The Hindu : National : Art treasures found

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Monday, May 07, 2007
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Art treasures found

Maseeh Rahman

— PHOTO: AP/ American Sky Door Productions

One of the 55 paintings depicting the life of Buddha.

New Delhi: A shepherd in a remote region of Nepal bordering Tibet has been instrumental in the discovery of an extraordinary art treasure that lay hidden for centuries: a collection of 55 exquisite cave paintings depicting the life of the Buddha.

The 12th-century paintings — a large central mural flanked by smaller panels — were found last month in a partly collapsed cave in Mustang, a kingdom long forbidden to foreigners in the high Himalayas, 150 miles north-west of Kathmandu. "Finding the cave was almost like a miracle," said Italian art conservator Luigi Fieni, a member of the team of Italian, American and Nepalese art conservators, conservation architects and archaeologists. They used ice axes to cut their way to the cave, at 3,400 metres.

Foreigners were permitted to enter Mustang only in 1992, and Mr. Fieni's team began work there nine years ago, restoring spectacular wall paintings in a crumbling 15th-century Tibetan monastery. It was when they asked about other art treasures in the region that a villager remembered having seen, as a boy, a cave full of colourful paintings.

— © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2007

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