You refer to the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, CA. A very
large collection, but mostly South Asian Art. Very few Khmer
pieces and many fewer Lao and Thai. There are three volumes by
Pal covering this collection. He also bought a large
collection of Henry Moore statues and Indian miniatures. It
has become a large research center. Theft, though, is indeed
rampant in the Art world. However, in Cambodia's case, I am
glad many pieces were "stolen" before the Khmer Rouge used
them for target practice. Stealing statues, of course, was a
common practice of abbots, kings, princesses, thieves, maw
duu, etc. before colonialsim, but at least they were stolen in
the past for ritual, soteriological and cosmological purposes
versus purely financial!
Best,
justin
---- Original message ----
>Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2005 18:12:04 +0700
>From: Eisel Mazard <Parajanaka@...>
>Subject: Re: [palistudy] Arakan and Chittagong Pali traditions
>To: palistudy@yahoogroups.com
>
>It is certainly true that there are a number of separate (small)
>Buddhist communities that survived in Bengaladesh up to the
present
>day. NB: they are not one Buddhist community, but fragments of
>several ethnically different communities --and I've seen some
confused
>(and confusing) scholarship about this (although it did not
go much
>beyond comparing ancient records to modern demographics).
>
>I had a most revealing chat about Bengladeshi Buddhist matierals
>(including inscriptions) with Pratyap Pal. The latter
assured me that
>a huge volume of art, inscriptions, and architectural
elements had
>been "liquidated", distributed on the free market, and (anon)
some
>fraction of it was showing up in Musem collections. In his
opinion it
>was moral for Museums and private collectors to purchase this
stuff as
>"the inhabitants now are all Muslim; if they do not sell it,
they will
>destroy it". Thus, in reference to Chittagong, the current
dark age
>of looting may (in Pratyap Pal's estimation) give rise to a
golden age
>of scholarship in these materials --i.e., art and
inscriptions that
>were not much known so long as they remained in the field. A
similar
>(sad) pattern could be ascribed to materials from Swot,
Pakistan --now
>found everywhere except Swot, Pakistan.
>
>I was utterly horrified when (recently) I saw Prayap Pal's
catalogue
>of Buddhist Art in a certain California Museum --much of it
>anonymously donated after being mysteriously acquired in
Cambodia,
>Central & North-Eastern Thailand in the 1970s --i.e., areas
where U.S.
>forces were stationed. There were a few striking Lopburi
pieces --and
>I wondered if there are any alive in Lopburi who could
remember what
>the statue that once stood in the empty alcove down at the
temple used
>to look like?
>
>The Museum world is a den of thieves; but the sad fact is
that so few
>of the thieves can actually read the inscriptions on the bases of
>these things, etc., that historical work is obfuscated --and, of
>course, work in private collections is prone to remain very
private
>indeed.
>
>How did I veer onto this subject? Please disregard if this
bores you
>--I promise to write only about grammar for at least the next
30 days.
>
>E.M.
>
>
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______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
2617 Humanities Building
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
909-827-4530
justinm@...