The present monograph presents a connected history of the origin and development of Tibetan pictorial art as well as a critical and appreciative study of some specimens from various collections and throws light on important aspects of the Tibetan paintings, viz. designs, ornamentation's, the mudras and asanas ad identification of the host of divinities.
It is only recently that the systematic study of Buddhist Art has been inaugurated. Thanks to scientific excavations and explorations carried out in India by the Indian Archaeological Survey, in Central Asia by a number of archaeological missions on behalf of different governments, and in China by the pioneer work of the eminent French sinologist, the late Edouard Chavannes, we possess a number of invaluable facts which enable us to reconstruct the vast do- main of Buddhist Art. It is true that it is not yet possible to write a history of Buddhist Art in all its phases and different epochs. This huge work remains to be done, and we only can hope that future investigations in this field will facilitate the scholar's task. But if the complete history of Buddhist Art is still to be written, we can already affirm the unity of its evolution. No matter how different were the local influences, the types created by the joint effort of the hellenistic genius and of the Hindu spirit, kindled by the doctrine of Bud- dha, maintained their originality throughout the centuries, from the caravan stations in the deserts of Chinese Turkistan to the island of Java. Indeed, it is a matter of great surprise that the sublime doctrine of Gautama, the Buddha, who established a legion of monks striving for a kind of ideal communism in this world, could have caused the rise of an art which powerfully attested itself throughout the vastnesses of Asia. Contemplating the serene simplicity of a Gandhara Buddha, the delicate design of the Ajanta frescoes, the powerful and sometimes martial spirit of the Central-Asiatic pictorial compositions, and the religious fervour of the Wei art in the grottos of Yun-kang and Lung-men, we feel ourselves to be in the presence of a lofty altar of beauty erected by the united efforts of a host of Eastern and Western artists. No imaginary barrier stood or stands between these two great spheres of culture and civilization, and only petty racial prejudices have fostered the creation of a separating wall which haunts the imagination of a modern person.
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