HIMALAYAN VISUAL CULTURE

Dialogue  April-June 2009 , Volume 10 No. 4 Some Inscribed Bronze Masterpieces from Western Inner Himalayas: A Stylistic Appraisal A.K. Singh This paper is focussed on some selected artworks discovered from the western Trans-Himalayan region, formerly constituent states of Western Tibet (gNari-Khorsum). The paper attempts to present an aesthetic overview on the beginning and burgeoning of a unique artistic culture on Indian periphery which later resulted in to Indo-Tibetan aesthetic expression. Artworks on view and und er discussion were mainly discovered from Upper Sutlej valley (in Tibetan chronicles called Khunu), Ladakh and Zanskar by the author during his more than two decades field work in the region stretching between upper catchments of the rivers Indus and Sutlej. Aesthetically superb in manifestation, artworks under investigation present a very interesting case of diffusion of an art style that is Kashmiri, about which still not much is known. In medieval period...