According to an article in the February 24, 2013 issue of The New York Times (“Buddhists, Reconstructing Sacred Tibetan Murals, Wield Their Brushes in Nepal”, by Edward Wong), the American Himalayan Foundation is financing a project to restore the art work in two of the main religious buildings in Lo Manthong, Nepal. While the Project Director is Luigi Fieni, an Italian conservator, it is thirty-five local residents who are doing the work which includes painting new images on sections of the walls from which the original images are missing. Scholars of Tibertan art assert that the new painting alters important historical murals and is jeopardizing scholarship, while people involved in the project argue that local worshippers want to have complete art works and not ruins in their temples. Whose belief should take precedence?
Whose belief should take precedence?
