The panorama of Himalayan art is as varied and vast as the Himalaya itself. It represents the religio-aesthetic aspirations of the various ethnic people that inhabit it. the very inter-relation between the emotive objectiveness and the physical environment has been fundamental to the folk arts of the Himalayan region since the primitive times. The Himalayan interiors have been a most propitious place for the flowering and fusion of diverse artistic traditions. Among these, the visual art or the art of painting has been the most popular medium for the religio-aesthetic expression. For, in it, we find the most intimate and harmonious blend of diverse belief-systems of the various ethnic communities and their aesthetic feelings. This book is an effort to present an overall view of the creative process of the people through the ages to ignite a sense of dignified self-consciousness, identity and affinity with the Himalaya-its air that they breathe, the soil they live upon and the polychromatic culture they have inherited. The present study, the first work of its kind on the subject covering almost the entire Himalayan region, is mainly the result of what the author has seen, heard, observed and felt during his innumerable field-studies stretching through half a century in the interiors of the western and central Himalaya. It is hoped that this work shall inspire the researchers and scholars for a deeper and analytical study of this important subject.
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