This is in reference to the article 'Full circle' (#176) on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art exhibition on Himalayan Buddhism. It was indeed enthralling and exciting. Being in the US for about a month or so, and trying to figure out my way around in my school in this town, the word Nepal appearing in the magazines advertising the exhibition gave me some level of comfort. After seeing familiar monuments, artwork and gods and goddesses in the exhibition, I felt truly blessed by their presence. However, as your article mentioned, many of the exhibits belonged to private collectors. How on earth did these collectors get hold of religious objects that were still being worshipped back home? Who sold it to them? Who sold them to the guy who sold it to them? We should probably feel thankful that at least there were people who were interested enough to collect it, preserve it and make it available for exhibitions. Had it not been for these art lovers and friends of Asia, those valuable pieces would have been lost or destroyed. But it still nags me that these objects were stolen from Nepal.

Pravesh Gurung,
California Institute of the Arts, Valencia