In conjunction with the Asian Art centennial, discover nine little-known facts regarding the department's history in this blog post:http://met.org/1CVMXCx
The Herber Bishop Jade Collection (now gallery 206 - Chinese Buddhist Art). Photographed in 1903
蒲甘日誌
千年文物赴美展出，今日緬甸呈現塵封歷史
2013年09月07日
Adam Dean for The New York Times
亞洲協會博物館館長招穎思（中），她身旁是一件佛陀從天界下降的雕塑，位於緬甸蒲甘的一家博物館內。
緬甸蒲甘——在一次精心組織的行動中，專家們小心翼翼地從博物館展示櫃里取出一件有千年歷史、價值連城的緬甸國寶，一座蓮花狀的佛教青銅鑄器。
一小群最近來到此地的美國策展人手裡拿着着手電筒，欣賞着這件藝術品。鑄器上讓蓮花可以開合的微小金屬合頁，以及古代工匠們用花瓣上的微小佛像呈現出的精巧細節，都讓他們讚嘆不已。這件藏品是在40年前的一場地震中被甩到地面上的一個石匣里發現的，被發現時狀態完好。
在看管不善的博物館和塵土飛揚的儲藏室里，這些策展人已經
見識了成百上千的罕見古代文物，但他們表示，這座蓮花是其中的耀眼明星。他們一直在緬甸各地探尋，為2015年將在紐約市的亞洲協會(Asia
Society)舉行的一次展覽做準備，該展覽將突出多年來不為人知的緬甸佛教藝術。
緬甸正在面對一個新生民主國家會有的問題和不確定性，佛教極端分子對穆斯林的襲擊，也玷污了這種在該國佔主導地位的宗教的形象，此時此刻，早期的佛教藝術能夠展示該國一個不同的維度。這個國家直到不久前還處于軍事獨裁統治下，在二戰前則充當過大英帝國在熱帶的前哨。
策展人翻遍了潮濕的蒲甘博物館地下室，他們發現了一種體型
巨大的夜壺，是那些曾經遍布在伊洛瓦底江畔的豪華宮殿里使用過。他們檢查了在寺院里存放貝葉經的金漆木盒，盒上的漆已經斑駁。在卑謬城的破舊圖書館裡，他
們看到塗著金漆、形如獅身人面怪的生物造像被放在髒兮兮的玻璃櫃里。卑謬與緬甸最早的佛教徒居住的地方相距不遠。
「這次展覽將讓緬甸走向世界，」亞洲協會博物館館長招穎思(Melissa Chiu)說。「這個國家已經封閉了這麼多年，我們希望這次展覽能發揮更重大的作用，揭示多年未見的藏品。作為國教，佛教在日常生活中扮演着如此重要的角色。」
策展人搜羅過的地方包括故都仰光、新都內比都、卑謬，還有
蒲甘，這裡從9世紀到13世紀曾是一個王國的中心，這個國家有着強大的創造力，在一片廣闊的平原上建成了近2000座磚制和鍍金的寺廟。蒲甘是一個很受歡
迎的旅遊目的地，遊客們喜歡站在褪色的寺廟中，遙想昔日的輝煌，而農民至今還會挖掘出一些古代的金首飾。
搜羅文物的行動得到了緬甸總統登盛(Thein Sein)的支持。在去年訪美期間，他批准出借幾十件藝術品以備2015年的展覽，並保證策展人可以進入通常不準入內的密室中。招穎思說，這次展覽計劃將展出約70件藏品，其中四分之三將來自緬甸，其餘則是美國藏家的收藏。
為了得到借用藝術品的權利，亞洲協會承諾為緬甸的博物館職員提供文物保護技術的培訓。這些職員必須靠區區10萬美元（約合61萬元人民幣）的預算勉強維持，博物館經常缺少電力、空調不足，並且沒有錢購買藏品。
儘管這些訪客可以進出許多不一般的地方，並能自由選擇他們看中的藏品，但有些藏品由於過於貴重不能運往紐約，其中包括曼德勒王宮裡一扇精心雕琢的鍍金門，它是在英國軍隊1885年洗劫宮殿之前被挽救下來。
門很矮，因此覲見國王的臣民要想進來，就必須謙恭地彎腰。策展人對它垂涎欲滴，但它是遭到仰光國家博物館(National Museum)的主管們否決的少數幾樣展品中的一件。博物館前副館長努瑪贊(Nu Mra Zan)說，「不可能。」
不過可供選擇的佛像還是有很多，有石頭的、銅質還有木質的。一些看起來與其他著名的佛像很相似，也有少數幾件被判定為贗品。然而策展人也說，有如此之多令人讚歎的展品，要做出最終的選擇很難。
肯定在最優先的名單上的，有一件12世紀的木刻。它的高度
超過兩英尺，展示了佛陀向他的母親講法之後下界的情景。這場展覽的客座策展人西爾維婭·弗雷澤-路(Sylvia
Fraser-Lu)對這幅作品中刻畫的動感十分讚賞，她說，「它很特別，能保存下來真是幸運。它可能是放在寺廟裡面的，或者在寺廟背陰的一側。」
為了用一件傑作來讓挑剔的紐約觀眾眼前一亮，策展人選擇了
一尊11世紀的石像。這尊塑像展現了神情喜悅的悉達多王子(Prince
Siddhartha)在上路前用劍削髮明誓的情景，他是在經歷那段旅行後成佛的。招穎思正在預先考慮展覽推廣的方案，她說：「這可能會是展覽中的招牌展
品。」
多年來，一波又一波的掠奪者已經奪去了數量巨大的珍寶。弗雷澤-路說，在1885年的英緬戰爭中，英國士兵擄掠了體積較小的物品，如鏡子、手稿和珠寶。她曾在20世紀70年代居住在緬甸。她說，20年代，德國收藏品搜集者用推車從數座寺院拉走了大塊的牆壁。
僧人們對她說，在1962年至2011年的軍政府獨裁統治期間，他們揮舞着棒球棒保護寺院里的珍寶，驅趕與官方勾結的走私者。
然而，許多石頭佛像由於太重，連最貪婪的掠奪者也搬不動，
因而留在了緬甸國內。因此，紐約的這次展覽將會是這些展品首次在緬甸以外展出。同為客座策展人的唐納德·斯塔特納(Donald
