Styles: Perilous Pilgrimage

In a hundred ages of the gods, I could not tell thee of the glories of the Himalayas.

—The Puranas, Scriptures of Ancient India

The dizzying glories of the Himalayan peaks and gorges have long been celebrated, but few outsiders realized that, tucked away in monasteries and temples, the Himalayas harbored other glories—those of a strangely distinctive art. Scholars knew that Himalayan art was an offshoot of the Indian tradition, centered on the Buddhist and Hindu pantheon of deities. But what they knew was mostly by repute, since few had the physical stamina...

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