Museum Display of Tibetan Art

‘Westerners know more than us’Conflict and negotiation in museum display of Tibetan art

Shelley MannionUniversity of Lugano

4 September 2007Glasgow, Scotland

8th Annual Conference of the European Sociological Association

'Westerners know more than us': Conflict and negotation in museum display of Tibetan art

Tibetans in exile

• 140,000 living outside TibetSwitzerland 3rd largest exile community

• Challenges of cultural survivalPreservation of heritageTransmission to next generation


Museums as sites of negotiation

• Shared heritageWestern museums as inheritorsIncrease in Western Buddhist practitioners

• Museums as contact zones (Clifford 1997)Collection becomes ongoing relationshipReciprocity


The 14 Dalai Lamas Exhibition, Zurichhttp://www.diedalailamas.ch

• August 2005 – April 2006• 17,000 visitors• Ethnographic visitor study (36 interviewees)

• Institution of Dalai Lamas through artConceived as means to advance scholarshipDidactic aims: Political-historical

• Explain the entire system • Highlight individual characteristics• Debunk myths and stereotypes• Convey atmosphere


Visual and spatial languages: Exterior entrance


Visual and spatial languages: Chronological


Visual and spatial languages: Allotment of gallery space


Visual and spatial languages: Symmetric arrangement


Visual and spatial languages: Monastery-like design


Interpretive media: print catalogue and audio guide


Itineraries of identity

• MacDonald (1995)

• Five visitor itineraries:General interestEmotionally connectedBuddhistsIntellectualTibetan


Decoding visitor itineraries

• Hall (1980) triad of television news receptionDominant-hegemonicNegotiatedOppositionalNon-consumption


Four Western itineraries

Type of readingWay identity expressedItinerary

Non-consumption

Non-consumption Negotiated

Non-consumptionNegotiated

Dominant-hegemonic

Articulation of Buddhist faith

4) Buddhist

Imagined citizenship through travel

3) Emotionally connected

Lifestyle connection2) General interest

Proud of being experts

1) Intellectuals


Tibetan itineraries

• Preservation of heritageSome oppositional responseAuthenticityTranslation competence

• Cultural transmissionPracticed by familiesNot supported by environmentObjects as reminders of lack of knowledgeComplex negotiation with exhibit and within family

• Both accepted audio commentary without question


Conflicts and negotiations

• Attitudes• Interpretive messages• Media• Museum environment


Tibetan attitudes

• Embarrassment about lack of knowledge• Outsiders: ‘Westerners know more than us’• Reluctance to question or criticize• Proud to see art in Western museums


Interpretive messages

• Not connected with the Tibetan ‘people’• Intellectual focus problematic for novices• Political emphasis perceived as attack


Media

• Audio guide suppressed Tibetan narratives• Photographs “irrepressible” (Edwards 2001)

E. Edwards, (2001) Raw Histories: Photographs, Anthropology and Museums


Museum environment

• Silence obstructs cultural transmission• Sacred objects in secular settings


Conclusions

• Museum key site of negotiation for diaspora conflicts

• Identity construction at ethnographic exhibitionsTibetans filter through cultural identity

• Potential solutions to challengesAcknowledge diversityBe sensitive to self-deprecating attitudesSupport social itinerariesOpen texts (photographs)

Education

Museum Display of Tibetan Art