The issue focused the world's attention on a new and more than 1,000-year-old way to get in touch with the dead, an art that is as much a part of their lives as they are.

"Aesthetics, for me, is at the very heart of it. I was not one of those who said, 'I have a right to be there' or, 'I have a right to this."'

Borlaug, a U.S.