this is a dialogue what does it feel like bring you have to go back for the first time everyone has a voice and allow refugees to flee the speakers first change join the clovelly conversation on out to zero. up in these himalayan mountains you feel you could almost touch the sky. no wonder people who live here if you close to the heavens and their gods. but the reality you there are a lot of very unhappy meetings going on here. these are stealing precious religious icons it's a theft not only of valuable treasures but also of culture. i'm steve chow on this episode of one east we're deep in the himalayas tracking those behind the

theft and of paul's garments. the drive in to the poles remote region of mostar starts here three thousand meters high. dusty. dangerous. yet stunning. tash this places you i know i it's amazing it's just tucked away in the corner of the himalayas you know. these mountains are not only home there are places fighting to protect my group here all my life and their own and it is not going to like every demo away i just can't wait to be back you know they were like ceases to amaze me. at like sister for you know a strong feeling of belonging this to the place you know. a sense of belonging to an ancient buddhist culture dating back centuries under the. one has always been

just a very unique isolated kingdom and until one thousand nine hundred there were no visitors allowed into the area so there's a very strong sense of living here a dish that still governs a lot of life today but it's a religion and culture at risk yes yes religious places of worship all over the place are being broken into it's pretty interesting at the moment they're suffering they're just lost what an army raid so this one is some drilling ministry trash she has spent the last decade studying the regions would leave just i come to show you body to protect them and the culture they represent but they can look. stupid built to hold sacred relics are places of devotion for the buddhist community. so look at this i mean this is a super a very religious monument that has been broken into this is supposed to be completely sealed up and people have. put all of their religious sacred offerings inside but look the vulnerabilities the belongings of this department just anybody

who could come and try to make away with stuff you know. scraps of fabric and clay statues are all that remain the more valuable items says cash have been stolen the powerful rulers them for long as they were donating their belongings to stupas so they did do for like the motivation very precious artifacts so normally you have . screwed up in things that are printed on fabric and in some cases also a lot of. it was statues copper burned statues that you like from back in there is just like on the black market these would fetch tens of thousands hundreds or thousands of dollars that's a sad part you know because this precious items that are such a big part of our living here does have such a big market value it's somehow fused happening of such things. and demand he says is at an all time high. over several days we visit

a number of religious sites they've all been pilfered so this one right here used to be a passes through here barbed wire was put up to stop please but it's only managed to stop the thief people who would underneath their simplicity assume that you're news but as you see unfortunately it's not possible anymore because there's all this barbed wires that go around to ensure the safety of the super. robbers got inside anyway who knows the belongings that they could have made away with to the police ever catch those responsible sadly there has been no police cases filed in any of the lootings in all of them is that why is that there is no proper record giving or inventory that could have been used as a difference to file a case on what has been stolen. to

better understand what's being lost cash he takes us to a monastery which so far has kept their treasures secret from outsiders. safe under lock and key. conan. this is a collection of morris tree inside are dozens of buddhist statues all priceless treasures. look at this one in the new code interesting how intricate the patterns the designs that it is and the handiwork is incredible and it's absolutely i would imagine people per to spend life decades or lifetimes coming up with this must this is it or how old would you say this one is. i think this could be a new or between fourteen to fifteen centuries. and look at this. as their absolute master pisser. router and eleven century and then

century exactly so it's a thousand years old how much would this go for a black market or i wouldn't be able to tell for sure but. i wouldn't be surprised if it's pressures. of a few hundred thousand dollars but that's not the kind of value that we look up to for us it's just value. like very important symbols of something that binds the communities together you know treasure like this particularly wood would be an absolute disaster. capital. prayers and religion are clearly an integrity part of life. in the town's main monist. months before the same rituals that have been carried

out for centuries. it's here we meet you may go to a tibetan spiritual leader he's also concerned that that sort of not just the loss of treasure they're harming the buddhist religion itself. welcome to the show the ministry if you take this to a whole that's normally off limits to outsiders he has something to show us. it's an ancient manuscript if you have to do. in trenton we call them the leg room and the station and they think it means the wood and clothes and bathed. more than seven hundred years old it's considered so priceless and so significant to their religion it's never been shown to a foreigner before. while they're. semitic

in foreign strip relevant ministry because. i demand a call and i don't. every page of buddhist teaching is meticulously written in pure gold. it was rescued from a neighboring stupor after a breaking. into the system personally and saved way. to say a second manuscript also written in gold has already been stolen and with it ancient buddhist teachings we can launch then what is. what easter with his aid. he did in there but. it's pretty sad news for us to go to the. chimney is eager to show us more that we have to join him on

a pilgrimage high up into the mountains. the journey takes us through bora most towns incredible landscape and sights. this is. the care of the people before the fourteenth and did so variation this case this is the reason we get a report to begin armed the himalayan. jimmy asks us to keep our destination a secret for fear we could lead thieves to their hidden icons so. many hours later we arrive in a valley and begin to decline. now we get them on the street.

