ks of the Okvik and later Arctic schools often depict women, sometimes in the nude, sometimes clothed. The nude figures seldom include more of the arms than shoulder stumps. Their bodies are short and flat, their heads large, pear-shaped, and carefully worked, as are hands when included. The faces are carved and are sometimes incised with lines, probably denoting tattooing. The so-called Okvik Madonna (University of Alaska Museum, Fairbanks) is perhaps the most expressive of these statuettes.Some Okvik animal designs are particularly interesting because of certain stylistic details that point to a relationship with works of the Scytho-Siberian school. reindeer are so frequently depicted that the discovery at Pazyryk of a horse's mask in the form of a reindeer's head led to the suggestion that the mask was a survival from a reindeer cult acquired by the Altaians from a northern people such as the Eskimo. That theory has been discounted, yet some Okvik works are undoubtedly related to certain slightly older examples of Siberian metalwork. Thus, the heads of some terminal ornaments bear a close resemblance to those of certain Siberian works. The lozenge-shaped muscles that appear on Eskimo carvings amid lines intended to portray the animal's skeleton are very similar to those of the Pazyryk dot and comma markings. In late- or post-Okvik times certain specifically Eskimo objects, such as masks, were decorated with stylized animal heads executed in relief and accompanied by bosses that recall the Altaic, especially those that reflect Chinese influence. Compositions such as that on an unidentifiable object (possibly a rake or comb) in the University of Alaska Museum, which includes as its central motif the head of an animal resembling a bear or a seal, display a marked affinity with west Siberian ones.Climatic changes in the 17th century led to contacts with the outer world in the 19th century and brought the traditional Eskimo school of sculpture to an abrupt end. When, toward the end of the century, art started to revive, it did so under European influence, eventually developing a greater concern for aesthetic than religious considerations. The new style retained much of the directness of approach and formal conventions of the traditional style, but, in addition, there was a greater emphasis on naturalism. Group scenes, too, became popular, as did animal and bird compositions. There has been an extensive production of small sculptures, chiefly of fish, bird, or animal forms, in the 20th century.Tamara Talbot RiceHimalayan cultures of Nepal and TibetThe art of Nepal is centred in the Kāthmāndu Valley, in an area of less than 250 square miles (650 square kilometres). The artists are Newars (Newar), or Mongoloids, different ethnically from, though partly intermingled with, the peoples of India, whose art they made their own—whether its themes were Hindu or Buddhist.There is only one Nepalese architectural style, varied according to its function as private dwelling, palace, Buddhist monastery, or Buddhist or Hindu temple. The style is the protracted local flowering of an Indian architectural tradition—of brick and wood architecture with tiered, sloping roofs—other varieties of which are found in the western Himalayas and in Kerala in the southwest.Essentially, there are two kinds of Nepalese Buddhist shrine, or stūpa (stupa) (also called caitya): the large stūpa and the small, monolithic stūpa. Characteristic of the large stūpa like the one at Bodnath is the low base from which it rises and its crowning dome-shape. The small stūpa was generally set in the courtyard of a Buddhist monastery. The extant monasteries, none of which dates earlier than the 14th century, are consistent in their plans and structures. A central courtyard flanked by residential buildings is entered through a gate with a richly carved tympanum (torana) and porch. Opposite the gate and in the centre of the courtyard is the main building, the stūpa; with its one- to three-tiered roof, it rises higher than the buildings that surround it and forms the square of