What began as a personal journey in the foothills of the Himalayas has become a long-term partnership between the tiny kingdom of Bhutan and the Hono-lulu Academy of Arts.

When Ephraim "Eddie" Jose, the academy's Asian paintings conservator, traveled to Bhutan to visit family friends in 2000, he saw ritual objects, sculptures and tankas — paintings on scrolls of coarse cotton cloth depicting scenes from Bhutanese history and mythology — in advanced stages of decay.

"During that time, we saw a lot of damaged artwork that needed help, and I decided that we should do something about it," said Jose, taking a break in the academy's brightly lit new Ward Avenue conservation studio, a sort of hospital for ailing pieces from the Asian collection.

Among them is a 17th-century Bhutanese tanka, full of scenes from the life of Guru Rimpoche, the eighth-century founder of Tantric Buddhism and a key figure in the legends and prehistory of Bhutan. The tanka looks like it was painted by a Buddhist Hieronymous Bosch — a lavishly detailed montage of images, some violent, some sexual, some of them simply appreciative of nature, but all meant to convey Buddhist values such as impermanence, illustrated by Rimpoche meditating in a cemetery.

But the tanka needs help. Wrinkles and creases rumple its surface, and the once-brilliant colors have faded. And that's where Jose comes in, personally handling the more challenging works, while traveling back and forth to Thimpu, Bhutan's capital, to train a team of Bhutanese monks in the science of art preservation and restoration.

"A lot of them go to India to study conservation," said Jose, "and it's not the best. It would be better if they could expose themselves not only to Japanese but to Chinese and European styles of conservation, so they can decide what they think is best for them. So my job there is to basically show them what I know."

It also means providing equipment, such as natural insect repellents. Up until now, the tankas have been sealed in metal storage containers. "If one insect gets in, it eats everything," said Jose.

In return for its efforts, the academy will host the first major exhibition of Bhutanese art outside of Bhutan. The show will include about 125 restored paintings and objects, which are now receiving priority attention. The exhibition, originally scheduled for 2007, has been pushed back until February 2008 — and not because the work is behind schedule.

According to Bhutanese astrologers, 2006 and 2007 are inauspicious years for such a project, and such recommendations are taken seriously in the Him-alayan kingdom. Jose isn't about to argue. "When you're there, it's que sera sera. You don't try to push your agenda."

In addition to the conservation team, there are a dance historian videotaping Buddhist ritual dances that have never been seen outside of Bhutan, and an art team, led by Buddhist art historian and Bhutan expert Jack Johnston. Johnston, based in Bhutan, works as a liaison between the academy and the Bhutan Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs.

Johnston describes the collaboration between Bhutan and the academy as "a watershed moment in the history of Bhutanese art."

The project isn't just about the planned exhibition. Lyonpo Jigme Thinley, former Bhutanese Prime Minster and now head of the Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs, will visit Honolulu next month to check the exhibition's progress and to speak at the academy and the East-West Center.

An illustrated color catalog for the show is in production. The book includes essays by specialists on Bhutan and experts on Buddhist art from around the world. Many of the authors will travel to Honolulu in 2008 for an academic conference planned through the academy to accompany the exhibition's opening.

It's shaping up to be a decade-long project, one that for Johnston and Jose is marked by an awareness that the objects they handle have tremendous religious significance. Johnston describes it as "living art."

"Buddhism is alive over there," says Johnston, expressing a sentiment that many Westerners share about Bhutan. "Every decoration on every wall, everything is Buddhist. It's great. It's a heavily Buddhist culture."

Since the 1990s, Bhutan has pursued a policy of limited engagement with the world beyond India and its Himalayan neighbors. Much has been made of Bhutan's recent and sometimes turbulent introduction to cable television, the Internet and cellular phones, but projects like Jose's and Johnston's are another, less sensational side of the equation: Buddhist monks, the keepers of Bhutan's relics, paintings and ritual objects, get the training and equipment they need to preserve their national heirlooms, while the Honolulu Academy of Arts lays claim to an unprecedented exhibition.

Buddhism is an integral part of the image that Bhutan's leaders present to the world, and their collaboration with the academy helps to reinforce that image. "The Bhutanese themselves seem to have a real interest in understanding that the time is right to show the world some of their sacred treasures," said Johnston, "and it's an honor for us to do it. But why that is, that's a Bhutanese question."

Joel Tannenbaum is a freelance writer on art and literature.