Page:Picturesque Nepal.djvu/14

vi intended. This character of the original inhabitant of Nepal is, like many other attractive qualities of the Oriental, now undergoing a marked transition, and the art craftsman of to-day lives in a world different from that of his forbears of the last generation. The brief photographic survey included in these pages is an attempt to preserve some of the main features of the latter's art, now falling rapidly into decay, and may in the near future serve in its pictorial capacity as a form of reference. At a time like the present when Eastern æsthetics are attracting the attention of scholars in all quarters, and particularly when the great field of Buddhist art is coming more into focus, a view of a little-known aspect of this subject may perhaps be the humble means of assisting in the elucidation of some of the complex problems with which this study is surrounded.

A short personal acquaintance with the buildings in the Valley of Nepal speedily revealed one fact which could not be over-looked. This was that the visit leading to the production of this work was made only