C ’ 12

“Human Resources Development for the Transmission of Traditional Skills: Building Decoration with a Focus around Painting and Colouring”

International Conference 2012
“Human Resources Development for the Transmission of Traditional Skills:
Building Decoration with a Focus around Painting and Colouring”(27 – 29 November, Nara, Japan)

Cultural Heritage Protection Cooperation Office,Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU)International Conference 2012
“Human Resources Development for the Transmission of Traditional Skills:
Building Decoration with a Focus around Painting and Colouring”(27 – 29 November, Nara, Japan)

Cultural Heritage Protection Cooperation Office,Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU)－A－Edited and Published by
Cultural Heritage Protection Cooperation Office,Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU)
Nara Prefecture Nara Branch Office Ground Floor
757 Horen-cho, Nara 630-8113 Japan
Tel: +81 (0)742-20-5001
Fax: +81 (0)742-20-5701
e-mail: nara@accu.or.jp
URL: http://www.nara.accu.or.jp
Printed by MeishinshaⒸ Cultural Heritage Protection Cooperation Office,Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU) 2013

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－C－

Observing samples of traditional Japanese colouring techniques provided by Dr Kubodera

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－E－

Excursion: The suien (the water flame) of the east pagoda, Yakushi-ji Temple, at the restoration site

Excursion: Visiting the traditional whiting manufacturing plant, Nakagawa Gofun Enogu Co. Ltd.
－F－Preface
ACCU Nara Office has been annually holding International Conferences, and in this year it gave us
great pleasure that we could host this international conference in attendance of Mr SUGITA Norihide,
Vice Governor of Nara Prefecture; Mr NAKAGAWA Gen, Mayor of Nara City; and a number of otherdistinguished guests, including Dr Stefano De Caro, Director-General ICCROM, together with those
who have traveled from overseas to join us.
This conference is a collaborative effort among Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan; Nara National
Research Institute for Cultural Properties; and WHITRAP Shanghai, the UNESCO Category 2 Centre.
In light of their close geographical proximity, the ACCU Nara Office and WHITRAP Shanghai agreed
in 2010 to jointly organize the projects to protect cultural heritage in the Asia-Pacific region, and we
set about collaborating in whatever could be tackled at the time. One result of those efforts is thisseries of international conferences, the previous round of which was held in Shanghai.
This is the third international conference on human resources development for the transmission of
traditional skills. In the first round, we were able to deepen discussions on how we should develop
human resources who would carry on traditional skills and pass on traditional materials to future
generations by taking an integrated approach to both tangible and intangible heritage. The sub-themesof the first two conferences were woodworking and stone/brick, respectively. For this third conference,
we decided to focus on "painting and coloring," which are the processes that provide the finishing
touches to structural repair projects. We believe that there are numerous works in the final stages ofrepair that should be addressed, such as roofs and foundation platforms. However, we decided toconcentrate on our themes in order to avoid over-expanding the scope of this conference.
As we took up the issues involved in transmission of traditional skills and human resources
development in the course of organizing this third conference, it was impossible not to become keenly
aware of the fact that we, as humans, have played a crucial role. This brings to mind the Yamato
Declaration, which emerged from “International Conference on the Safeguarding of Tangible andIntangible Heritage: Towards an Integrated Approach” that was also held in this same Nara Prefectural
New Public Hall, by UNESCO and Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan, back in 2004. It is my sincere
hope that we can further deepen discussions on this occasion so that, as stated in the Yamato
Declaration, "integrated approaches be elaborated to the effect that the safeguarding of the tangible
and intangible heritage of communities and groups is consistent and mutually beneficial andreinforcing".
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to express our heartfelt appreciation to the Nara
Prefectural Government, Nara Municipal Government, ICCROM, Japan International Council on
Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) National Committee, the Japanese Association for Conservation ofArchitectural Monuments (JACAM), and everyone concerned for their very generous support towardmaking this conference a reality.
NISHIMURA Yasushi
Director, ACCU Nara－G－Preface
This is my second time here in this meeting hall. I remember I first came here in 2010, attending theInternational conference Human Resources Development for Cultural Heritage Protection . I had
the opportunity at that moment to discuss with Mr. Nishimura about our possible collaboration.
Organizing an international conference under a general theme of “Human Resources Development for
the Transmission of Traditional skills” was considered then as a start of our collaboration. In the first
conference held in Nara in January 2011, we dealt with woodworking, and discussed in details thepractical aspects of repair work. During the second conference in Shanghai in December of the same
year, we took “the restoration of stone and brick” as a sub-theme, with an eye on deepening thediscussions by taking a comprehensive view of both tangible and intangible cultural heritage.
At the last conference of this year, we are going to focus on the restoration of decoration such as
painting and coloring of heritage buildings. In addition, we will discuss comprehensively on thedevelopment of conservation personnel and technicians who are well equipped with traditional skills
as well as the ways to secure traditional materials for repair work.
I totally agree that the theme “Human Resources Development for the Transmission of Traditional
skills” is an appropriate and right choice, because nowadays, many countries in Asian-Pacific region
are facing challenges such as how to incorporate traditional skills and indigenous materials in therestoration of historic buildings and sites, as well as personnel training and capacity building in thisregard. In China, our traditional painting and colored drawing in architectures are very valuable part of
the ancient architectural heritage and a brilliant part in the global history of architectural art. Fromancient time till now, thanks to the exploration and formation of a set of painting and colored-drawing
techniques, some very old paintings are well preserved for hundreds of years. However, due to various
reasons, the level of traditional ancient architecture techniques, which have been passed down formany years, is now seeing a tendency of decline or even been lost.
We hope that by taking the opportunity of this conference, we could do a discussion on the problems
faced by each country and explore the reasons behind. Then we will move on to more specific issues
concerning the technology or skills, as well as the human resources –namely, the craftsmen that areneeded on repair/restoration process.
Both WHITRAP and ACCU share the mission of contributing to the protection of cultural heritage in
the Asia and Pacific region. We hope we can continue our collaboration in the future, and we believe
any cooperation towards our common goals would help to promote and develop World Heritage
Convention as well.
Last but not least, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to all the organizers and guests who
have given your valuable advice and support in the organization of this conference. Besides, my
special thanks also go to our dear partner Mr. Nishimura from ACCU and his staff for their
preparations for this great conference.
ZHOU Jian
Director, WHITRAP Shanghai－H－Contents
Preface
Ⅰ．Special Speech
Global Trends on Human Resources Development for the Transmission of Traditional Skills ............ 3
Stefano De Caro (ICCROM）
Ⅱ．Keynote Speech
1. Transmission of Traditional Skills for Preservation of Cultural Properties in Japan .................... 15
YAMATO Satoshi (Japan)
2. Traditional and Modern Coloring of Stone Inscription in China: an Example from World Heritage
Wuyishan, PR China ..................................................................................................................... 21
DAI Shibing (China)
Ⅲ．Paper by Participant
1. Traditional Building Skills in the Conservation of Heritage Mosques in Malaysia ..................... 33
A Ghafar Bin Ahmad (Malaysia)
2. Safeguarding Traditional Painting Skills in Nepal ........................................................................ 43
Kai Weise (Nepal)
3. Preserving the Painted Heritage of Sri Lanka ............................................................................... 57
Jagath Weerasinghe (Sri Lanka)
4. Restoration of Interior Decoration of Khai Tuong Pavilion - An Kinh Palace, Hue City
Viet Nam .................................................................................................................................. 67
Le Phuoc Tan (Viet Nam)
5. “Lai Rod Num” on Traditional Building in Thailand ................................................................... 77
Jeetheng Piyakarn (Thailand)
6. Traditional Painting of Bhutan ...................................................................................................... 85
Lhaten Dorji (Bhutan)
7. Current Issues of and Future Tasks for Restoration of Coloring and Painting in Japan ............... 91
KUBODERA Shigeru (Japan)
8．Summary Report of the ACCU International Conference Presentations .................................... 101
for the Discussion on November 29, 2012
MASUDA Kanefusa (Japan)
Ⅳ．Recommendation
Recommendations of International Conference 2012 ....................................................................... 107
Ⅴ．Appendix
1. General Information of the Conference ...................................................................................... 113
2. Schedule of the International Conference ................................................................................... 115
3. List of Participants ...................................................................................................................... 116

