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Lusos BELKA
The importance of Jisl’s work is evidenced also by a critical evaluation of his con¬
ception of “Tibetan art” in the book of Donald Lopez Jr. Prisoners of Shangri-la.”
The taxonomy of Tibetan Buddhist pantheon created by Jisl is undoubtedly interesting
also from the viewpoint of methodology of Buddhology and visual studies, because it
introduces an entirely original conception. Its primary intention was to identify figures
and scenes of the Tibetan Buddhist (= Lamaist) pantheon. His task as a researcher
was to identify and describe the discovered canvas wall paintings, miniatures made
for scapularies (Tib. tsakli) and clay offerings tsha-tsha.” Because he only had a few
iconographic aids, such as books by Alice Getty and Antoinette Gordon, he had to
devise his own identification key. For this purpose he first had to restore the above
mentioned pantheon. It was not indispensable for creation of the key to identify the
figures, but with the pantheon, the work was clearer and more logical.
This taxonomy has never been published in extenso, but forms a basis for his partial
studies. The estate also contains Jisl’s preparatory works on the religious dance tsam
with extensive visual material (including original photographs from 1934 donated by
the Mongolian photographer Gombozhav) and excerpts from literature; it is clear that
he identified the tsam masks in cooperation with Mongolian colleagues. Had he been
able to finalize the ¢sam project it would have been a fundamental publication reaching
far beyond the scope of Czechoslovak research. That much is clear from materials in
the archive of Lumir Jisl. The study of tsam well met his research approach, where he
viewed the Mongolian art as something “old,” something antiquated. It suited him
or at least he did not mind that he could not study the live tsam (the last dance was
organized for Soviet filmmakers in 1937, then it was banned and revived at the turn
of the 20" and 21* centuries).
The case study illustrating Jisl’s field research in Mongolia concerns the ceremony
of stupa consecration in Gandantegchinling. We shall describe the event first; then
its documentation by Czechoslovak researchers and publication and other outcomes.
Let us quote from a book on the history of Buddhism in Mongolia written by
monks themselves (authorship is not specified), published in English in Ulaanbaatar
in 1979:
“Skillful lamas of the Gandantegchinling Monastery reconstructed old monasteries
and temples of historic value and now they are engaged in repairing the functioning
Lopez, Donald: Prisoners of Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West. University of Chicago Press,
Chicago — London 1998.
L. Jisl brought a lot of them from his travels in Mongolia; a part of his collections is deposited in Naprstek
Museum in Prague; for more details see Berounsky, Daniel — Sklenka, Lubomir: Tibetan 7sha-tsha. An¬
nals of Naprstek Museum Vol. 26. No. 1. (2005), pp. 59-72.
3 It was no coincidence that his book is entitled in Czech: Umeni stareho Mongolska [The Art of Old
Mongolia].
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