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TEMPLE AND MUSEUM. AN AMBIVALENT RELATION Maria-Katharina Lang Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Social Anthropology, Vienna Some of the most important historic temples or monasteries in Mongolia, such as the Choijin Lama Temple, the temples of the Bogd Khaan Palace, Gandan, Dsaya Gegeenii Khiiree Monastery and Erdene Dsuu Monastery became or still are museums or a hybrid form of both — museum and temple. In this contribution, I give a brief insight to the processes of the transformation that led to this situation and the resulting ambivalences. Hereby the focus lies on how museum workers, monks, visitors and believers perceive the musealisation of Buddhist sacred sites and furthermore what it means for the religious and museum practice.’ Transformation, Desacralisation and Profanisation After the destruction during the purges of the 1930s, especially in the years 1937— 1938 when most temples were closed, abandoned and destroyed,’ the few remaining sacred buildings were made to profane places, being used differently and for various purposes: the three remaining round shaped wooden aimag temples of Dashchoilin Monastery in Ulaanbaatar as circus training tents and warehouses,’ temples of Shankh Monastery as abbatoirs* and others as state socialist premises such as warehouses, storages, offices, fire station, military barracks, schools, garages, factories, and markets. The Choijin Lama Temple, the temples of the Bogd Khaan Palace, Gandan Monastery, Dsaya Gegeenii Khiiree and Erdene Dsuu Monastery are some of the few Buddhist temples and monasteries in Mongolia which partly survived the political repressions by being declared as historical and cultural monuments in the 1940s and then turned to public museums in the 1960s. Some of the people and even communist leaders were reluctant to have the most eminent monasteries or historic monuments completely destroyed. But it was mainly due to the engagement of few Mongolian Field research was conducted by the project team consisting of Maria-Katharina Lang, Tsetsentsolmon Baatarnaran and Erdenebold Lhagwasiiren within the projects Dispersed and Connected funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF/ PEEK-AR 394; 2017-2020_http://www.dispersedandconnected. net) and Nomadic Artefacts (WWTF; 2013—2017_ http://www.nomadicartefacts.net). 2 Kaplonski, Christopher: The Lama Question. University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu 2014, p. 203. Teleki, Krisztina: Monasteries and Temples of Bogdiin Khiiree. Institute of History, Mongolian Academy of Sciences, Ulaanbaatar 2012, p. 75; Kaplonski, Ch.: The Lama Question, p. 210. * Interview with Odkhüü in Kharkhorin, 7 July 2015. 49
