Abstract
(1) THE jealousy of the State Government renders Nepal perhaps the least-known country in the Empire among those with which we maintain friendly relations. To a student of art like the writer it is peculiarly interesting, because it forms a link between India and Tibet. Mr. Brown was allowed some liberty in visiting the sacred sites in the valley; but if he secured any new information on geography or politics he has not disclosed it. On the subject of Newar art he gives us some valuable facts and impressions. The Gorkhas, now the ruling caste, have contributed little to the art treasures of the country, and the art of the Newars represents a Tibetan substratum largely influenced from India. But it is the India of the Middle Ages, not that of the present day, when the people have come under foreign control, Mohammedan or British. The book is provided with many fine photographs, and a few sketches in colour to illustrate Newar architecture and work in metal, stone and wood. The author traces with skill the varied influences which have contributed to establish the Nepalese art school, and he gives some interesting facts, partly in corroboration, partly in extension, of those admirable essays on local religion and custom for which we are indebted to the late Dr. H. A. Oldfield. The pleasant, unaffected style in which these notes are recorded makes them more valuable than those which usually accompany books the claim of which to support lies in the illustrations alone.
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References
(1)“Picturesque Nepal.” By Percy Brown . Pp. xvi + 205. (London: A and C. Black, 1912.) Price 7s. 6d. net.
(2)“Papua or British New Guinea.” By J. H. P. Murray . With an Introduction by Sir William MacGregor, G.C.M.G., C.B. Pp. 388 + plates + map. (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1912.) Price 15s. net.
(3)“Through Shên-Kan. The Account of the Clark Expedition in North China, 1908–9.” By Robert Sterling Clark and Arthur de C. Sowerby . Edited by Major C. H. Chepmell. Pp. viii + 247 + 64 plates + 2 maps. (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1912.) Price 25s. net.
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Countries and Customs 1 . Nature 90, 544–545 (1913). https://doi.org/10.1038/090544b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/090544b0