Stadtner)著有多本關於緬甸佛教傳統的著作。他說，「蒲甘時代的石像中，沒有任何一尊重要的塑像流出了緬甸。」
策展人的最後一站是卑謬博物館裡的一座鐵皮屋頂的附屬建
築。這裡陳列着一尊有1500年歷史的青銅佛像，銅像腳下是綠色的塑料桌布，照明僅靠頭頂的一盞條形霓虹燈。由於數個世紀以來都埋在地下，這尊佛像已經蒙
上了一層粗糙的銅綠。2005年，一名稻農在犁地時意外划到了銅像上，國家考古部(National Department of
Archaeology)副主任登倫(Thein Lwin)表示，「他重重地打到了什麼東西上，很幸運沒給打壞。」
招穎思說，運送堅固的佛像去紐約應該不會有風險，但在蒲甘找到的那座脆弱的蓮花可並非如此，而且可能需要政府的特批才能離開緬甸。
博物館副館長巴碧(Baby)說，這座格外珍貴的蓮花應當送往紐約展覽。
「我心中記得所有的藏品，」她說。「我每一天都會檢查博物館裡的1000個展品。暫借給紐約對我來說不是問題，但不能是永久的。」
翻譯：王童鶴、林蒙克Bagan Journal
Opening a Door to the Burmese Past, and the Present, Too
September 07, 2013
BAGAN, Myanmar — In a delicate operation here,
specialists gingerly eased a priceless, 1,000-year-old national treasure
— a Buddhist bronze casting in the shape of a lotus flower — from its
perch in a museum showcase.
A small group of curators
on a recent visit from the United States, flashlights in hand, admired
the tiny metal hinges that allow the flower to open and close as well as
the intricate detail on the miniature Buddhas craftsmen attached to the
petals long ago. The piece was found in pristine condition inside a
stone box flung to the surface by an earthquake here nearly 40 years
ago.
The curators pronounced it a
star attraction among hundreds of rarely seen ancient objects in the
neglected museums and dusty storerooms they have been scouring across
Myanmar as they prepare for a 2015 exhibit at the Asia Society in New
York City that will celebrate the nation’s long-hidden Buddhist art.
As Myanmar wrestles with
the problems and uncertainty of a nascent democracy, and Buddhist
extremists tarnish the image of the country’s dominant religion with
attacks on Muslims, early Buddhist art offers a different dimension of a
country that until recently languished under a military dictatorship,
and before World War II served as a tropical outpost of the British
Empire.
The curators rummaged
through the humid basement of the Bagan museum, where they found outsize
chamber pots used in the princely palaces that once flourished on the
banks of the Irrawaddy River. They examined gilded wood monastery boxes
that stored palm-leaf manuscripts, the paint now peeling. They peered
into grimy glass cabinets at gold-painted sphinxlike creatures in a
rundown library in the town of Prome, near where the first Buddhists in
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, lived.