oh out of uniform on the street here's a look at history shows right. here we find giant copper statues including all the buddha. stones fourteenth century. put in some sort of standing but he said a very nice little dimmer going to show you but sadly even here we've come too late all of the big steps are all their business have been cut and the insides have been taken away why would someone want to steal what's inside. for reading so sure of the belongings that art is here today and the statue itself. says typically inside the statues are scrolls of tibetan prayers items collectors would pay a fortune for. so what's this to me. this big they say do.

we go deeper into the monastery. oh. so this is the going which means the room of the protector diety and the protector and artist room ensures that don't want to strew say that it is six thirty in the monastery and the villages around some of the most powerful room in the minister absolutely. the irony here is that these deeds were created to protect the monastery but now they themselves need protecting. them all those all of them bald was younger and older more during the. cold war. the. later outside and as monks carry out what they came to do. holding a special ceremony asking for higher powers to keep the monastery and its guards.

but. when you think say about those who steal these things do you think he's angry. with. you go to somebody who is dating some things is their own. what impact would you say all these thefts is having on but is. it all for. it's very sad news i'm still. not intend to monitor. people today again but i think. the more inch and the things are in their lives just places of worship the more stories and histories. of their worship have been passed down for generations and

so people just have more faith you know and when it's gone of course the faith has also gone. we want to track down those robbing the pall of its spiritual treasures . so we've come to the country's capital kathmandu. it's here we're told dealers do need legal antiquities ply their trade. posing as buying and wearing it in cameras we enter a store on pittman doos most expensive state test which is going to say. this was shown to a back room hi harry you think it's interesting. the way this is. just . this is the one. and. we soon see he has far more than one or two pieces.

and they are all ancient but what timeline would you place that this is the fourteenth fifteenth. fourteenth to fifteenth century. in nepal selling artifacts more than one hundred years old is a crime. these two. describe is seventy six to. seventy thousand he introduces himself as deepak shot at you and says his family has been dealing in antiques for generations all this business a pos that started by making them part of. this in my grandmother's for their father how many years then all together for the family mr sixty five seventy s. sixty five seventy years the one. person shop in the new. no our shop up on the first one deepak also says his grandfather was called on by nepal's keen to sell to royal visitors of the country. my grandfather

and his grandfather in baker. distort under this so that. we press him on how he smuggles antiques out of the country what about papers and shipping which i can press for people yes. by law the country's department of archaeology cannot issue expert papers on items more than one hundred years old but the fact says he has a tried and proven way so government no problem getting his out and we have to give some money on that. ok. it is not legal ok let's assume that we can get to stand still for. this and according to deepak shakira his contacts include some of the world's top dealers auction houses and

museums many pieces i've gone through i have. and i have many dealers. in. new york less than fifteen years before many christie is the set of these. many comes here so i already. hoarsely dealers ok where it. so like moving museum yes yes. mostly my father. oh really. christie's and so because i happen to. like you very much much appreciated really a pleasure meeting you thank you very much. we leave promising to return. and take what we've been covered to police. director. hi how are you stephen al-jazeera pushpa. pushkar kharkiv heads the central investigation bureau with the poles equivalent to the f.b.i.

he's keen to see our evidence. so in this case he was referring to the department of archaeology i understand he is differently does not do this. he knows what the laws are he knows. he has to meet fit documents to address with them he knows and is clearly doing that he has to by be what are your thoughts. well this is something if you ask your friend this begin the producers and looked at least in this depth yet how surprised are you that this sort of operation is going on right here in katmandu surprised i mean. i do admit that we should have been more proactive in this is that enough

for your you know for my force to it is this enough. i mean. what if you. by next morning push cars assembled a team led by his deputy can be cattle. business elite it is a every day do you believe one of the gravity of these. twenty officers have spent the night planning a raid into you office is this something that. every yes which of course to be yes. you can be at risk i'm sure because you know. and. we've been asked to help by again posing as buyers. our role is to confirm the dealer still hasn't for sale. thanks so much for not being as undercover officers take their positions. we head for the store.

