantly add to our knowledge of Tibet before the spread of Buddhism in the 7th to 11th centuries.

Published: December 17, 1998

Augmented Nationalism: The Nomadic Eye of Painter M.F. Husain (b. 1915): By Shyamal Bagchee

A study of the art of India's most famous living painter, Maqbool Fida Husain (known to millions of his admirers simply as Husain), by Shyamal Bagchee of the University of Alberta English Department. This wide ranging article examines Husain's art from the perspective of his, and the author's, Nationalism: "A point that is often missed by critics writing about Husain is that he operates out of probably the one country in the world that can mount a really serious challenge to the so called new imperialism of a postmodern, post-rational, fast replicating, information proliferating, media-dominated, United States of America."

Published: July 3, 1998

The Conservation of Tibetan Thangkas: By Ian Alsop

The Conservation of Tibetan Thangkas consists of a series of articles presented at papers to the Western Association for Art Conservation (WAAC) Annual Meeting in Santa Fe New Mexico in September 1992. The articles include technical notes and procedures and photographs of various stages of conservation. Published in Asian Arts 3/5/98, with kind permission of WAAC and the authors.

Published: March 5, 1998

Bangladeshi Arts of the Ricksha: By Joanna Kirkpatrick

The three wheeled pedicab or cycle ricksha of Bangladesh has been around at least since the late forties and the partition of India. In those days they were left more or less undecorated. Sometime in the sixties it began its development into a "peoples' art" that combines folkloric, movie, political and commercial imagery and techniques. It serves the expression of heart's desires of the man in the street for women, power, wealth, as well as for religious devotion.

Published: December 5, 1997

Early Portrait Painting in Tibet: By Jane Casey Singer

One facet of Tibetan iconic art is to be found in early portrait paintings. Portraiture figured prominently in Tibetan art between ca. 1000 and 1400 A.D., and yet almost nothing is known about its functions and its significance. This essay addresses two main questions: What aesthetic and theoretical guides did artists observe in painting historical persons? And what social, political, and religious purposes did portraiture serve in pre-fifteenth century Tibet?

Published: November 30, 1996

China Exploration & Research Society: Conserving Tibetan Art and Architecture: By Pamela Logan

The goal of the China Exploration and Research Society (CERS) projects in Tibet is to save some of the last intact monasteries on the eastern plateau. Internationally known experts are teaching Tibetans how to repair traditional buildings while retaining as much original material as possible. (Asianart.com is delighted to be able to host the CERS site here, where researchers will be periodically updating the site with CERS activities.)

Published: CERS: November 13, 1996

Intro to Kathmandu University Department of Music: By Gert-Matthias Wegner

The musical traditions of Nepal are as diverse as the various ethnic groups of the country. The most complex musical culture in the Himalayas is that of the Newar in the Kathmandu valley which in the course of the past 2000 years has absorbed mostly Indian influences shaping a unique musical tradition.

Published: April 17, 1996

Images of Earth and Water: The Tsa-Tsa Votive Tablets of Tibet: By Juan Li

In 1938 after returning from one of his extensive expeditions to Ladakh and Western Tibet, the great Italian tibetologist Giuseppe Tucci published a volume on Stupa symbolism as part of the Indo-Tibetica series. The second part of this pioneering study is dedicated to the votive clay tablets known as tsa-tsa. Although Tucci was not the first to write about tsa-tsa, his study remains the only extensive exploration of this art form. The present article aims at updating some the information on this neglected area of studies.

Published: November 11, 1995

Introduction to the Art of Mongolia: By Terese Tse Bartholomew

Tibetan Buddhism, a highly ritualistic religion with a huge pantheon of gods and goddesses, inspired the religious art of Mongolia (fig. 1). As in most religions, there is a need to create cult images in painting and sculpture, as well as ritual objects and other paraphernalia associated with worship of the deities.The objects in this exhibition associated with religious worship date from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries and are the result of the second wave of conversion to Buddhism in Mongolia.

Published: September 7, 1995

A Taglung Lama: By Jane Casey Singer

This charming thirteenth century portrait depicts a religious hierarch from the Taglung branch of the Kagyu order of Tibetan Buddhism. Wearing monastic robes, he is seated on a throne whose symbolic significance reflects the considerable spiritual authority which the hierarch enjoyed in his day. Mountain staves, indicating that the central figure is meant to appear within a mountain cave, surround him and his attendants in the upper and side registers.

Published: March 17, 1995

An Early stone fragment in Central Nepal: By Thomas Pritzker

Just south of the town of Arughat, along the Buri Gandaki River in central Nepal there is a small hot spring which has been channelled into a public bath. Next to this bath are two small buildings which over the centuries were used as Buddhist and then Hindu shrines. While there are a number of sculptures of interest I would like to point out a fragment which is in the wall of the southernmost building. The figure on the left shows the visible portion of this fragment.

Published: March 17, 1995

Licchavi Caityas of Nepal: A Solution to the Empty Niche: By Ian Alsop

Among the curious puzzles of early Nepalese sculpture and architecture are the empty niches of the lovely Licchavi stone caityas that dot the Kathmandu valley. These elegant caityas are fully decorated, often with exquisitely detailed carvings, but the niches where one might suppose the figures of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas would normally reside, are vacant.

Published: March 17, 1995 (Updated Feb. 10, 2000)

Tsakli:Tibetan Miniature Ritual Paintings: By Juan Li

Among the numerous items employed in Tibetan ritual is a genre of miniature painting little known in the occident and rarely spoken of in the liturgical literature translated into western languages. These are the 'Tsakli' or 'Initiation Cards' . Tsakli paintings are employed in numerous ritual situations such as empowerment, ritual mandalas, transmission of teachings, substitutes for ceremonial items, visualization aids and funerals.

Published: March 17, 1995