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I. Special Speech

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－L－

Stefano De Caro
Director General
ICCROM

Summary
Undoubtedly, it is with the notion of World Cultural and Natural Heritage developed through the 1972 UNESCO
Convention, that the international community has been aware of its responsibility towards a “world heritage”
which transcends, in principle, the political and geographical boundaries.
Today, the notion of Cultural Heritage is an open one which can develop new objectives and put forward newmeanings as it reflects living culture rather than an ossified image of the past. Furthermore, we have becomeaware, over the last decades, that culture and nature, but also the tangible and intangible elements of the artifacts
and sites and the communities living with them, cannot be separated in our approach to “heritage” if we are to
give true account of the diversity of cultural manifestations and expressions, and in particular those in which a
close link is expressed between human beings and their natural environment.
Cultural heritage has therefore become a more complex reality that is all the more fragile and threatened as weare increasingly more conscious of the part it plays in the life and development of societies. Analogously, skills
and know-how for traditional crafts are part of communities' heritage and identity, and contribute to social andeconomic development. Traditional skills are the product of a long history of relationship between men, rather
craftsmen, and the material provided by the nature. They are the product of an history of inventions by single
brilliant individuals, sometimes real artists or inventor, in other cases of generations of artisans who constantly,
through successful trials or faults, improved the techniques inherited as legacy by their masters. Apprenticeshiphas long been the system ensuring the transmission of these skills. After the Industrial Revolution , in a processcontinuing until today, apprenticeship is threatened by changing circumstances affecting the social, economic
and learning environment within which it used to be embedded.
*****************************************************************************************

Director, Professor Nishimura
Dear Director of ACCU, Prof. Nishimura, dear representative of the Direction of WHITRAP Shanghai,
Ms Lu Wei, Authorities, Colleagues and Friends,
It is a great honour for me to participate at this International Conference coorganized by the ACCU the Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO and WHITRAP Shanghai, and I would like to express
my deep gratitude to the organizers for extending to me a kind invitation to attend such an importantgathering and offering me such a warm hospitality.

－3－

StefanoDe CaroGlobal Trends on Human Resources Development for theTransmission of Traditional Skills

Stefano
De CaroI feel very honoured to present on behalf of ICCROM such a complex topic as the “Global Trends on
Human Resources Development for the Transmission of Traditional Skills”. Unfortunately, as an
Italian archaeologist specialized in Greek and Roman archaeology, I am not well aware of the themeof the focus “painting and coloring in building decoration” in the Asian-Pacific world. So, I will justtry to offer you some more general considerations on the issue of the transmission of the traditional
skills.
This is not this the first time that Mankind faces this problem. In the western world it arose for the firsttime at the very beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the XVIII century when the rapid change
started provoking the abandonment of many traditional techniques and some philosophers who
participated in the discussions, typical of the late Renaissance, about the superiority of the Modern
Times or the Classical Greek-Roman Antiquity, (the so called Querelle des Ancients et des Modernes,
in French), felt the danger that these ancient techniques got lost without recording or before having
expressed all their potential.
Until this moment, there was not such a sensation of the possible total loss of a tradition. Also in the
period of the end of the Roman Empire and the barbarian Invasion, Byzantine Empire succeeded in
keeping alive the legacy of the Ancient World, and so did the Arab Culture after the end of the
Byzantine Culture, certainly with many changes, but with an uninterrupted line of tradition, as we cansee in this slide giving some examples in the sector of the glazed pottery. Now, not the wars or theconquests, but the industrial development made philosophers think that the loss of the tradition was
possible.

