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Lusos BELKA
The fact that he was an outstanding student is evidenced by the fact that he was
chosen by Professor Jan Filip as an expert assistant. And it was thanks to the recom¬
mendation of Professor Filip that Jisl received, during the course of his university
studies, a position at the Silesian Museum (then known as the Provincial Museum) in
Opava, where he was responsible for the archaeological collections and archaeological
research. Jisl rose fairly quickly to the position of scientific assistant in the museum
(1948-1950) and eventually to that of director (1952-1954). This, however, was in no
way the politically sponsored career advancement of a ‘party cadre,’ but sprang from
recognition of Jisl’s professional and political abilities. These are also illustrated by his
abundant participation in scholarly publishing, as well as his activities in the realm of
popular science. In the context of preparations for the large exhibit Prehistoric Silesia,
which took place in 1950, Jisl undertook a complete revision of the museum’s inven¬
tory and created a new catalogue of the museum’s collections. And it was here that he
became acquainted — vicariously through the museum exhibits — with the figure of Hans
Leder (February 4, 1843 — May 19, 1921), a native of the region of German background
who had repeatedly travelled in Mongolia at the turn of the 19" and 20" centuries.!°
Leder brought back from Mongolia a huge amount of material, largely Mongolian and
Tibetan Buddhist artefacts; today there are held in several renowned European muse¬
ums. Similarly, Leder’s publication activities contributed to new knowledge regarding
Inner Asia. Hans Leder did not forget his native Opava and part of the treasures he
brought back to Europe were placed in the museum there. Unfortunately all of the flam¬
mable materials, such as, for example, the hanging scroll temple images (Tib. thang
ka), perished in a fire towards the end of the war; the only items to survive were a few
conical clay offerings (Tib. tsha tsha). And it was exactly these items that became the
center of scholarly interest of the new employee at the museum, Lumir Jisl, who was
the first to write a scientific description of them, to identify them and to compare them
with other similar items. In this way the very first Czechoslovak publication arose, in
1953, concerning the iconography of Tibetan Buddhist art.'* In this regard Jisl was,
therefore, a pioneer. His growing interest in Asian culture led him in the mid1950s to
Prague, where he was employed as a researcher at the Archaeological Institute of the
B For more about the travels and collections of Hans Leder, see Lang, Maria-Katharina: Mongolische
Ethnographica in Wien: Die Sammlung Hans Leder im Museum fiir Völkerkunde Wien, Verlag der Oster¬
reichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien 2010, p. 69; Lang, Maria-Katharina: Hans Leder and his
Mongolian Collections. Links between Vienna, Urga and St. Petersburg. In: Chistyakov K. V. —Yusupova
T. 1. (ed.): The Russian Exploration of Central Asia in Historical Perspective and its Contemporary
Aspects (In Commemoration of the 150" Anniversary of Petr K. Kozlov). Russian Academy of Sciences,
Saint-Petersburg 2014, pp. 205—216; Lang, Maria-Katharina — Bauer, Stefan (ed.): The Mongolian Col¬
lections: Retracing Hans Leder. Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, Vienna 2013; see as well Jisl,
Lumir: Hans Leder, ein vergessener Reisender. In: Abhandlungen und Berichte des Staatlichen Museums
fiir Völkerkunde, Dresden, Band 22, Berlin (1963), pp. 25-52.
See Jisl, Lumir: Sbirka tibetsk&ho um£ni Slezského musea v Opavé [The Collection of Tibetan Art at
the Silesian Museum in Opava]. Casopis Slezského muzea Vol. 3. (1953), pp. 25-59.
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