Big changes are occurring nowadays in both the definition and the reception of art, and these are influencing the ways in which art of the past is being framed and studied. There seems now to be a general acceptance of multiple approaches in art historical research, approaches over which heated and passionate argument existed in the recent past; perhaps another way to put it is that the collapsing of any hierarchy of value in art history, as in art itself, has led to a “democratization” of voices. But the voices themselves must remain distinct if the discipline, or body of disciplines, is to remain vibrant. One indication of such vibrancy is the present volume, in which nine essays, by scholars of Chinese (six), Japanese (two), and Tibetan art, all together demonstrate that widely differing perspectives can be brought to bear in the study of a given artifact or group of...

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