Oldest Oil Paintings Found in Caves
CNN
Posted: 2008-04-24 15:48:23
Filed Under: Science News, World News
KABUL, Afghanistan (April 24) — Scientists have found what they described this week as the earliest oil paintings ever discovered.

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National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo (Japan)
Earliest Example
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The earliest oil paintings ever found have been discovered on the walls of caves in Afghanistan, researchers said this week. Until now, art historians had thought oil painting originated in Europe in the 15th century. But these images of Buddha in vermillion robes date back to the seventh century.

Murals found on cave walls in Afghanistan prove that painting with oil had been going on in Asia for centuries before artists used the technique in Europe, scientists said this week.

Until now, art historians believed that oil painting started in Europe in the 15th century.

Scientists found the murals in a network of caves where monks lived and prayed in the Afghan region of Bamiyan, according to a statement on the Web site of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, where the ancient paintings were analyzed.

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Clive Taylor, Australian Cultural Heritage Management / AP
Archaeological Discoveries

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A stone tool used as a knife at least 35,000 years ago was one of hundreds of tiny sharp rocks unearthed in western Australia. The discovery, announced April 7, is one of the oldest archaeological finds in that part of the country. One local Aboriginal elder said it’s vindication that his people have inhabited the land for tens of thousands of years.

Until 2001, two colossal 6th-century statues of Buddhas stood at the mouth of the caves. Then the Taliban, which then ruled Afghanistan, blew up the statues on the grounds that they were un-Islamic. The action drew international condemnation.

Inside the caves, scientists found murals painted in the 7th century. They show images of Buddha in vermilion robes sitting cross-legged amid palm leaves and mythical creatures.

In 12 of 50 caves, the murals were painted using drying oils — perhaps from walnuts and poppy seeds — the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility said.

Its findings on the age of the oil paintings were published this week in The Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry.

“This is the earliest clear example of oil paintings in the world,” said Yoko Taniguchi, leader of the team of scientists.

Bamiyan, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) northwest of Kabul, was once a thriving center of commerce and Buddhism. The paintings, scientists say, were probably the work of artists who traveled along the Silk Road, the ancient trade route between China, across Central Asia’s desert to the West.

The Taliban used dozens of explosives to demolish the Buddha statues in Bamiyan.

Museums and governments around the world had hoped to save the two Buddhas, the earliest of which is thought to have been carved into sandstone cliffs in the third century A.D.

At heights of 53 meters and 36 meters, the statues were the tallest standing Buddhas in the world.

Later in 2001, U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban following the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

Now, the United Nations cultural agency, UNESCO, is trying to restore the bigger of the two statues. The task could take years.

2008-04-24 10:37:38
China to meet with Dalai Lama’s representative, Xinhua says+
AP
Posted: 2008-04-25 04:24:19
BEIJING, April 25 (Kyodo) – China’s official Xinhua News Agency quoted official sources Friday as saying the Chinese government is prepared to meet with a representative of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader.

Few details have been released, but if talks do emerge it could point to a change in China’s view of the Dalai Lama.

To date, China has been vocal in blaming the spiritual leader, who heads the Tibetan government-in-exile in northern India, for sparking unrest in Chinese-controlled Tibet and in neighboring Chinese provinces.

It has also denigrated him as a “splittist” determined to break Tibet away from China and as a force behind anti-China protests that have dogged the Beijing Olympic torch on its journey from Ancient Olympia to Beijing for the Olympic Games in August.

The Dalai Lama has repeatedly denied being behind Tibetan unrest and has offered his support for the Beijing games, but Chinese officials have just as often charged the Dalai Lama’s words have been insincere.

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US Congress completes passage of Congressional Gold Medal for Aung San Suu Kyi
AP
Posted: 2008-04-24 19:15:53
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Senate completed passage on Thursday of legislation to award the Congressional Gold Medal, the U.S. Congress’ highest civilian honor, to Myanmar democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The bill passed the Senate on a voice vote without dissent. The House of Representatives had accepted the bill, also without dissent, in December and sent it to the Senate for final passage.

Jeremy Woodrum of the US Campaign for Burma advocacy group said the Myanmar opposition leader appears to be the first recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal to be awarded it while incarcerated. Suu Kyi is in house arrest and has spent 12 of the last 18 years either in prison or under house arrests.

Suu Kyi, 62, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, the year after her National League for Democracy party won election but was denied the right to govern by the ruling military junta.

It was uncertain when and how the award would be presented.

Myanmar, also called Burma, has been under military rule since the early 1960s. The current junta took power in 1988.

Last October, over Chinese objections, President George W. Bush attended ceremonies in the Capitol to award the gold medal to the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual and human rights leader who lives in exile in India because of his opposition to the Chinese government’s policies in Tibet.

Other non-American recipients include former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Pope John Paul II, South African political leader Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa.

George Washington received the first Gold Medal, which originally was given to military heroes but was later expanded to include scientists, explorers, artists, athletes, humanitarians and others with notable achievements and contributions. More than 300 individuals and groups have received the award.

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