“The show will be a coming
out for Burma,” said Melissa Chiu, museum director of the Asia Society.
“The country has been closed off for so many years, we hope the show
will assume a bigger significance, and shed new light on material not
seen before. Buddhism is the state religion and plays such a major role
in daily life.”
The curators searched in
the former capital, Yangon; in the new capital, Naypyidaw; in Prome; and
here in Bagan, which from the ninth century to the 13th century was the
center of a royal kingdom where the creative energy was so intense that
nearly 2,000 brick and gilded temples were built across a vast plain.
In Bagan, a popular destination for tourists imagining the glory days
among faded temples, farmers still unearth ancient gold jewelry.
The antiquities hunt has
the support of President Thein Sein. During a visit to the United States
last year, he approved the loan of dozens of artworks for the 2015
show, ensuring that the curators were welcomed in usually off-limits
inner sanctums. Of the estimated 70 objects planned for the exhibit,
about three-quarters will come from Myanmar and the remainder from
collections in the United States, Ms. Chiu said.
In exchange for the right
to borrow the art, the Asia Society has pledged to provide training in
conservation techniques to Myanmar’s museum employees, who must make do
with a scant $100,000 budget that leaves the nation’s museums with
little electricity, poor air-conditioning and no money for acquisitions.
Although the visitors had
extraordinary access and freedom to choose the objects they wanted, some
items were too precious to ship to New York, including an elaborately
carved gilt door from the royal court in Mandalay that was salvaged
before the British Army looted the palace in 1885.
The door was low, making it
impossible for subjects who visited the king to enter without bending
in obeisance. The curators coveted it, but it was one of the few pieces
that the directors of the National Museum in Yangon vetoed.
“Impossible,” said Daw Nu Mra Zan, a former deputy director of the
museum.
But that still left many
images of Buddha — in stone, bronze and wood — to choose from. Some
looked similar to other famous images. A few were judged to be fakes.
But with so many remarkable pieces, it will be difficult to make the
final selections, the curators said.
A wood carving more than
two feet high from the 12th century that shows Buddha descending from
heaven after giving a sermon to his mother will surely be on the A-list.
“This is very special,” said Sylvia Fraser-Lu, a guest curator for the
show, as she admired the movement carved into the piece. “It’s luck that
it was preserved. It may have been inside a temple, or on the shady
side of a temple.”
For a spectacular object
that would impress hard-to-please New York audiences, the curators liked
an 11th-century stone sculpture of a jaunty-looking Prince Siddhartha
shearing his hair with a sword as he vowed to begin the journey that
would lead him to become the Buddha. “It could be the signature piece of
the show,” said Ms. Chiu, thinking ahead to marketing possibilities.
Over the years, waves of
looters depleted much of the great storehouse of treasures. In the 1885
Anglo-Burmese war, British soldiers plundered smaller items like
mirrors, manuscripts and jewelry, said Ms. Fraser-Lu, who lived in Burma
in the 1970s. In the 1920s, German souvenir hunters carted away chunks
of walls from several monasteries, she said.
Monks told her that during
the military dictatorship from 1962 to 2011 they wielded baseball bats
to protect the treasures in their monasteries from smugglers in league
with the authorities.
Still, many of the stone
Buddha images that were too heavy for even the most ardent looters to
move remained in the country, so the New York exhibit will be a chance
to show the pieces for the first time outside Myanmar. “There is not a
single major Bagan-era stone sculpture outside of Burma,” said Donald
Stadtner, also a guest curator and the author of books on Burma’s
Buddhist heritage.
At the curators’ last stop,
the tin-roofed annex of the museum in Prome, a 1,500-year-old bronze
Buddha, encrusted with a rough patina from centuries buried in the
ground, stood on a green plastic tablecloth under a bare neon strip
light. A rice farmer stumbled across it in 2005 while plowing his
fields, said U Thein Lwin, the deputy director general of the National
Department of Archaeology. “He hit something hard,” Mr. Thein Lwin said.
“We are lucky it wasn’t broken.”
Shipping the tough bronze
Buddha to New York should not be risky, but the fragile lotus flower at
Bagan is another matter, and may need special permission from the
government to exit the country, Ms. Chiu said.
Daw Baby, the deputy director of the museum here, said the prized lotus flower should travel to New York.
“All of the collection is
in my heart,” she said. “Every day I check the 1,000 pieces in our
museum. A temporary loan to New York is not a problem for me. But not
permanently.”
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