Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c28.s8.t5.8

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countries, to Rajasthan, where zinc ores were exploited”. (Lo Bue, 1981a: 34) The above generalisation clearly emerges from the earlier works of Lal (1956), Lee (1967), Werner (1972), Sahai (1977), Uhlig (1979) etc. A survey of Tibetan and Himalayan metal statuary in the major public collections of Britain such as Ashmolean, Liverpool County, Royal Scottish and Cambridge Museums showed that out of nearly 220 Tibetan icons, 58 per cent were made of brass and 42 per cent of copper. Some were fire-gilded brass (15 per cent), fire-gilded copper (12.2 per cent), cold-gilded (2 per cent), silver-containing (5 per cent), repoussé (2 per cent) and inlaid with stones (1.5 per cent). Lo Bue (1981a: 36) The trend is also clear from the compilation of data on 121 samples (Craddock, 1981), a gist of which is displayed in Table 20.9.