Tibetan Monastery Collections and Museums: Traditional Practices and Contemporary Issues

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"This is a fascinating book on a subject that has not previously received concerted academic attention. The editors have done an excellent job in bringing together the recent scholarship on this topic in a collection of 10 essays written by specialists, many of whom have hands-on experience of working with or in the museums under discussion.

With its detailed chapters, ranging from close-focus art historical analysis of Tibetan objects to theorised discussion of the processes of curating in Tibetan/ Himalayan contexts, I think the volume will be greatly appreciated by academics and students of Tibetan Buddhism and of Tibetan and Himalayan history and culture, as well as those in art history and in museum studies. It will also be invaluable for members of the communities where these museums have been created (especially in Nepal and Ladakh)."

Clare Harris, Professor of Visual Anthropology at the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford

Christian Luczanits is David L. Snellgrove Senior Lecturer in Tibetan and Buddhist Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. His research focuses on Buddhist art of India and Tibet, in particular Gandharan and early Tibetan art, the latter largely based on extensive field research and documentation done in situ.

Louise Tythacott is Professor of Curating and Museology at the Department of the History of Art and Archaeology, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Her research focuses on the representation of Buddhist objects in museums.

This volume is an outcome of the editors' ongoing joint research project on Tibetan Buddhist Monastery Collections Today.

Tibetan monasteries are known as repositories of a wide range of ancient objects. Some of these have found their way to the West, while others still serve their original purpose as part of a monastery's collection. Originally, a considerable part of these collections was integral to the furnishings of the monastery and its temples, and thus accessible to worshippers and visitors. Today, some monasteries have added museum spaces to their premises. While the original impetus for such spaces appears to be rooted in an attempt to accommodate the needs of tourists, the aims and contents of these vary greatly. These spaces are an expression of a modern transformation and are the main focus of this publication together with collections of Tibetan culture and their display more broadly.

The chapters assembled in this publication are an outcome of an inter- national workshop on "Tibetan Monastery Collections and Museums: Traditional Practices and Contemporary Issues" that took place from the 8th to 10th November 2018 at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London (Fig. 7). While organised in the manner of an academic conference, more than half of its participants were monastery representa- tives from the regions of Ladakh, India, and Mustang, Nepal, with which the organisers had established connections. The aim was to have their voices and opinions represented on an equal footing with that of academics working on collections of objects deriving from areas of Tibetan culture.