This was, among others, one of the background elements of the great educational undertaking of theEncyclopédie started in France by Denis Diderot and Jean Le Rond d'Alembert, a moment which isconsidered also the starting of the Enlightenment. The “Encyclopedia or Systematic Dictionary of the
Sciences, Arts and Crafts" (to say it in English) was published in France between 1751 and 1772, in 28
volumes, with 71,818 articles and 3,129 illustrations. Its declared goal was to “assemble all theknowledge scattered on the surface of the earth, to demonstrate the general system to the people withwhom we live, & to transmit it to the people who will come after us, so that the works of centuries past
is not useless to the centuries which follow, that our descendants, by becoming more learned, may
become more virtuous & happier, & that we do not die without having merited being part of the－4－

Another important moment in thewestern history of the transmissionof traditional skills occurred a
century after, when in the full of theIndustrial
Revolution,
after
hundreds of thousands of craftsmen
and farmers had abandoned theirtraditional work for the modern
manufacturing plants and cities andlandscapes
weredrasticallychanging their appearance, somethinkersoftheEuropeanbourgeoisies started thinking about
the necessity to create besides the
traditional Museums keeping the masterpieces of the traditional Great Art, like painting or sculpture,
new Museums to collect and preserve the products of the traditional techniques, both ancient andmodern, to provide learned models for the modern craftsmen educated in the new professional schools.
The creation of these new Museums, like the Kunst und Gewerbe Museum in Hamburg, the Victoria
and Albert Museum in London, the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris, the Museum of Fine Arts inBoston, to quote only the most renowned, was accompanied by the birth of the Arts and Crafts
movements, an international design movement that flourished between 1860 and 1910, inspired by thewritings of John Ruskin (1819-1900) and Augustus Pugin (1812-1852). It was largely a reaction
against the impoverished state of the decorative arts at the time and the conditions in which they were
produced. It stood for traditional craftsmanship using simple forms and often applied medieval,romantic or folk styles of decoration. It advocated economic and social reform and has been said to be
essentially anti-industrial, sometimes in a utopian way dreaming a society of free craftspeople, which
they believed had existed during the Middle Ages. "Because craftsmen took pleasure in their work, theMiddle Ages was a period of greatness in the art of the common people. ... The treasures in our
museums now are only the common utensils used in households of that age, when hundreds ofmedieval churches - each one a masterpiece - were built by unsophisticated peasants". It was not onlya Western movement as we know from the case of Soetsu Yanagi, creator of the Mingei stylepromoting folk art during the 1920s, shared the contemporary Japanese interest in Morris and Ruskinideas. It was not by chance that Japan was interested, if we consider the great level of industrial
development reached at that time by Japan.
In our days we are again facing, at worldwide scale and in terms of globalization, a new wave ofindustrialization which has reached Countries and continents until now untouched and is sothreatening the traditional world of these regions.

－5－

StefanoDe Carohuman race”. Here we see some of the magnificent plates depicting the traditional techniques,described at length in the articles, which still today are useful as a precious documentary source for thehistorian.

Stefano
De CaroLuckily the world of heritage developed since some decades some important means of reaction against
these challenges, the most important of them being the 1972 Convention concerning the Protection of
the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.
As you know, abundant literature (articles, thesis, books) has been produced on the impact of thisconvention in terms of safeguarding and management of our common cultural heritage, andsubsequently, on Human Resources Development.
I would therefore concentrate my remarks on some major points that would help, hopefully, in
continuing to enlarge the discussion and to give elements of reply to challenges such as the adaptationof the educational system to the paradigm of the use and transmission of the traditional skills inprotection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.
The first point I would tap, relates to the new meaning of Cultural Heritage and the fact that the same
notion of heritage has considerably evolved since the years of the Crafts and Arts movements. From
the definition of the 1931’s Athens Charter - which is considered the starting point for this new phaseof the culture of the heritage - as “the historic and artistic work of the past”, and from that of the
Article 1 of the UNESCO Constitutive Act that considered as heritage the “most representativecollections of works of art and of monumental remnants of cultures”, the notion was graduallyextended not only to new categories drawn from non-artistic sectors of activity such as the one ofindustrial heritage, the modern architecture or the underwater heritage, but, more recently, to thephilosophically deeper concepts of intangible cultural heritage and cultural landscapes.
Undoubtedly, the main notion of World Cultural and Natural Heritage developed through the 1972
UNESCO Convention is that the international community has been made aware of its responsibility
towards a “world heritage” which transcends, in principle, the political and geographical boundaries.
It is important to note that with this new concept, the creativity and the diversity of the various peoplesof the world have been formally recognized by normative international documents.
A formal recognition of this larger notion of heritage is in the Report of the World Commission on
Culture and Development, in 1995, when the former U.N. Secretary General, Honorable Javier Perez
de Cuéllar, underlined that “… a right place should be given to diversity in the field of heritage, andthat everywhere, it should be recognized that, in this field, there are no universal recipes to be
applied”.
Ten years later this principle was more largely developed and consecrated in the UNESCO
Convention on Cultural Diversity.
One of the main consequences of the recognition of the principle of cultural diversity was therecognition of the relativity of some of the criteria defining the OUV’s of the heritage sites to beconsidered for the nomination in the WH List. Above all, the criterion of authenticity was redefined as－6－

In 2003 another important Document, the UNESCO Convention on intangible heritage went to focus
on the conceptualisation and the designation of this complementary dimension to heritage. This notionof intangible was the result of a closer focus on the individual or/and community systems ofknowledge, both spiritual and philosophical, in which the individual pursues his creative activities.
Beyond the quest for the components of the intangible cultural heritage, the concept related to it has
taught us that tangible vestiges and remains cannot be appreciated in their own right, but rather
necessarily in relation to others, and through an understanding of their interactions with their physicaland non-physical environment, both human and natural.

