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TRAVELOGUE

MUSEUM HISTORY MONGOLIA

THE COLLECTOR HANS LEDER

SPACES IN TRANSITION

MAPS

MUSEUM HISTORY VIENNA

OBJECT NARRATIONS

TEMPLE AND/OR MUSEUM

Khambo Lama Baasansuren of Erdenezuu Monastery & the Statue of Undur Gegeen Zanabazar inherited by his grandfather

Ichinkhorloo from Kharkhorin & a fragment of the Head ornament inherited by her grandmother

Tamir, teacher from Tsetserleg & the Jewellery and Dress of her grandmother displayed at the Museum of Arkhangai Province

In 1921 the basis for the first public museum in Mongolia was laid down under the baton of the Buryat scholar Tseveen Jamsarano (1880-1942). The members of the Institute of Books and Manuscripts, the precursor organisation of the Mongolian Academy of Science, made strenuous efforts to establish Mongolian sciences. At the beginning the first national museum project was supported by Russian scholars and hosted in provisional buildings in Ulaanbaatar. In 1927 the museum was transferred to the former palace of the last theocratic ruler of Mongolia, Bogd Khan, where it was housed until 1956. Only few of the people involved in the early development phase of the museum survived the Stalinist persecutions.

Tseveen Jamsarano (1880-1942), National Archive of Mongolia

A building of the Institute of Sciences (Sutras and Scripts), National Archive of Mongolia, 1920s

A team of Russian and Mongolian researchers from the Institute of Sciences, Ulaanbaatar, 1930s EAP264/1/10/1/137

MUSEUM HISTORY MONGOLIA

A team of Russian and Mongolian researchers from the Institute of Sciences, Ulaanbaatar, 1930s [EAP264/1/10/1/137]

Building up a library of the Institute of Sciences, 1930s, National Archive of Mongolia

The Eigth Jeptsundamba Khutugtu and Bogd Khan of Mongolia, 1920 [EAP264/1/8/2/84]

A main gate to Bogd Khan’s Green Palace, Ulaanbaatar, 1930s [EAP264/1/9/1/55]

A view of the eastern section of the Bogd Khan’s Palace, Ulaanbaatar, 1940s [EAP264/1/1/4/91]

The Central National Museum in the Bogd Khan’s Palace, 1930s [EAP264/1/1/4/1]

Interior view of the Bogd Khan’s stuffed animal collection room, Bogd Khan Palace Museum, 1940s ‎ [EAP264/1/1/4/101]

An interior view of the Bogd Khan’s stuffed animal collection room, Bogd Khan Palace Museum, 1940s ‎ [EAP264/1/1/4/101]

Near Gandan Monastery Ulaanbaatar

A.D. Simukov on a yak (location unknown), 1930s [EAP264/1/10/5/40]

A.D. Simukov, Ulaanbaatar, [EAP264/1/10/1/86]

Everlasting layers of ideas, images, feelings, have fallen upon your brain softly as light. Each succession has seemed to bury all that went before. And yet in reality not one has been extinguished.(Thomas De Quincey 1845) At the turn of the century (1900) the Mongolian landscape was interspersed with sacred sites and about thousand monasteries and temples of various sizes. This changed slightly with the declaration of the Mongolian republic in 1921, which was followed by a progressive transformation of society. During fatally extreme-left politics between 1928 and 1930, the property of the clerics and aristocracy was confiscated. Many of the confiscated objects, often private belongings, were sold or remained as museum objects. Many monasteries and temples were closed or destroyed during the radical repression in the 1930s. Monks and members of the Mongolian aristocracy and scientists were declared state enemies, persecuted and murdered. Innumerable sacred artefacts disappeared from the monasteries and altars. Some of them were preserved by being buried, hidden in caves or kept as museum objects. A few monasteries were saved by being turned into museums. People invented various methods to manage living under the repressive system. All videos © M.-K. Lang/ nomadic artefacts

