After Bangdel graduated from the Government School of Arts and Crafts in 1945, he worked for D.J. Keymer, in Calcutta. There, as Bangdel was working as chief editor of "Prabhat" he met the King Mahendra, then a crown prince. His artistic pursuits led him to Paris in 1952 and after completing his studies there, he left for London and worked as deputy director for The Astral Art Group from 1958 to 1960. It was at this time that he met King Mahendra for a second time. King Mahendra invited all Nepalis in London to a gathering. Among those who attended were Angur Baba Joshi and Mrigrendra Raj. Bangdel had no doubt that the king had forgotten the meeting. As they talked, the king said, "It was during 1949 not 1948 that we met." At the end of the gathering, Narpratap Thapa said the king wanted to talk with him in person. The king simply asked him to return to Nepal, to which he answered, "Our country Nepal is an agricultural country, there may not be much work for an artist." However, King Mahendra insisted that he return.

With his wife's consent, he returned to Kathmandu in 1961. Upon his arrival, King Mahendra made him a member of the Royal Nepal Academy. At about that time, Kamal Mani Dixit, a fellow member of the academy took him for a tour of Patan City. Bangdel was attracted by the different forms of arts found in Lalitpur, "The City of Fine Arts." The temples, vihars, sculptures, and woodwork fascinated him. Every time he asked Dixit for information on the art the answer would always be the same: "No one knows how they are. There are no archives describing them. The laborers who lay stones on the roads may be the only people who have information on them." Such remarks on the heritage of the country disturbed him. He now says he had made up his mind that he would make it his duty to study these artwork and gather information on them.

At the time, he had not had training in this field nor had he any ideas on how to research. "The closest I had ever been to sculptures was during the fifth year in Government School of Arts and Crafts, when I had to sketch just the outlines of Indian statues. It was at this time in the fifth year at college when I met Stella Kramrisch. I was fairly fast in making drawings and had finished making an outline of a statue and was waiting for my friends. A group of tourists entered the room. Among them was a short lady [Stella] who came looking at everyone's work. She stopped by me, appreciated my outline and asked me, 'Are you from Siam?' I explained that I was from Darjeeling. After that, I met her in 1961 in Patan and started a conversation. We built a valuable relationship. She was studying ancient sculptures and had traveled through Pakistan and India researching. She was turning to Nepal's ancient art. This definitely was a rare opportunity for me and I learned a lot about research from our work together."

Among colleagues researching stone sculptures was Dil Ratna Banerjee from India, appointed to this work in 1962. The methods were simple though the results were meager. With a notebook and a camera, the duo used Bangdel's automobile and traveled around the Kathmandu Valley. They stopped at every old temple, vihara, chaitya, searching stone and metal images and studying the subjects. "It was tough to extract information on any of these things as there weren't many archives, or inscriptions describing them and the people couldn't be trusted for exact dates," Bangdel says. Feeling the need for more information in this field, he had started reading up on Indian sculptures and those of other countries. It was clear to him that sculptures from this region had initially been highly influenced by the work of their southern counterparts. He started comparing these southern sculptures to sculptures found here, thus making a chronological chart for probable dates of sculptures in this area. He then obtained permission to go to India where he studied art forms around the country. He visited many historical places, caves, and museums to gather information.

Later, Dil Ranta Banerjee was replaced by Krishna Dev and Bangdel found himself working with a new partner. In 1974 Pratapaditya Pal published a book, "Arts of Nepal." He was studying at Oxford University and was deeply interested in the ancient arts of Nepal after he had read the research of Stella Kramrisch. Mary Slusser, the writer of "Nepal Mandala," had also been researching Nepal's history. Both Bangdel and Slusser had their first publication on Nepali sculpture out in the year 1982: Bangdel's "Early Sculptures of Nepal" and Slusser's first version of "Nepal Mandala." Bangdel looked for discepancies in all these works. Agima who is a highly revered goddess of the Newars of Kathmandu was remarkably similar to Sapta Matrika in the south. Bangdel was certain that he had to go through every sculpture and idol in this area if he was to publish a sincere publication on the ancient arts of Nepal. So in his research he tried to study every discovered sculpture in Kathmandu.

