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- sacred art of ancient Tibet served as a perfect tool in helping to communicate values and meanings to a largely illiterate and unsophisticated population by providing visible and tangible representations of the vast multitude of Buddhist deities; and thus, guiding their thoughts along the mystic path. It shows them their place in the universe and indicates their own value and significance as human beings.
The main patrons of Tibetan religious art were the great monasteries and the wealthy nobility, who employed various types of artist�painters, sculptors and craftsmen �to produce objects for ritual use or private devotion. Most of Tibet�s sacred art was made by anonymous monks, who seldom signed their works of art. The first and foremost aim of the Tibetan monk-artist was to preserve and continue the art tradition in which he had been trained and not to express his own style. By doing this, it left little room for individual creativity or freedom of expression. Despite the liturgical and iconographic limitations of the religious themes, the art forms were not kept totally static because of outside influences and the effects of cross-current developments.
Over the centuries Tibetan Buddhist art absorbed stylistic influences and motifs from the art of neighbouring countries, which had high levels of civilization. The strongest early influence clearly came from India (especially the late classical Buddhist art of the Pala period) as well as from the Indian-style variants coming from Nepal, Kashmir and Central Asia (in particular Khotan). Buddhist incono- graphical and technical manuals of Indian origin were brought to Tibet by visiting Indian teachers or by Tibetan pilgrims who had travelled to India. The repetitive copying of images, which were rigidly codified in these manuals, allowed for the faithful perpetuation of the early Indian style for several centuries in Tibet. After the disappearance of Buddhism in India around 1300, new influences began being felt from Nepal, particularly from the visiting Newari artists who were responsible for
The ruins of Shining Crystal Monastery at Shegar, Tibet (destroyed during the Cultural Revolution)
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