Both these principles, diversity and intangible heritage, define now a frame in which traditional skills
play a very important role from at least three viewpoints.

－7－

StefanoDe Caroconditioned by the cultural diversity. If in some periods and cultures, originality was equal toauthenticity, in others it was not the case, as substitution, reconstruction, or other means were thenormal procedure of maintenance of the monuments. These ideas were expressed in the Nara
Conference of 1994 on Authenticity in the namesake Nara Document. Evidently this new concept
opened the floor to the discussion of the quality of the maintenance and of the skills, by definition
traditional skills, of the operators, and their training in an industrialized world.

Stefano
De Caro1. As instruments of knowledge, through the means of anthropology, but also as throughexperimental archaeology, to understand the methods by which the objects constituting heritage,
tangible and intangible, were produced.
2. As instruments for implementing the right conservation procedures.
3. As creative instruments for new productions to build – both economically and spiritually - asocial environment favorable for the comprehension of the values of the heritage. In this casesometimes they could also play an autonomous role as new intangible heritage as envisaged by
the Article 7 of the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity recognized Cultural
Heritage as the wellspring of creativity: “…heritage in all its forms must be preserved, enhanced
and handed over to future generations as a record of human experience and aspirations, so as tofoster creativity in all its diversity and to inspire”.

These functions of the traditional skills toward heritage are largely recognized, and new institutions
everywhere are being built to deal with this issue. Here in the slide you see the ITKI - International
Traditional Knowledge Institute just created in Florence by Pietro Laureano.

－8－

We know that this transmission isfragile, linked to social and economic
factors. In the human history a great
number of traditional skills have been
lost, substituted by other more
effective. This is a natural historicphenomenon: the same idea ofdevelopment or of innovation has initself that of the adoption of new
abilities. If today we want that sometechniques, to which we attribute avalue for the reasons we considered
before, would be preserved to future
generations, then we must ensure not
only that they are the right ones, in terms of originality and historic relevancy, but also that the men
called to implement them can do it in a sustainable way. This means not only study and train, but also
to build a system of legal and economic protection of these activities, of social acceptance of thevalues expressed by them. This is the idea of capacity building. Mechtild Rössler, from UNESCO,
recalled in her article “From Training to Capacity Building: the evolution of a concept in theframework of the World Heritage Convention”: “article 5 of this legal instrument asks the States
Parties to give the Convention a function in the life of the communities and how could this be achieved
without awareness raising and capacity building of professionals in long term heritage conservation,
protection and management. It calls specifically for the establishment of specialized institutions by thenational authorities”.
On this issue I want also remember the ideas expressed by the colleague Motonaka Makoto in themeeting of last year in Shanghai in his paper about the Japanese protection system for preservation
techniques of the traditional stone wall pertaining to castles. Together with other provisions written in
the guidebook on the maintenance of historic sites, he remembered the one that declares that "stone
wall maintenance projects should involve local community members, so that the projects may foster
residents' pride in their hometowns and inspire them to participate in community development" (p. 51).
Or again from the same proceedings, the words of my ICCROM’s collegue Gamini Wijeserujia "Interms of developing human resources on traditional skills, thinking of craftsmen would not be
sufficient. We must talk about capacity development which focuses on:- strenghthening the ability of larger and changing audiences- considering "knowledge acquisition" instead of "knowledge transfer"- new learning environments for more effective conservation on heritage.”－9－

StefanoDe CaroBut what are the means to ensure that they pass, as in the past, from a generation to another ensuring
quality and sustainability?

Stefano
De CaroLet me now just to remember some key points in the process of development of these ideas.
In 1995, the ICOMOS–CIF training Committee organized in Helsinki a seminar on Training Needs
and Ethics which proposed strategic guidelines for future action. During the discussion onconservation ethics, reference was made to the Nara Conference on Authenticity in relation with theWorld Heritage Convention and special attention was given to develop conservation training
programmes taking into account cultural and heritage diversity as essential to further refine theconcept and application of authenticity as it relates to cultural heritage.
So, if national traditional skills are evidently essential, but also comparative studies are important, andthis can be achieved by a wider panel of international scholars, like today in this Conference. As noted
in 1995 by Prof. Jukka Jokilehto, former President of the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee
on Training, “The international courses should be an essential part of the professional curriculum,
especially in terms of important positions at the national level.”
ICOMOS also emphasized that conservation must make use of a variety of technologies and “that it ispossible to safeguard a part of the immovable cultural heritage with simple and effective means andtechnologies within the scope of local labour, in as much as traditional techniques have survived orhave been re-introduced”. It therefore recommended “that the public authorities avoid launchingpreservation projects employing high level technology without having explored all possibilities ofusing local methods. It has been emphasized that the authorities should encourage the establishmentof research laboratories on the technologies suited to the specific problems of the country. These
research laboratories would have the task of defining the nature of the practices which ensure theauthenticity of each heritage. This research could also be applied in contemporary architecture for it
could well result in the rediscovery of an architectural vocabulary specific to the culture”.
These important considerations should be carefully studied when preparing the strategies for training
courses whether for long or short duration. Furthermore, academic programmes should be always
linked with practitioners and space should be given to non formal education, which still constitute animportant part of the dissemination of knowledge and “savoir-faire”, as transmitted by “traditional
masters”, for example in earth architecture or in wood constructions.
Traditional skill does not mean uncultivated skill, just manual ability unaware of the principles of themodern science. The traditional craftsman can be a restorer even an artist using ancient techniques, but
if he works on heritage, then he has to join the wisdom of the past to the modern science.

