Oldal 55 [55]
TEMPLE AND MUSEUM. AN AMBIVALENT RELATION
museum. These are parts of the collection registered in 1965. This small wooden
box might be from a home of a lama but not from a temple. The wooden box is
different from those in a temple.""
The inventory lists of the Erdene Dsuu Museum do not list the provenance of these
objects and therefore their places of origin are difficult or impossible to be retraced.
Temple-Museum Hybrids: Museum Workers,
Monks and Visitors
Hybrid forms of temples and museums in historical (formerly sacred) buildings as
a result of the socio-political transformation processes bear in themselves questions
of correlation, confrontation and conflict. These questions are not easy to answer
and the involved persons, according to their position, have different points of views.
They show the ambivalent relation between temple and museum.
One main conflict between museums and temples lies in the religious artefacts
that were converted to museum objects. Former objects of worship are now “state re¬
gistered” (ulsiin biirtgeltei) museum objects and state property. The museums follow
strict regulations regarding the objects, especially their preservation and conserva¬
tion. The relation between the state and religion was legislated in the constitution
Mongolia adopted in 1992. It says: “The State shall respect religion and religion shall
honour the State."" Religion and state are enjoined to support each other without
interfering into the other’s sphere.'*
Museum workers, Buddhist monks and museum visitors or believers perceive the
ambivalent museum-temple relation diverse. Most of the museum workers we met,
expressed definitive statements on the importance of being a museum and the role of
the objects. Altannawch, senior curator of the Bogd Khaan Palace Museum, states:
“It has been a museum for many years. Recently, Buryats and Inner Mongolians
have come because of their belief but they visit it as a museum. State and religion
should stay separate according to the law. Objects are considered as state properties
but not as religious deities. This is restricted by the Law on Culture. We abide by
the law. It would be very complicated if monastery and museum were combined.”
Museum employees emphasized the importance of the appropriate preservation,
which in most views could not be properly accomplished by monks. The latter were
often blamed for the loss of artefacts transferred from museums to newly re-opened
'4 Shinebat, Erdene Dsuu Monastery, 17 June 2016.
Article 1, Paragraph 9, Constitution of Mongolia. Mongol Ulsad tor ni shashnaa khiindetgej, shashin
ni töröö deedlene.
Cf. Baatarnarany, Ts. — Lang, M.: Temple and/ or Museum, pp. 277-287.
" Altannawch, Bogd Khaan Palace Museum, 3 July 2015.
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