Many buildings and museums still bear and reflect different layers of time and traces of socio-political contexts. All photographs © M.-K. Lang/ nomadic artefacts

Andrei Dmitrievich Simukov (1902-1942?) with local people (location unknown), 1930s [EAP264/1/10/1/115]

The former state wool factory in Khatgal in transition to a private owned space

At present the few most important historic monastery buildings that have been preserved are museums or hybrid forms consisting of museum and temple. During the communist regime the Gandan Monastery in the capital, city Ulaanbaatar, was unique as a “living museum” with part-time, actively practising monks. The Winter Palace of the Bogd Khan with its temple buildings and the Choijin Lama Temple were converted into museums. At the same time in the provinces of Mongolia the historic temple buildings of the formerly important Erdene zuu and Zayaiin Gegeenii monasteries were maintained only by their official desecration and conversion to museums. Since the political changes in 1990 and the re-establishment of religious freedom, some temples have been restored for their original purposes.

BOGD KHAN MUSEUM

GANDAN MONASTERY

CHOIJIN LAMA TEMPLE MUSEUM

HISTORIC PHOTOS

ERDENEZUU MONASTERY MUSEUM COMPLEX

Bogd Khan Palace Museum, Ulaanbaatar 2014

Choijin Lama Temple Museum, Ulaanbaatar 2015

Erdenezuu Monastery Museum Complex 2014

Gandan Monastery, Ulaanbaatar 2015

Choijin Lama Temple [EAP264/1/9/1/101]

Trail of destruction in Choijin Lama Temple, Ulaanbaatar, 1930s [EAP264/1/9/1/107]

Items left out of demolished bell tower in Choijin Lama Temple, Ulaanbaatar, 1930s [EAP264/1/9/1/108]

A spot where once the bell tower stood in Choijin Lama Temple, Ulaanbaatar, 1930s [EAP264/1/9/1 /110]

A temple in Erdene Zuu monastery, Central Mongolia, 1930s, [EAP264/1/9/2/002]

A temple being dismantled, Ulaanbaatar, 1930s [EAP264/1/9/6/112]

A large ger style temple being dismantled, Ulaanbaatar, 1930s [EAP264/1/9/6/125]

Historical books and documents seen scattered on the ground after a temple was destroyed (location unknown), 1940s [EAP264/1/10/1/ 41]

Inventory lists, correspondence, and other archive materials enlighten the often intertwined routes of the objects and the relations of the people involved.

Map 1.1 - Travel route of Hans Leder in 1882 - Original Map

Map 1.2 - Travel route of Hans Leder in 1882

Map 2 - Topography of movements of the collector and the collectibles

Map 3 - Transnational relations and connections

Map 4 - Topography of artefacts related to narrations and memories

Map 5 - Seen together: Atlas of Nomadic Artefacts

Hans Leder (1843-1921) was born in Jauernig [Javornik] near Troppau, the capital of Austrian Silesia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, today Opava in the Czech Republic. He travelled to northern Mongolia four times and collected more than 5000 items. An essential part of his ethnographic collection is preserved in the Weltmuseum Wien; others are scattered across the main ethnographic museums of Central Europe. Leder started his scientific life as a collector of insects. His entomological collections are at least as extensive as his ethnographic collections. He shifted his interest increasingly towards the Mongolian form of Tibetan Buddhism, which is reflected in his ethnographic collections, mostly of Buddhist ritual objects. For more information see: www.moncol.net

SACRED LANDSCAPE

During field research trips in 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016 we travelled through and documented various Mongolian spaces and places: from Natural Landscape to Museum Spaces. All photographs © M.-K. Lang/ nomadic artefacts

MUSEUM SCAPES

NATURAL LANDSCAPE

PRIVATE SPACES

Military Museum in Bulgan 2015

Museum in Bulgan 2015

Natural Landscape - Herders near Shankh Monastery

Ovoos and Sacred Trees

Museum employees and guests in front of the Museum für Völkerkunde Wien, before 1938, [VF_91325]