hello. lemme stay. could to see you get this back in a shop we again meet with deepak shakira. one of the what he says he sold some of the items including the one that cost sixty five thousand dollars. but not all of this one is still here ok he's also acquired new ones including some hindu artifacts so this is put in temples read his or guru is temples or go away so it must have been confirmed that check you still has idols for sale in america because i signal cabinets and his men. they move in on this thing no mistake. i move forward i look into this you know you want to buy a house i'm just what you're good i'm just looking to survive but it was curious.

throughout the store authorities uncover caden artifacts i have to share. with you you got to try to go. over the course of the day investigators raid three stores in katmandu all belonging to the shakya family they seized more than one hundred entities. deepak shakira and two others are brought into police headquarters and charged with trafficking. they face up to five years in jail. and well my guys are still on the double vision that something needed to produce. it well it was a good operation. there's a lot of activities. if you're by use there's a network with good weight and so this is a long trip. like c.i. b director kharkiv little time in rattling that chain of illegal trade or guy i'm

really talking out of that's right. at a press conference he shows off the illegal and take what he seized. and confirms nepalese police are investigating deep that shockey is shippers and customers they're surprised. you're accountable it's all going to price what i go to the restaurants in america and the other engine operators will do an image of a wheel. and one of those museums the police confirmed is being investigated is the rubin in new york. home to one of the most outstanding collections of himalayan antiquities in the world. so this is your section on paul exactly this hour florida features the master works from the collection we're here in the region where we talk about your abridged heads the museum and agrees to show us around. the reuben has more than three thousand eight hundred himalayan works of

art in its collection. including some of the finest copper and bronze statues in the world the really quite amazing piece of craftsmanship there's a sense of power and movement yet it's it's really got this sense of monumental call and how did the rubin come to find this piece this piece has a law a history as i recall and being in the west already it was i believe in the sixty's that that it was in the u.s. and then was was collected by the by several collectors in fact before it entered the collection of the reuben family and was that while most of the collection is displayed in typical museum fashion in one room the reuben has also built a shrine because that's what those paintings were painted for what those. sculptures were created for is you know to serve a living tradition their visitors get a true cultural experience but what about the now believes who wants worship these

icons. should items be returned back to the country i don't think i'm going to add to that i don't have a good answer you don't have going to for that because it's a very you know saying this facial it's very hard and that's not the only question he finds hard to answer in nepal authorities recently arrested a number of antique dealers has the reuben museum done any dealings with. shock you or his family by shock yes i don't think we should have for that. the museum's p.r. person intervene. you let me. see if you want to play it. would be good to be here if it was just a raid back. that's. a few days later the rubin e-mail to say to their best knowledge they don't have any

connection nor objects from deep or spam and they have strong guidelines against buying items known or suspected to be stolen. kristi's in some would be also both denied selling any stolen artifacts and state they have no record of ever having dealt with the shakya family. back in. touch he says he doesn't fully blame museums or collectors i believe that not every museum or not every private collectors realize that their collections are some artifacts that they have been stolen you know because of because it's a very long process on how these artifacts are stolen and how to travel to different parts of the word but no matter who's responsible it's estimated that more than eighty percent of all the poles religious artifacts have been stolen and sold abroad. and to places around for generations. to

ensure what remains of most done stays here in the demolition of your. cache is now training months in this village monastery to protect their gods there were several of them germans are there and we're trying to record all this metal statues clearest as shoes ritualized. the foremost importance is that we have a database that has a proper record of our belongings you know and secondly this is this is what help us track these items to more in the future if they get stolen somewhere tasha's dream is that one day stolen items will be returned and nothing justifies their defects being in their places of origin and the people who worship them letting justifies the fact that they're not in the place where it's still a part of the living or just i think that and justifies that they're not here. until the artifacts are returned and the theft star says the wield life for his

people will remain under threat. al-jazeera with every new. bit of a strange day to start the soon to fuse we just heard today to city of aleppo has fallen. or should we say liberated. one tool for astonishing stories tode in their own words how did you know who to trust and who not to trust. a stranger came to town witness on al-jazeera.

a deal for calm emerges after a day of death and protest along the gaza fence and israeli strikes into the strip . i'm richelle carey this is al jazeera life and also coming up syrian government forces move closer to reclaiming complete control of the country's south. it's all a plot was president attacks the clergy trying to bring peace in the government and protesters and awash with rubbish the military is called.