Conclusions
I would like to conclude in apologizing for having addressed too quickly some issues which should be
more thoroughly analyzed and discussed but I am sure that the works during the following days will
set the basis to collect more elements for the debate on this very important subject that is bringing us
together in this prestigious ACCU Nara Centre.

－ 10 －

Like my colleague Wijeseruiya, I too I am optimistic about the ability of the scientific institutions of
this region to deal with the issue to develop human resources to promote the transmission of traditional
skills. I am ready to learn from the experiences of all of you, my distinguished colleagues, andcontinue to lead ICCROM in supporting and sharing your studies.

－ 11 －

StefanoDe CaroI would like to refer to some of the ideas expressed last year here by my colleague Wijeseruiya.
“Traditional skill should not be considered in isolation, but as the sum of all knowledge, skills andpeople that have contributed to the final results that se see ad heritage today, reflected in bothtangible and intangible forms". A monument, like a site, is not just the product of the simple skill of
one or many workers, but is a part of a complex system involving many levels of knowledge. Brickand stones testify deep religious ideas, a long history of development of architectural principles, theability of generations of masons, often being still living heritage. “We cannot separate these[continuity of the connected community) from most of our heritage, although there is always atendency among the conservation community to disassociate from this important point and focus only
on the material aspects". This theme of the living heritage, of the continuity between monuments andpresent community, often considered broken forever in the western world, and on the contrary wellalive here in the Asian region, is crucial in the research of ICCROM since the time of my predecessor
Paul Philippot”.

－ 12 －

II. Keynote Speech－ 13 －

－ 14 －

Transmission of Traditional Skills for Preservation ofCultural Properties in Japan

1. Cultural Properties and "Selected Preservation Skills"
Japan has been acknowledged as a country of product making. Industrial products mass-produced inJapan today still have a reputation for high quality. Japanese-made items are used at the core ofadvanced scientific systems and industrial products. It is frequently said that without them,cutting-edge science and technology would not be possible. The manufacture of such products has
been enabled by skilled and experienced engineers and technicians, who mastered and sophisticatedthe artisanal handicraft. Japan clearly has a long established tradition of product making, though rapidchanges in industrial structure have caused its manufacturing businesses to go overseas; thetransmission and development of the aforementioned techniques and skills are presently considered
uncertain. That tradition is readily discernible in the domain of cultural properties, where handicraft isdominant, though it is not readily recognized with industrial products. The essence of superb productmaking, an ability still alive today, is abundant in the domain of cultural properties, including thosefrom modern times. All types of Japanese cultural properties commonly manifest a high level ofelaboration and perfection. This is the most conspicuous of Japan's cultural characteristics, asacclaimed by people of other countries. Underlying such characteristics is the long history of
traditional techniques essential for the creation of cultural properties, and for their transmission to
future generations through repairs. Also underlying is a deep and profound knowledge of raw
materials, knowledge procured through symbiosis with nature.
Nevertheless, the traditional techniques used to create tangible cultural properties and to passdown and refine intangible cultural properties are bound, through the passing of time and changes insociety, to be lost, diminished or replaced by other techniques. Once an intangible legacy has been lost,
it is difficult to restore. It is true that many traditional techniques essential to the preservation andpassing on of cultural properties must be urgently protected.
In Japan, traditional techniques used to protect cultural properties are stipulated as "preservation
skills" in the Act on Protection of Cultural Properties (Articles 147 through 152). The national
government (the Minister for Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) selects a host of
individual "selected preservation skills" from among those used for cultural property repairs, repair
materials production, and repair tool making. In addition, to provide various kinds of support for skills
transmission, the national government certifies individuals as skill holders who are conversant in andhave mastered these techniques and skills, and it certifies organizations whose activities are aimed atconserving selected preservation skills ("conservation organizations"). As of November 2012, selected
preservation skills number 68, certified skill holders 53, and certified conservation organizations 31－ 15 －

YAMATO
Satoshi

YAMATO Satoshi
Councilor for Cultural Properties
Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan(the actual number of certified organizations is 29, due to duplicated certification of organizations
having more than one selected skill).
YAMATO
Satoshi

