Zitationsvorschlag
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Dieses Werk steht unter der Lizenz Creative Commons Namensnennung - Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen 4.0 International.
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Materializing Buddhist care through conservation at a Sikkim museum
This chapter explores what a Himalayan decolonizing museum practice might look like through the case study of the restoration of a consecrated Buddhist statue at Namgyal Institute of Tibetology (NIT) in Gangtok, Sikkim. Focusing on the care ethics involved in this conservation work, which was carried out by an exclusively local team of professionals, I show how Himalayan conservation extends beyond the material care of objects to include their intangible religious aspects. The care that unfolded at NIT in 2018 included a complete Buddhist consecration ritual which was considered as (if not more) important than the material work of cleaning the statue, replacing broken parts, and restoring it to its original aesthetic beauty. Caring for Buddhist material objects in a Himalayan museum context thus involves privileging religious concerns and Buddhist beliefs over the secular scientific and aesthetic criteria that prevail in European and North American museums. It also involves addressing very local financial, environmental and ethical challenges. By bringing scholarly discussion on decolonizing conservation into dialogue with this example of how conservation is approached by a local team in Sikkim, this chapter offers insights for museum practice in both the Himalayas and beyond.
Keywords conservation, decolonization, Himalayas, materiality, museology, Sikkim
