Representatives from the newly developed Tibet Museum in Dharamsala, India, presented on the precarious journey it took to secure the preservation of the Tibetan people at the UW Art Museum on Tuesday, April 26.
“Our museum is the torchbearer and aims to challenge the representation of Tibet that is featured in the museums in China, Europe and North America,” Tashi Phuntsok, founding Director and Project Coordinator of the Tibet Museum said.
“In our new museum, we tell a different story by using personal stories, new reasons to share our knowledge of the diverse and distinct culture of life in Tibet before the Chinese occupation and our fear for the country.”
One of the museum’s chief goals is to educate about the complex and ongoing issues surrounding Tibet.
“I can’t think of a better crowd, a better group to present these issues to,” Kelsang ‘Kaydor’ Aukatsang, President of the Asia Freedom Institute said. “It’s important to not only learn about what’s happening in China, why we are receiving this treatment, and about these communities that endure and have that direct experience.”
Tibet, which is a 2.5 million square kilometer area between the countries of India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar in South China, was invaded in 1949 and, since then, has been occupied by China.
“Today, more than 1500 [people] are fleeing from Tibet due to fear of persecution or for better education for better lives, as well as for freedom to practice religion, culture and language in exile,” Phuntsok said.
Both the original and the recently redeveloped, as of February, Tibet Museums are dedicated to telling the story of the exiled Tibetan people through a private collection of artifacts and personal narratives.
“We wanted to give a brief introduction of those five different sects but we didn’t want to buy a figure of each of those, so we approached school which then donated those founding figures,” Phuntsok said.
“As a first generation Tibetan, born and raised in exile, I have really spent all my working adult life trying to advance, and in some ways complete, the unfinished work of my parents generation who escaped from Tibet, fleeing repression and obligation by the Chinese government,” Aukatsang said.
The presentation was made possible not only from the sponsorship of the UW Art Museum, Global Engagement Office and Department of History, but thanks to the professional friendship developed between Phuntsok and Aukatsang with UW staff.
Isadora Helfgott, Vice Provost for Global Engagement Office, and Nicole Crawford, Director and Chief Curator at the UW Art Museum, served in an advisory capacity for the museum’s redevelopment.
“First of all our role is really minimal compared to theirs,” Helfgoff said. “It’s just an extraordinary opportunity to be even a small part of this very ambitious project that really speaks to the fundamental significance of museums within communities and in global political dynamics.”
“The project itself is very much the Tibet Museums project,” William Bowling, Education and Public Programs Coordinator for the UW Art Museum, said. “Not only did the building move from the residence of the Dalai Lama to the government facilities in Dharamsala, it also increased its footprint in size and capability for exhibitions.”
