A true gem of Chinese Buddhist mural painting is to be found in the Beijing Western Mountains in a monastery of the Chan tradition, the Fahai Chan Si ("Chan Monastery of the Sea of the Law"), which because of its eminent importance was recently declared as a national treasure. Dazzling with its rich display of colours and stucco reliefs covered with layers of gold, the outstanding features of the Fahai Si murals are their artistic quality, iconography, cultural and historical value, and state of preservation. This richly illustrated study analyses the pictorial program of the murals in the main sanctuary, focusing on life-size portraits of the "Twenty Deities," which surround the main altar in procession. Based on the earliest extant textual evidence, the author explains the iconography and ritual function of this unique representation in the Buddhist world, identified in rare instances by other representations. The entire set of the Fahai Si murals are comparable in concept, style and composition to related religious paintings, news of which had earlier never reached outside China. Contributing to a contextual understanding of Chinese painting history, the study reveals activities of a so-far unknown imperial painting workshop and Tibetan Buddhist influences present in 15th century Beijing. An extensive corpus of inscriptions on stelae, pillars and a bronze bell preserved on the temple grounds is for the first time completely translated and understood as a record of the stunning history of this monastery in the context of Ming dynasty temple building. The cross-cultural character of this project sponsored by the imperial court elucidates an important period of post-medieval Buddhist art and society in China.

L Ashok Kumar was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow from San Diego State University, California. He was selected among seven scientists in India for the BHAVAN Fellowship from the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum and also, he received SYST Fellowship from DST, Govt. of India. He has 3 years of industrial experience and 22 years of academic and research experience. He has published 173 technical papers in International and National journals and presented 167 papers in National and International Conferences. He has completed 26 Government of India funded projects worth about 15 Crores and currently 9 projects are in progress worth about 12 Crores. He has developed 27 products and out of those 23 products have been technology transferred to industries and for Government funding agencies. He has created Eight Centres of Excellence at PSG Tech in collaboration with Government agencies and Industries namely, Centre for Audio Visual Speech Recognition, Centre for Alternate Cooling Technologies, Centre for Industrial Cyber Physical Systems Research, Centre for Excellence in LV Switchgear, Centre for Renewable Energy Systems, Centre for Excellence in Solar PV Systems, Centre for Excellence in Solar Thermal Systems. His PhD work on wearable electronics earned him a National Award from ISTE, and he has received 26 awards in the National and in international level. He has guided 92 graduate and postgraduate projects. He has produced 6 PhD Scholars and 12 candidates are doing PhD under his supervision. He has visited many countries for institute industry collaboration and as a keynote speaker. He has been an invited speaker in 345 programs. Also, he has organized 102 events, including conferences, workshops, and seminars. He completed his graduate program in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from University of Madras and his post-graduate from PSG College of Technology, India, and master’s in business administration from IGNOU, New Delhi. After completion of his graduate degree, he joined as project engineer for Serval Paper Boards Ltd., Coimbatore (now ITC Unit, Kovai). Presently he is working as a Professor in the Department of EEE, PSG College of Technology. He is also a Certified Charted Engineer and BSI Certified ISO 500001 2008 Lead Auditor. He has authored 19 books in his areas of interest with our various publishers as well. He has 11 patents, one Design patent and two Copyrights to his credit and also contribute 18 chapters in various books. He is also the Chairman of Indian Association of Energy Management Professionals and Executive Member in Institution of Engineers, Coimbatore, Executive Council Member in Institute of Smart Structure and Systems, Bangalore, Associate Member in CODISSIA. He is also holding prestigious positions in various national and international forums, and he is a Fellow Member in IET (UK), Fellow Member in IETE, Fellow Member in IE and Senior Member in IEEE.

R. Manivel, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Head, Research at Kumara guru College of Technology, Coimbatore. Research areas include thermal energy storage, computational fluid dynamics with fluid surface interaction. For industries, industrial design analysis and experimental techniques in the thermal equipment applications of Engines, Blowers, Compressors, Fans., Heat Exchangers were caried out. Received research grant of 90 lakhs from Government Funding Agencies to carry out research projects in the area of Energy Storage, Automobile Radiators, Hydel Power Generation etc., He published 50 scientific papers in various proceedings, Journals. He is Fellow Member of Institution of Engineers (IE)India and Member of Combustion Institute (India)The areas of his academic interest include Energy Engineering, Modelling, Computational Fluid Dynamics and Energy Transfer and Storage. Further in the field of oil and Gas industries, the academic interests are Subsea, Valves and equipment design through ASME standards.

Eyal Ben Dor is Head of the Remote Sensing Laboratory at Tel Aviv University (RSL-TAU), the leading group in Israel for imaging spectroscopy (IS), soil spectroscopy and remote sensing applications dedicated for soil mapping and environmental monitoring. The RSL is expert in field and airborne campaigns in national and international levels and has gained significant experience to that end in many projects. The IS technology is also used by the RSL-TAU to investigate issues in medicine, veterinary, food security, civil engineering and agriculture. The RSL-TAU is responsible for more than 200 scientific papers in scientific proceedings, peer review journals and chapter books. Four patents in the IS direction for veterinary, civil engineering, soil science and contamination application are also the yield of the RSL-TAU. The areas of his academic interest include Hyperspectral remote sensing of the earth; soil spectroscopy; developing applications in many disciplines (medicine, veterinary, civil engineering, precise agriculture); generating Soil Spectral Library for the Mediterranean countries; Bilateral projects with Czech Republic (CGS), Germany (GFZ), Greece (i-BEC), Italy (CNR) and EC (EUFAR, EO-MINERS and GEO-CRADEL).