Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c40.2

c40.2

THE buildings in the independent kingdom of Nepal, together with the arts associated with these structures, display many original features, and at the same time provide a number of provocative factors relating to the evolution of the building art in Asia as a whole. In the sphere of architecture Nepal illustrates, with marked significance, the impact of two of the most forceful civilizations in the East, that of India on the one hand, and of China on the other, the two meeting within the region of Nepal's mountainous borders For geographically, historically, and politically, the country occupies a position between these two great empires, and during its course has drunk deeply from the cultural springs issuing from each, drawing its inspiration first from one and then from the other, alternatively, as the political currents ebbed or flowed. The influence of these powerful streams of racial ideals is envisaged clearly in the building art of Nepal, while in addition there is the effect, religious and graphic, of that great tide of Buddhism which swept through the continent of Asia before and after the beginning of the Christian era, inspiring every people and every activity in its porgress