2. Programs for Protecting Traditional Techniques in Days before Selection of Preservation
SkillsJapanese cultural properties (and equipment used in intangible cultural properties) are largely made ofrelatively vulnerable materials such as wood, earthen plaster, paper and fabric. Most paintings
included in them are drawn on surfaces of these materials. Moreover, these materials are generally
processed through a high level of division of labor, each process comprising extremely delicate stepsof handicraft. This is a major feature of Japanese cultural properties, which distinguishes them from
cultural properties of other countries. Incidentally, Japanese folk cultural properties, created fromlocally procured materials through production methods indigenous to individual localities, areessential to elucidating diverse styles of life and culture extant in various parts of Japan. Periodic
repairs are needed to preserve these properties for future generations. In each relevant area, a highlevel of expertise, traditional techniques backed by years of experience, and techniques of skilled
technicians for actually providing repairs are needed. Furthermore, raw materials used for repairs andspecial equipment used in producing, gathering, or processing raw materials are a necessity. Various
repair techniques, raw materials, provision of equipment and transmission of knowledge are alsoessential. Preservation, repair and the traditional techniques used therein comprise major elements inthe protection of cultural properties in Japan.
In 1954, soon after enactment of the Act on Protection of Cultural Properties, the First Japan
Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition was held. The purport of the exhibition contained the text shown
below, which reveals trends in traditional crafts techniques in those days.
The excellent features of traditional Japanese crafts are recognized widely and internationally.
However, this superb tradition is on the verge of extinction, with the march of the times.
Japan's handicraft and traditional crafts techniques declined as a result of the emergence ofmodern industries around the late 1890s. Subsequently, the dramatic growth of modern
industries pushed traditional crafts techniques to the margins of society. Some traditions diedout and some others barely survive. The traditional crafts still alive today have been
maintained by the extraordinary enthusiasm and sacrificial efforts of a small number ofstrongly willed persons. (Excerpts from First Japan Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition catalog)
This indicates an early awareness of the crisis: that excellent techniques used in traditional handicraft
in Japan could be lost as a result of obsolescence and alienation from the industrial production styles
pertaining since modern times. Consequently, in 1950, the Act on Protection of Cultural Properties
was enacted as a system of legislation unique in the world, which clearly stipulated the protection of
intangible cultural properties with an aim to protect craft techniques, as well as performing arts. Since
then, various traditional techniques used for repairing cultural properties have been classified into one
category of intangible cultural properties to be subsidized and carefully protected on a relatively broad－ 16 －

scale. Techniques essential for repair of cultural properties were selected as "craft techniques and otherintangible cultural offspring," including kiku-jutsu (the technique of applying a construction drawing
maki-e equipment making, vegetable dyeing and production of ubai, a mordant used in vegetabledyeing. Later, in 1975, when the amendment to the Act on Protection of Cultural Properties introduced
a new protection program for preservation skills, these techniques were selected anew as "selected
preservation skills." Additionally, skill holders and conservation organizations were certified andrelevant protection measures were implemented for them.
Other programs aimed at passing down cultural property repair techniques included technician
training workshops held in fiscal 1953 and 1954 in the field of arts and crafts, and in fiscal 1958 and1959 in paper/fabric mounting and repairs. In addition, since fiscal 1962, the Repair Techniques
Workshop for Designated Cultural Properties (Fine Arts) has been held annually. Furthermore, forbuilding and structure repairs, workshops have been held annually for repair technicians since fiscal
1955, as part of the efforts by the national government to train people of talent and pass down culturalproperty preservation and repair techniques.
3. Recent Programs for Protecting Traditional Techniques
Measures have been implemented, as described in the preceding section, for preserving andtransmitting traditional techniques and skills used to protect tangible and intangible cultural properties,
principally by programs designed to conserve selected preservation skills stipulated in the Act on
Protection of Cultural Properties, against difficulties arising from rapid changes in social trends andtechnical schemes. The national government has subsidized training, successor development, record
documentation and other projects promoted by the aforementioned individuals and organizations. In
fiscal 2011, in addition to the preceding subsidy plans, the national government began to subsidize theprovision of raw materials and equipment essential for the additional protection of techniques andskills, as well as the development of persons involved in such work. The portion of national budget
allotted to supporting these projects increased by approximately 40% from the previous fiscal year (thesame amount is also listed in the fiscal 2012 national budget). This indicates the national government's
recent increasing focus on the area discussed herein.
Other topics relating to the preservation of traditional techniques include the 2004 amendment
to the Act on Protection of Cultural Properties, which stipulated folk techniques as one category ofintangible folk cultural properties. Consequently, measures were added to protect (select anddesignate) traditional indigenous production and living techniques inherited, in every part of thecountry for the provision of food, clothing and housing, in production or occupation, and in folkways.
This differs from selected preservation skills in that, in taking preservative measures, techniques
themselves were considered cultural properties. A type of measure intended to protect traditional
techniques in Japan, this can be viewed as enhanced effort in the area of traditional techniqueprotection.
In recent years, the Agency for Cultural Affairs has been promoting public relations andeducation of the general public on traditional techniques, as well as directly subsidizing the－ 17 －

YAMATO
Satoshito timbers with a square), essential in repairing shrine and temple buildings, gold brocade mounting,transmission of traditional techniques and skills and the development of successors. Since fiscal 2003,
the Agency has annually organized a symposium titled "Masters of Traditional Techniques for
YAMATO
SatoshiProtection of Cultural Properties" in cooperation with the Japan Federation of Groups for Cultural
Property Preservation skills, a group formed by local governments and certified conservation
organizations. The symposium has featured lectures by specialists in preservation skills, explanatory
displays of panels and samples, and demonstrations of techniques, in order to present information onpreservation skills used for repair of cultural properties, efforts made to provide raw materials, andactivities conducted by conservation organizations. Profound knowledge developed through years ofexperience in vegetable, mineral and other natural materials, and sophisticated techniques that makethe most of the materials' characteristics, are in themselves attractive exhibitions. The event has many
participants each year, and is being established as a popular project. The symposium was held in
Nagoya City in 2011 and in Himeji City this year. Conservation organizations set up their respective
exhibition booths to present information on their activities, through exhibition of equipment and raw
materials, demonstrations, and workshops. This meaningful occasion helps the public acquire a deeper
understanding of preservation skills.
Educational opportunities such as described above include building and structure preservation
and repair sites open to the public. Such places reveal concealed features of cultural property buildings
and structures that are not usually viewable. In addition, they provide valuable opportunities to accessvarious traditional techniques used in such features, which attract many visitors on every occasion ateach site. The Kyoto Prefectural Government manages many preservation and repair sites each year.
Opening such sites to the public is becoming a customary program in autumn in the prefecture. Similarpreservation and repair activities are also open to the public in gardens designated cultural properties,
in order to enhance public understanding of the traditional landscape techniques used to maintainhistoric gardens.
These activities are useful in deepening general understanding and recognition of traditional
techniques, and in helping increase social concerns regarding the protection of cultural properties.
Furthermore, such activities are effective in motivating technicians and skilled persons involved in thepreservation and repair of cultural properties to be willing to work and upgrade their skills.
Another benefit of such activities is the potential facilitation of information exchange andcollaboration among technicians, skilled persons and different industries.
Concrete approaches are also used to provide raw materials, which are as important as, andmutually and closely related with, preservation skills for protecting cultural properties. The present
report briefly covers the provision of raw materials for preserving cultural properties, since that is
another theme that should be discussed separately in detail. In the category of cultural property
buildings and structures, the Project for Promoting Cultural Property Forest System is conducted toensure a stable supply of various vegetable materials used for repairs. Detailed surveys wereconducted on material demand and supply by fiscal 2006. Six Cultural Property Forest Centers were
founded nationwide to serve as a base for training and education. The establishment of Cultural
Property Forests began in fiscal 2006 (45 forests have been established in 24 prefectures). The forests
supply repair materials, and at the same time serve as training sites for conservation organizations to－ 18 －

