Photographs of Mongolian tsam-related artefacts taken by Czechoslovak researchers in the 1950s and 1960s: re-opening an old file
Abstract
This paper deals with two sets of colour photographs of Mongolian tsam masks taken by Czechoslovak archaeologist Lumír Jisl (1921-1969) and art photographer Werner Forman (1921-2010) in Mongolia during the period of 1956-1963. Based on that a brief account is given of the visits to Mongolia undertaken by Lumír Jisl and Werner Forman and the general background of Czechoslovak-Mongolian cooperation in its first decade after the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries is also sketched out.
Furthermore the changes in perspective of the Buddhist monks following the general atmosphere of mistrust and fear engendered by the antireligion campaigns and repressions of the late 1930s, as well as the subsequent partial easing of these repressions is examined. Not only were Forman and Jisl both invited to take photographs of religious artefacts, but they also received assistance in doing so.
Thus Mongolian monks had to accept the drastically changed status of these artefacts: once sacred items used in religious ritual dance, they were now objects of Mongolian artistic heritage