Shepherd leads experts to ancient Buddha cave paintings

Compiled by Tipitaka Network Newsdesk, Sunday, May 6, 2007

KATMANDU (Nepal) Paintings of Buddha dating back at least to the 12th century have been discovered in a partially collapsed cave in Nepal's remote north-central region by a team of international researchers after being tipped by a local shepherd near the Tibetan border.

A mural with 55 panels depicting the story of Buddha's life was uncovered in March, with the team using ice axes to break through a snow path to reach the cave in Nepal's Mustang, a lost kingdom long forbidden to foreigners in the high Himalayas.

The inaccessible 3,400m-high cave was unearthed in the Mustang area, about 250 kilometers (160 miles) northwest of the capital, Katmandu.

"What we found is fantastically rich in culture and heritage and goes to the 12th century or earlier," Broughton Coburn, a writer and conservationist from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, told The Associated Press on Friday.

Coburn said the main mural measured around 8 meters (25 feet) wide, and each panel was about 35 centimeters (14 inches) by 43 centimeters (17 inches).

The team of Nepalese, Italian and American conservators, archeologists, art experts, and climbers, were tipped by a local sheep herder who mentioned that he had seen a cave with old paintings several years ago when he took shelter from the rain.

"I was overwhelmed with questions," Coburn said about the discovery.

Besides the main mural, paintings were discovered on other walls of the cave which they believe were made slightly later. A nearby cave had manuscripts which were written in Tibetan language, which were photographed by the team and will be translated by experts.

Coburn said the team planned to perform limited excavation, collection and cataloging of the manuscripts.

The five Americans in the team included renowned mountaineer Peter Athans who has scaled Mount Everest seven times and film maker Renan Ozturk. Other members included Italian art expert Luigi Fieni and two Nepalese archaeologists.

"I can unequivocally say that climbing into the caves was greatly more exciting than any emotions I had on Everest," Athans said in e-mail sent from Seattle, Washington. "The opportunity to explore new ground with potentially significant discoveries imminent was far more enticing than the Everest summit."

"Finding the cave was almost like a miracle," said Luigi Fieni.

Foreigners were only permitted to enter Mustang in 1992, and Mr Fieni's team began work nine years ago, restoring the spectacular wall paintings in a 15th century Tibetan monastery.

When they inquired about other art treasures in the region, a villager remembered that as a boy he had seen a cave full of colourful paintings.

"Unlike the murals in the monastery, the Mustang cave paintings do not reveal a Tibetan but a strong Indian influence, including the animals they depict - leopard, tiger, monkey and deer," Mr Fieni said. "In fact, the style evokes the fabulous cave paintings of Ajanta, which predate the Mustang caves by several centuries."

The location of the cave has been kept secret to deter art smugglers, but the team call it "the snow leopard cave" as the animal's footprints were found inside.

"The cave paintings have been affected by wind and rain and really need restoration," Mr Fieni said. "It's a long process, and we're hoping now to raise funds for the project."

The simultaneous discovery of ancient Tibetan manuscripts in nearby caves has led to speculation that the caves might have been a teaching retreat on the lines of the Buddhist university in Nalanda.

Mustang is of special significance to Buddhist experts because it is perhaps the only region where Tibetan culture and religion have survived over the centuries virtually untouched by time and modern Chinese colonisation.

The area has for centuries been used as a major passageway between Nepal and Tibet. For centuries, it was part of greater Tibet before being taken over by Nepal.

"The Mustang people are Tibetans. They speak the Tibetan language; their origin is in the Tibetan culture," said Lama Guru Gyaltsen.

The opening up of the region has brought inevitable challenges to Mustang way of life. Young men are leaving the tiny kingdom in search of work, and a modern road through the capital, Lo Manthang, is certain to affect the tradition of rearing horses for transport and agriculture. Building techniques using mud are likely to be abandoned in favour of modern construction methods.

The expedition spent three weeks in the remote mountainous area, where there are few people due to the extreme weather and barren land.

"We learnt how much we don't know, how much there is to discover, explore and understand," Coburn said, adding they plan to return to the cave next spring to conduct more research.

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2072736,00.html
source: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/04/asia/AS-GEN-Nepal-Archeological-Discovery.php