"This book offers a brief survey of the history of Nepal recalling why, leaving aside the Kathmandu valley, the sum of knowledge on its material culture lacks the objective distance allowed by other non-European civilizations: the country, long closed to Western visitors, opened but recently, and documents prior to the 1960s are scarce." "Bertrand Goy's research into the archives leads us on the tracks of is statuary, while the ethnologist Gisele Krauskopff shares with us a line of thought supported by her field experience and her knowledge of Nepalese culture. The testimony of a photographer traveller who visited Nepal in the pioneering days completes this volume with Hugues Dubois' photographs of the masks and statuettes collected over the past twenty years by Max Itzikovitz." --Book Jacket.

Mary Slusser's work on the history of the art and culture of Nepal is marked by a series of discoveries and critical reassessments that have advanced our comprehension of this extraordinarily rich culture and art in a revolutionary way. In The Antiquity of Nepalese Wood Carving, Dr. Slusser drastically revises our perception of the marvelous wooden sculpture of the Kathmandu Valley.--Previously considered to be no earlier than the thirteenth century, the earliest of these wooden masterpieces have now been clearly demonstrated to date from the sixth or seventh century, the time of the Licchavis, lords of Nepal from about 300 to 850. Slusser has used an important scientific tool, radiocarbon dating, to help realign -- and correct -- our overly conservative accepted perceptions of the antiquity of Nepalese wood sculpture. The book is bolstered by the meticulous and painstaking research and documentation that are among the hallmarks of Slusser's works. It is also enriched by her extraordinary photographic archive. Beautiful struts and architectural details that have long been missing from the sites where Slusser first saw them are shown once again in situ in this work, and new photographs, largely the work of Neil Greentree, reveal a wealth of previously unsuspected detail. Also included is an essay by Paul Jett that is both a brief explanation of the science of radiocarbon testing and a validation of the revised dating of Nepalese wood carving proposed in the study.--Mary Shepherd Slusser is the author of an authoritative history of the culture of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal Mandala. --Paul Jett is director of conservation and scientific research at the Freer/Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.-

The early-twentieth-century profusely illustrated reference on the traditional craft details woods and essential tools used and covers carving techniques and designs for specific projects

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