vive, 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 the courtyard. Most Hindu temples are freestanding. The more ancient temples have two superimposed roofs; the later ones are five-roofed temples, given further height by tiered brick socles, or bases. On each story of the towerlike structure, wooden beams and struts (a structural piece designed to resist pressure in the direction of its length) support a widely projected slanting roof, the struts ascending diagonally from the central structure to the edge of the tiled roof. The majestically tapered, ascending profile of the structure, with its strong contrast of light playing on the roofs and masses of shade looming below, is peculiar to Nepal. Rich in textures and colours, the temples are embellished with carved and painted struts, carved doorframes and window frames, and embossed gilded copper sheets. Like the pantheon on the stone temples of India, the pantheon of Nepal is laid out mainly on the exterior of the temple—in contrast to Tibet, where it is displayed on the interior of the temple.Sculpture and painting (painting, Western)Combinations of Hindu and Buddhist iconography came about easily, though there is something facile about them, a smoothness found also in the form of the Nepalese images, which lack the surging dynamism of Indian form. Characteristic of the Nepalese transformation of Indian styles is a loss of depth but a gain in grace. Suavity of line, temperance of modelling, tonal clarity of vivid, contrasting colours raise Nepalese works far above the merely derivative. An indigenous physiognomy, too, modifies the physical formulas for sculpture laid down in India.While Nepalese sculpture is known to exist from the 2nd century BC (terra-cotta plaques, a stone bodhisattva, and a Buddha image), it was in the 5th to the 7th centuries BC that stone sculpture in Nepal came into its own. Vishnu Vikrānta (the three strides of Vishnu), dated AD 467, and 6th-century panels illustrating the Kumārasambhava (“Birth of the War-God,” an epic by the 5th-century Indian poet and dramatist Kālidāsa) are masterwo