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Young World
Mystery of the murals
COMPILED BY ROHINI RAMAKRISHNAN
In the remote highlands of Nepal, a local recently led researchers to an isolated complex of caves containing a massive treasure trove of Buddhist art, including a 55-panel mural of Buddha’s life. The shepherd had made the discovery by chance while seeking shelter from a rainstorm decades ago. But he had missed the significance until making a passing mention to scientists. A full expedition of scientists, art experts, and climbers from the U.S., Italy, and Nepal then
climbed high into Nepal’s mountainous Mustang area, some 250 kilometres (160 miles) northwest of Kathmandu, locating the caves. It took ice axes and skilful mountaineering to clear a path to the caverns-set in a sheer 14,000-foot (4,300-meter) rock face in the Himalaya. But the results were more than worth it, experts say. “What we found is fantastically rich in culture and heritage and goes to the 12th century or earlier,” U.S. writer and conservationist Broughton Coburn told the Associated Press. There were also manuscripts written in Tibetan, pre-Christian artifacts, pottery shards, and a number of smaller paintings.
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