Conservation and Research in Buddhist Art from an Art-Historical Perspective

In my contribution to the Buddhist Art Forum, organized by the Courtauld Institute of Art in April 2012, I summarized my experiences with conservation projects in the Himalayas and what their work means to research on the art of the region. Backed by plenty of examples I come to the conclusion that, from a research perspective, each intervention also entails the obscuration of particular aspects of the artwork relevant for art historical research, and at times such evidence may be made inaccessible or destroyed entirely. To me, solving the architectural problems of the monument has by far the greatest priority, and work on the interior decoration of a monument needs to be carefully evaluated and implemented. In my opinion—and even more so from a research perspective—it is not justified that we deal with Himalayan monuments and art differently than we would with our own heritage.

  • “Conservation and research in Buddhist art from an art-historical perspective.” In Art of Merit: Studies in Buddhist Art and its Conservation. Proceedings of the Buddhist Art Forum 2012, edited by David Park, Kuenga Wangmo, & Sharon Cather. London: Archetype, 2013: 187–202.

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Early Buddhist Wood Carvings from Himachal Pradesh

This article represents an attempt to relate the earliest woodcarvings preserved in Kinnaur, Spiti and West Tibet on a stylistic basis and to extrapolate a development for the woodcarvings of the region. Among the woodcarvings, all of which are to be attributed to the period from the late tenth to the mid eleventh centuries, the wooden capital of Shalkhar and the Bodhisattva Vajradharma of Poo are published here for the first time and discussed in detail.

The article also introduces the Translator's Temple at Ribba, which most probably is the oldest preserved Buddhist monument in the western Himalayas. Here only those woodcarvings that can without doubt be attributed to the foundation itself are considered, while the more or less faithful copies that have replaced the original ones are omitted. Analysis of the woodcarvings shows that the Ribba temple must predate the rise of the West Tibetan kingdom. The attribution of the Ribba Temple to the early tenth century at the latest represents a compromise between the stylistic links with Kashmiri art of the eighth century onwards and the comparison with the late tenth-century door at Kojarnath, with which it shares a number of essential features.

Complete documentation for: Poo; Ribba; Shalkhar