He says that documentation and dating of sculptures were the most difficult tasks. The lack of information on sculptures added to his problems. He has been studying sculptures for many years and has set an iconography for their dates. He uses the characteristic features and posture of a sculpture as the main factors to compare it with others in order to determine its age. "This is a task which needs sensitivity and a lot of practice," he says.

"Stolen Images of Nepal" was published by the Toyota Foundation of Japan. The Royal Nepal Academy gave him a sum of $US 1,330 for the book's copyright and stopped short of giving further royalties. Bangdel meekly says, "I deserved more."

Bangdel agrees that his forty years of research on sculptures of Nepal has been tough work. When he set out on this errand, there were not many books on Nepalese sculptures he could refer to. Those that were published held little in the way of tangible evidence to support what was being said. Further, many sculptures were being sold to foreigners and he had problems tracking them down. Bangdel went through the books published by Pratapaditya Pal and Mary Slusser.

Nonetheless, he is not satisfied with the results he has produced. He says, "I cannot remain happy with my results. Being happy means that I have completed exploring all the ancient arts of Nepal and that there is no more to study, which is not true. There are many sculptures undiscovered and even more left unstudied. I can only remain satisfied when I am able to study more sculptures. With my work, I may be able to inspire newer generations to do the same, and then I'll be happy. Presently, you can say I am happy because I'm researching a statue of Jayavarma, which was found in Maligaon in 1992. It clearly dates back to 185 AD according to the inscription on the sculpture. This is among the oldest Nepali sculptures found. I am busy studying it and the probable lineage of the kings as thelineage of kings in Nepal is confusing one. Manadeva in his inscription at Changu Narayan made in 464 AD names his great grandfather. The fourteenth century writing of Yaksha Malla is the first evidence to say that the Gopala kings were the first to settle in the Kathmandu Valley.

"Any research in Nepal is a very hard work mainly because there is not much support from the government and there aren't good sources. One has to work with one's own links at one's own expenses. I was kind of lucky in my work for I had many personal contacts and my background made it easy for me to build other links. I was given special permission to study many sculptures in India and Nepal which weren't on public display. With my contacts, I was also able to track down sculptures which had been sold anonymously to foreign countries. For example, the sculpture of Jayavarma found at Maligaon is exactly the same to a sculpture of Boddhisattva, which is now in America. I was able to go there, and, with the help of my daughter who is studying there, I went around studying Nepali sculptures in America.

"During my visits to foreign countries, I always tried to study the sculptures found in those country. The only thing I can find that sets apart Nepalese sculptures from that of Western countries is the values for which they are made. Nepalese sculptures are made for devotional purposes rather than for decorative reasons. Nepalese sculptures can be barren of beauty and still endear its people; most of the sculptures in temples are mainly of that sort. For example, in second and third centuries, idols of Buddhas were made in the Indian subcontinent to be sold to people in Iran and to the west of the Indian subcontinent. These Buddha idols were very different to those that were made in Kathmandu and most of the Indian subcontinent in that they were made with beautiful features like well-groomed moustaches, diadems, and well-shaped clothes. The Buddhas found in Kathmandu and [most of] the Indian subcontinent were very simple with long ears, knotted bunches of hair, and simple plain robes.

"I'm not sure if it will be any easier for the young generation to have the same opportunities as I have had but I want them to give serious consideration to our heritage. I'm already seventy eight and not strong as I used to be. I've been doing what I can and now I'm worried as to how the coming generation will continue this work. There is still much to be learned. There are so many sculptures hidden, buried around the ancient cities like Hadigaon, Dev Patan, and Dhumbarahi. The young generation can excavate and study their findings. This seems hard but is not impossible. They need to work with commitment and convince the people of their work's quality. They must set a momentum to preserve our arts."