The Museum of the Arts and Culture of the Orient (MACO), is the fruit of over 35 years of collaboration between the Municipality of Arcidosso and the Cultural Association Dzogchen Community of Merigar, a non-profit cultural association, founded by Prof. Namkhai Norbu, professor of Tibetan and Mongolian language and literature at the Oriental University of Naples from 1962 to 1992. The project was born out of the will of both institutions to find a home for the rich collection of over 5000 objects of fine Asian arts, crafts and ethnographic artifacts from the Namkhai Collection. The architectural and conceptual plan of the MACO were inspired by the form of the mandala. This is also reflected in the logo of the Museum, which was designed by Prof. Namkhai. The logo arranges the 5 principle sciences of traditional Buddhist studies; the arts, medicine, language and literature, and logic, around the interior science of spiritual practice, represented by the Tibetan letter "A" at its center, to express the interdependent nature of these 5 sciences.