REVIEW BY GEORGE NASH
If I had been asked a few months ago what I knew about a vast rock-art assemblage in Tibet, I would have simply shrugged my shoulders and asked what, when, where, and why. But then, thinking about it further, there are significant prehistoric rock-art assemblages in northern India, southern China, and Mongolia, and across much of the Malaysian Peninsula. Within these regions, imagery includes animals, human figures, and abstract and geometric motifs, similar to those found within the Tibetan Plateau.
The techniques used outside Tibet are mainly engravings, but paintings are also present. In terms of dating, rock art from these areas is considered some of the oldest in the world, with painted imagery found in the caves of Borneo and Sulawesi dating to at least 40,000 BP. Therefore, Tibet sits within an area of south-east Asia that boasts a rich prehistoric rock-art tradition.
John Vincent Belleza’s opening publication for A Comprehensive Survey of Rock Art in Upper Tibet is one of five volumes that cover the Upper Tibetan Plateau (note: Volume 2 has also recently been published – Central and Western Bang thang). The fieldwork for this enormous project was undertaken by the author between 1995 and 2016.
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