Shepherd leads experts to ancient Buddha cave paintings
A shepherd in a remote region of Nepal near the border with Tibet has been instrumental in the discovery of an extraordinary art treasure that lay hidden from the world for centuries -- a collection of 55 exquisite cave paintings depicting the life of Buddha.
A partially collapsed cave containing the 12th to 14th century depictions of scenes from Buddha's life was unearthed last month by a team of Italian, US and Nepalese conservators and archaeologists in Mustang, a lost kingdom long forbidden to foreigners in the high Himalayas, 250-km north-west of Kathmandu.
"Finding the cave was almost like a miracle," said Luigi Fieni, a member of the team that used ice axes to cut its way into the inaccessible 3,400m-high cave in a region that for centuries was part of greater Tibet before being taken over by Nepal.
Read entire article at Guardian
A partially collapsed cave containing the 12th to 14th century depictions of scenes from Buddha's life was unearthed last month by a team of Italian, US and Nepalese conservators and archaeologists in Mustang, a lost kingdom long forbidden to foreigners in the high Himalayas, 250-km north-west of Kathmandu.
"Finding the cave was almost like a miracle," said Luigi Fieni, a member of the team that used ice axes to cut its way into the inaccessible 3,400m-high cave in a region that for centuries was part of greater Tibet before being taken over by Nepal.