provide training in raw material-gathering techniques. Subsequently, in fiscal 2011, subsidies began to
be granted to cover expenses required in managing and conducting operations (pruning, weeding etc.)
Concerning equipment and raw materials used for protecting folk cultural properties, it became
especially difficult to supply materials for the repair or construction of floats used in festival parades.
In fiscal 2002, nationwide demand and supply fact-finding surveys were commenced regarding suchmaterials. Relevant measures are being devised based on the acquired data.
In the category of performing art as part of intangible cultural properties, continuous surveys areunder way regarding the equipment and raw materials essential for such art. Since it is becoming
difficult to provide some equipment and raw materials, efforts toward protection of performing arts
have been exhaustive.
Recent developments include subsidizing efforts to transmit traditional techniques on the fringes
of preservation skills, such as raw material production and equipment construction. It is desirable that,making wise use of these aid programs, the conservation and transmission of traditional techniques forprotection of local cultural properties be promoted, and that systematic protection be provided in thiscategory, encompassing a wide range of supporting businesses.
4. Approaches to Enhanced Protection of Preservation Skills
In Japan, in many cases traditional techniques are organized into highly sophisticated systems, whichfeature specialization, advanced division of labor, diversity of techniques and skills requiring
protection, as well as use of a variety of raw materials. If a partial loss occurs, the entire system oftechniques may be on the verge of extinction. Recently, comprehensive support has been provided to
selected preservation skills as well as to marginal techniques and skills, with increased potential forenhanced protection. This is a significant advance. However, there are still many endangered
preservation skills in each category of cultural properties. Consequently, it is urgent to extend
categories for protection, before individuals who can pass down traditional techniques are lost.
To meet this challenge, active participation is desired, not only from the national government,
but also from local governments in the protection of preservation skills. Preservation skills largely
have features indigenous to localities. In principle, it is desirable that prefectural or municipal
governments promote protection.* There are local governments that already have cultural property
protection ordinances to designate preservation skills. However, there is only a small number of themnationwide. Individual small districts may face challenges such as small volume of preservation andrepair work, limited opportunities to continuously practice preservation skills, and difficulties inproviding protection in a self-supporting manner within the district. Nevertheless, local governments
should at least raise local awareness about the preservation of techniques, designating cultural assets
indigenous to localities. The national government has recently begun to provide financial support forthe protection of preservation skills.
* The need to promote the protection of traditional techniques by local governments was alsomentioned by KAMEI Nobuo, (then) Councilor on Cultural Properties, in the prefatory note－ 19 －

YAMATO
Satoshiin the forests.

"Traditional Techniques for Protection of Cultural Properties" in the previous feature article "30
Years of Selected Preservation Skills" (September 2006, monthly Cultural Properties).
YAMATO
Satoshi

It is also desired that persons who pass down preservation skills and conservation organizations beorganized to a higher level. In providing preservation and repair job opportunities, which can serve asa basis for technical training, successor development, provision of raw materials and transmission of
traditional techniques, the encouragement of cooperation and information exchange among parties
concerned should produce more mutual benefits than can be achieved through separate efforts byindividual persons or organizations.
In the modern world, traditional techniques can no longer be passed down in a self-supportingmanner. Indeed, they are barely surviving in protected categories of cultural properties.
Product-making reliant upon a technically high level of handicraft is no match, in terms of economy,
for industrial high-volume, low-cost production. What is needed is to disseminate information on theattractiveness and advantages of traditional techniques, to enhance societal recognition andunderstanding about the protection of such techniques, and, through concerted societal effort, to passthose techniques on in conjunction with cultural properties.

－ 20 －

Traditional and Modern Coloring of Stone Inscription
in China: An Example from World Heritage Wuyishan,
PR China

Yu Zelan, Zhong Kaiyi, Su Dezheng, Yu Jian`an
Administrative Committee of Wuyishan Scenery Area, Fujian
Province, PR China
Li LeiShanghai DS Building Materials Co Ltd. , Shnaghai, PR China

