Robert Beer lives in Oxford, England, and has studied Tibetan thangka painting for the past thirty-five years. He is the author and illustrator of The Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs and The Handbook of Tibetan Buddhist Symbols. Over the last ten years he has assembled the finest collection of contemporary Newar art in the world. A large selection of these masterpieces will be exhibited at the Maha Devi Gallery (www.mahadevi.com) in Marin County, California, throughout April 2005.