Oldal 282 [282]
OCR
MARIA-KATHARINA LANG items were first preserved in Prince Shirnendamdin’s house until the first museum was opened officially under the directorship of Jamiyan by the end of 1924. After the death of the Bogd Khan, the Eighth Jebtsundamba Khutugtu, in April 1924, from September 1925 the confiscation and distribution of his properties and treasure began. His appropriated collections became main museum resources, some of his collectibles museum objects. In 1926 the State Museum was moved to the Bogd Khan Palace and remained there for 30 years until 1956, when it was transferred to the building of the former (and currently closed) Natural History Museum." The early period of museum creations in the 1920s and 1930s involved the agency of Mongolian scientists such as notably Tseveen Jamsrano, during a period when Buddhism was not necessarily seen as conflicting with political developments in Mongolia. Jamsrano held a modernised form of Mongolian Buddhism compatible with Soviet politics. Analysing the museum collections and concepts, the political influence and programmes become obvious and different phases of museum politics can be traced.!! Not only when the Bogd Khan palace lost its original function did it need transformation, but also monasteries and temples that had not been destroyed were turned into museums and had to be reinvented in this new function. Maybe transforming them into museums was one way of preventing their final destruction. Artefact “Lives” in Museums or in Hybrid Forms of Museum-Temples and the Ensuing Potential Questions, Frictions and Solutions (Fig.1) The Choijin Lama Temple complex was built between 1904 and 1908." In the late 1930s many artefacts from the city’s other temples and monasteries that had been destroyed during the purges were stored there. In 1942 the temple was allocated to Academy (Committee) of Sciences and converted into an exclusive Museum of Religious History and was opened to the public in 1962. In the 1990s there was an interest in returning the complex to its original function as a temple.'* Over the years I have witnessed offerings placed in front of specific objects of worship. At present the new museum law allows only one stone incense-burner, placed outside of the buildings, to be used by the museum workers for religious ceremonies on special days. Cf. Ochir, A. — Oyunbileg, Z. (eds.): Chronicles of Mongolian Museums. Moneon myseün mosuoon. Ulaanbaatar 2004. Cf. Lang, Maria-Katharina — Tsetsentsolmon, Baatarnarany: Museum Construction, Transition and Transformation. The History of Museums in Mongolia. In: Lang, Maria-Katharina (ed.): Nomadic Artefacts. A Scientific Artistic Travelogue. Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, Vienna 2016, pp. 53-91. Cf. Teleki, Krisztina: Monasteries and Temples of Bogdiin Khiiree. Institute of History, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Ulaanbaatar 2012, p. 201, ff. 5 Interview with Ulambayar, Ulänbätar, 4 July 2015. 280