In 1898 the inventory catalogue of the museum records the acquisition of 38 objects from Mongolia. These objects include small Buddhist clay reliefs, a snuff box, a tea brick, silver coins and two light-blue silk pieces. Further purchases are noted in the years 1899 and 1905/06; in all there are 811 objects from the Mongolian collection of Hans Leder in the depository of the ethnographic museum in Vienna, the Völkerkundemuseum Wien/ Weltmuseum Wien. In the beginning the first location of these items was in the ethnographic department of the Imperial Natural History Museum, at that time part of the anthropologic collection. From these days are the first photos of some objects. Later on, the separation of the anthropologic disciplines resulted in a new location for the artefacts: in 1928 the first showrooms in the Museum of Ethnology in the Corps de Logis of the Neue Burg were opened. Along with halls for China, Japan and Turkmenistan there was the “Tibet-Himalaya Hall”. Here the objects from Mongolia were displayed together with other objects in thematic arrangements. In those days the curator responsible for their categorisation and classification within the museum system was Robert Bleichsteiner (1891-1954), but otherwise it was also mainly men (with beards), who decided on the movements and transfers of the objects in Europe and Austria: Franz Heger (1853-1931), director of the Imperial Natural History Museum, Friedrich Röck (1879-1953), first director of the Museum of Ethnology, and first of all Hans Leder (1843-1921), the collector of the artefacts. Photos © WMW Fotoarchiv

Early Object Photograph of Leders Collections, around 1906

Museum Show Case with Objects of the Hans Leder Collection in the Museum für Völkerkunde Wien in 1928

Museum Show Case with Objects of the Hans Leder Collection in the newly opened Museum für Völkerkunde Wien in 1928

Garuda, Tsam-Dance Figurine, photograph from 1926 [VF_16162]

Franz Heger, Curator of Ethnographic Department at the Royal Imperial Natural History Museum Vienna in 1891

Franz Heger, Curator of Ethnographic Department at the Royal Imperial Natural History Museum in Vienna in 1891 [VF_51572]

Friedrich Röck, first Director Museum für Völkerkunde Wien (1928-1945) [VF_26118]

Robert Bleichsteiner, Director Museum für Völkerkunde Wien (1945-1953)_[VF_25450]

Robert Bleichsteiner, Director Museum für Völkerkunde Wien (1945-1953) _[VF_25450]

TRAVELOGUE

Many buildings and museums still bear and reflect different layers of time and traces of socio-political contexts. All photographs © M.-K. Lang/ nomadic artefacts

SPACES IN TRANSITION

TEMPLE AND/OR MUSEUM

MAPS

THE COLLECTOR HANS LEDER

MUSEUM HISTORY VIENNA

TRAVELOGUE

MUSEUM SPACES

OBJECT NARRATIONS

Everlasting layers of ideas, images, feelings, have fallen upon your brain softly as light. Each succession has seemed to bury all that went before. And yet in reality not one has been extinguished. (Thomas De Quincey 1845) At the turn of the century (1900) the Mongolian landscape was interspersed with sacred sites and about thousand monasteries and temples of various sizes. This changed slightly with the declaration of the Mongolian republic in 1921, which was followed by a progressive transformation of society. During fatally extreme-left politics between 1928 and 1930, the property of the clerics and aristocracy was confiscated. Many of the confiscated objects, often private belongings, were sold or remained as museum objects. Many monasteries and temples were closed or destroyed during the radical repression in the 1930s. Monks and members of the Mongolian aristocracy and scientists were declared state enemies, persecuted and murdered. Innumerable sacred artefacts disappeared from the monasteries and altars. Some of them were preserved by being buried, hidden in caves or kept as museum objects. A few monasteries were saved by being turned into museums. People invented various methods to manage living under the repressive system. All videos © M.-K. Lang/ nomadic artefacts

Hans Leder (1843-1921)

Entomologica collected by Leder in Northern Mongolia

Travel Route of Hans Leder in Mongolia 1892

Private Spaces