Papers

• Curating the Sacred, Enchanting the Ordinary: Things, Practices, and Local Museums in Northeast Thailand Siriporn Srisinurai Thammasat University

  This research examines problematic relationships between colonialism, knowledge, and curatorial practices as these relate to collections that are concerned, or linked, with “the sacred” in local museums in Northeast Thailand. Major arguments of this qualitative research are about seeing local museums as “museum entanglements” and “entangled museums.” Firstly, instead of seeing local museums as either “non-professional” or “non-western” museums, the research proposes to understand them as situated in the colonial contexts of Southeast Asia, and to see their practices as responses to, and interlocutors in dialogue with prior museums that collect and curate the same material collections, and have been influenced by colonialism and nationalism. Secondly, instead of seeing these local museums exclusively as “indigenous museums,” it proposes to see them as “entangled museums” that are a result of co-existences and interactions of different kinds of knowledge, which diversely derive from religion, magic, and science. In Northeast Thailand, curating sacred things such as religious statues, palm-leaf manuscripts, and standing stones, involves dealing with epistemic differences that lead to diverse dialogic practices dedicated to the sacred (e.g. merit making and worshipping). These practices sometimes appear alongside scientific museum practices (e.g. cataloguing, preservation, and exhibiting). Local museums, therefore, not only critique influences of nationalism and colonialism in institutional museums, they also reflect some alternatives and entanglements with museum knowledge from various sources. As such, they shed light on the diversity and dynamics of museums in relation to colonialism and its legacies.

• Reinventing Museums in the Context of Global Tourism: A Comparative Study of War-Related Museums in East Asia and Southeast Asia Bui Thanh Huong Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University Kaori Yoshida Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University

  With ever-increasing cross-border mobility, the entanglements between tourism and heritage are becoming extremely complex. The growing recognition of the material culture of the twentieth century has kept histories of war and hostility alive, constantly fueling feelings of anger, fear, and hatred. Recent development of museums in East and Southeast Asia demonstrates this trend. The memories of past human experiences are recalled through contemporary interactions with physical places and landscapes (Smith, 2006). Heritage also plays a majorly important part in the process of trying to distance independent Southeast Asian states from their former colonial powers (Hitchcock, King, & Parnwell, 2009). In many national museums, official narratives are highly selective, where the authorized attitudes to the past contribute to “the effort to create more purely nationalistic narratives” (Long, 2012, p. 212). Museums, as a source of power, are commonly used to build patriotism at the domestic level and potentially spread propaganda to international visitors (Timothy & Boyd, 2006). Our study investigates the discrepancies inherent in authorized narratives of war-related museums in East Asia (Japan and South Korea) and Southeast Asia (Vietnam and Cambodia). By comparing the official narratives of the same events across museums in different countries, this paper illustrates how international tourism contributes to the process of reinventing museums from national and regional levels, as well as the process of de-colonization through narratives in these museums.

• The Buddha in Glass Cases Justin McDaniel University of Pennsylvania

  Over the past 30 years, there has been a proliferation in the number of small Buddhist museums throughout Asia and especially in Southeast Asia. While many of these museums are connected to individual monasteries and promote a highly specific vision of Buddhism in particular place, several have attempted to create ecumenical spaces and a comprehensive vision of the Buddhist past. This paper explores localism and translocalism in the formation of Buddhist museums, as well as the very idea of secular and pan¬-Asian ecumenical Buddhist museums outside of the sectarian affiliation of previous museums.

Abstract

Keywords

• Art
• Heritage