Collecting and displaying Buddhist objects from South Asia at National Museums Scotland

Abstract

• he multidisciplinary displays at Scotland’s national museum in Chambers Street feature a substantial number of Buddhist objects, and particularly, small and larger-scale images of the Buddha. Although in different thematic galleries, they are primarily presented as objects of art with a religious connotation, an interpretative approach that was established in the 1970s in Edinburgh with the exhibition ‘Asiatic Sculpture’. Research into the provenance of this ‘fine but little-known collection of Indian sculpture’, that was displayed on this occasion, shows that most of these images of Hindu and Buddhist deities were collected by Edinburgh’s learned societies between 1800 and 1830 rather than by NMS, or the Industrial Museum as it was originally known. Using a few key objects, I will trace the different meanings that Buddhist items in the collection have assumed in the course of their lives outside the context for which they were made – as subject matter of Orientalist and antiquarian interests, as examples of superior craftsmanship and as objects of art. Reinterpreting collections for contemporary audiences is an ongoing concern of museums and curators. How can the collecting history of these sculptures be used to inform their display and interpretation, challenging existing conventions and addressing current issues?