Book cover of "Among Tibetan Materialities: Materials and Material Cultures of Tibet and the Himalayas". On the image are pots with paint in different colours.

Zitationsvorschlag

Lange, Diana und Hahn, Oliver: Materials and materiality as keys to understanding a map of Mount Kailash, in Martin, Emma, Brox, Trine und Lange, Diana (Hrsg.): Among Tibetan Materialities: Materials and Material Cultures of Tibet and the Himalayas, Heidelberg: Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing, 2025, S. 147–175. https://doi.org/10.11588/hasp.1522.c23983

Lizenz (Kapitel)

Creative Commons License

Dieses Werk steht unter der Lizenz Creative Commons Namensnennung - Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen 4.0 International.

Identifier (Buch)

https://doi.org/10.11588/hasp.1522
ISBN 978-3-98887-015-5 (PDF)
ISBN 978-3-98887-016-2 (Hardcover)

Veröffentlicht

28.10.2025

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Autor/innen

Diana Lange , Oliver Hahn

Materials and materiality as keys to understanding a map of Mount Kailash

How does materiality matter when understanding Tibetan maps? While graphic and linguistic content is central to the identification of maps and can provide insights into the concepts and systems of rules, ideas and beliefs that led to their production, the materials that constitute maps may speak about manufacturing processes, the provenance of raw materials, the practical and technical knowledge of the mapmakers, and the use of the maps. This chapter underscores how the materials employed in Tibetan maps reveal aspects of their context and trajectory. Furthermore, materiality, conceptualized as a convergence of matter and imagination (Rosler et al. 2013: 15), can yield even more profound insights into artefacts like maps. Through a detailed case study of a map of Mount Kailash in the tangkha format and a specialized material-scientific analysis of the colourants employed in its creation, this chapter explores how a map can ‘talk’ (Daston 2008) through its materiality. With this case study it will show how Tibetan Studies can benefit from interdisciplinary collaboration. Crossing the field’s traditional boundaries and working with other disciplines, we argue, is absolutely essential for serious research.

Keywords materiality, material culture, materials, map, tangkha painting, Mount Kailash, colourants, pigments, non-invasive analysis, scientific analysis

Diana Lange, Ph.D. (2008), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, is Professor of History and Cultures of Central Asia at that university and a principal investigator at the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures at the University of Hamburg. Her research is focused on the history of knowledge and exploration, material and visual culture studies, cartography, and cultural interactions.

Oliver Hahn received his PhD in Chemistry in 1996. After a postdoctoral research stay at the Department for Restoration and Conservation of Books, Graphic Arts and Archival Materials, Cologne University of Applied Sciences, he now works for Germany's Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung, BAM). He is head of the Institute's Division 4.5 'Analysis of Artefacts and Cultural Assets'. Since 2014, he has been Professor of Material Analysis in Art and Manuscript Studies at the University of Hamburg, Faculty of Humanities.