A grotto mural in Nagri,Tibet[Photo/Xinhua]

Recently, a replication project of Tibet's largest Buddhist grotto ruin murals in Zanda County of western Tibet's Ngari Prefecture has been completed and exhibited, chinanews.com reported.

The Dongkar-Piyang site with 1,000 years of history, boasts a large number of Tibetan Buddhist paintings, and its nearby area was an important cultural center during the Guge Dynasty between the 10th century and the 17th century.

Han Xinggang, the Ngari Mural Replication Project Director said, "Different from murals found in Lhasa, Shigatse and other places, these murals are very rare in Tibet Autonomous Region and even in China". He also mentioned that the paintings possessed a large number of characters, patterns and postures of other lands, whose value in research and artistry was no less than that of the Dunhuang murals."

After more than 1,000 years, the murals were severely damaged due to human and natural causes. In 2003, the current replication project of the Dongkar-Piyang grotto murals started.

According to Han, the replication was made exactly as the originals with certain technical standards. During the past 10 years, a total of 26 artists and experts have participated in the project.

The selected project is the most representative of the four 28-square-meter murals in No.2 Dongkar Grotto. These works are currently Tibet’s largest mural works painted in mineral colors, and the world's only life-size replication set of ancient Ngari paintings in existence with a variety of 2,000 characters.

Han Xinggang also mentioned that these replicas will become the basis for future revonation of the Dongkar grotto murals, which will help showcase more of the ancient Shangshung culture to the outside world.