Abstract:
In its narrow term, the stone inscription specifically means writings and scriptures carved on thenatural stones, which are represented by Taishan Mountain in the north and Wuyishan Mountain in thesouth, both of which are listed World Natural and Cultural Heritage of UNESCO. Those inscriptions
can be seen in most of the well-known mountains and rivers in China with their wide spread in almost
all provinces of China, among which many have been listed as national monuments. The inscriptionof writings covers a wide range of calligraphic types such as seal script, official script, regular script,
cursive script and running script. In ancient times, the entire inscription procedure contains several
steps, consisting selection of stones and locations, selection of carving methods, trial and testing forpens and knives, carving and coloring. According to the types of the surface, the carving falls into
three categories of positive, negative and line. There are also overlapping types between negative andpositive carvings and between positive and line carvings. Cinnabar-red is the most common color
used for inscriptions in old times, followed by lime white. Blue and green were also applied
depending on natural pigments occurred in various regions.
As an integral part of Mount Wuyi cultural heritage, the stone inscriptions in cliffs of Wuyishan
Mountains are an important epitome of local culture. According to the oral records, inscriptions inearly times were usually colored in red, some in white. 2 decades ago most of them were coloured inyellow.
But it is well-known that the cinnabar under natural weathering is not durable, and the repeatedcoloring has hampered the artistic value, accelerating the damages of caved stones. Based on tests inlabs and observation on sites since 2010, a water-borne translucent colorant with same tone as
cinnabar-red, but based on iron-oxide pigments and PU-acrylic emulsion as the binder has beensuccessfully developed. With excellent compatibility with natural stones and the old paints, thepigment is very close to the traditional cinnabar in toning but contains no heavy metals. It has been
applied during the maintenance and refreshing work of stone inscription in Mount Wuyi areas sinceNovember 2012.

－ 21 －DAI
Shibing

DAI Shibing
Professor
Architecture Conservation Laboratory，Tongji University

As a traditional means of record, stone inscriptions have seen a continuous passed-down among
generations as a traditional artistic skill. Though there are no laws and regulations on the training andskill transmission at the national level, various training courses and workshops have been organizedaround the country, most of which however, are aimed to increase the employment among farmers
instead of skill transmission. Instead of using the traditional paints, modern pigments and lacquers areapplied, resulting in a rigid style and shortened duration of the inscriptions.
DAI
Shibing

1. Introduction
1.1 Artistic Significance of Stone Inscriptions in the history
As a typical artistic form with the most Chinese characteristics, the stone inscription, in its broad
sense, contains all of the contents carved and inscribed onto natural stones, including characters andwriting carving, stone sculptures and rock paintings. While in its narrow sense, the term “stone
inscription” specifically means writings and scriptures carved on the natural stones. They are
represented by Taishan Mountain in the north and Wuyishan Mountain in the south, both of whichhave been listed as World Natural and Cultural Heritage. Those inscriptions can be seen in most of thewell-known mountains and rivers in China with their wide spread in provinces including Shandong,
Shaanxi, Hunan, Hubei, Sichuan, Yunnan and Fujian etc, among which many have been listed asnational monuments. The inscription of writings covers a wide range of calligraphic types such as seal
script, official script, regular script, cursive script and running script.

1.2 Steps to Stone Inscription
In ancient times, the entire inscription procedure
contains several steps, consisting selection of stones andlocations, selection of carving methods, trial and testing
for right chisel and knives, carving and coloring. One of
the techniques named “Mo Le Shan Shi” was to cover
the original writings with oil-papers and had the scripts
outlined with ink on the back side of the paper, thenpressed the side of paper which had ink trace against thestones. The scripts were printed onto the surface ofstones, on which the artists might start carving. The
other technique was called “Shu Dan”, which meant towrite down the scripts directly on the surface of stones
or rocks in red color, and had them carved by artists.
Figure 1. Both carver and calligrapher of theinscriptions has been recorded in Mount Wuyi
areas: the inscription of “公亮书，然镌石”in
Yixiantian Scenic Spots, dating to 1254,
which is rare in China

Though with a much more simplified procedure, theinscription used the latter technique is often not identicalto the original handwritings. In ancient time, most of
authors of writings were recorded, but very few
inscriptions have recorded carvers and calligraphers (Fig.
1).

－ 22 －

DAI
Shibing

1.3 Types of Carving
According to the types of surface, the carving
falls into three categories namely positive,
negative and line. Negative carving means the
scripts are concave against the stone surfaces;
positive carving refers to the bulged scripts
against the lower stone surface that has been
grinded; and the line carving is to outline thestrokes of the characters along the lines of thescripts. There are overlapping types between
negative and positive carvings and between
positive and line carvings. Except for scripts
with consideration to their special significance,such as the character “寿” (meaning longevity)
is usually carved with positive type, thechoices of types are often determined by theproperty of rocks. Those with medium intensity
like sandstone and limestone are suitable foreach type of carving.

Figure 2. Types of Carving

1.4 Coloring of Stone Inscription
The coloring of stone Inscription intends to highlight the inscription arts on the stone surface.
Coloring is not necessary for those with very deep carves. According to historic and oral records,
cinnabar was the most common color used in the inscriptions in old times, followed by lime white.
Blue and green were also applied depending on the pigments occurred in various regions. The
technique “Shu dan shang shi — writing in red on the stone”, also known as “Shu Dan” for short,means to write down the scripts directly on the surface of stones or rocks in red color, and have themcarved by artists.

Figure 3. Non-colored stone inscription（Hechuan, Chongqing, Date：1946）－ 23 －

DAI
Shibing

Figure 4. Inscriptions with different colors

2． Inscriptions on Cliffs of Mount Wuyi
Located in the northwestern part of China’s south-east province of Fujian, Wuyishan Mountains waslisted as a World Natural and Cultural Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999 for its natural and cultural
resources such as rock shelters with wooden boat coffins (dating to the 2nd millennium BC),archaeological site of the Han city of Chengcun, culture of neo-Confucianism, stone inscriptions andtea culture, as well as the Danxia Landform and its extremely rich flora and fauna.

Figure 5. Inscriptions in Mt Wuyi

2.1 Historic and Artistic Value of the Stone Inscriptions of Mount Wuyi
As an integral part of cultural heritage in Mount Wuyi, the stone inscriptions are important epitome of
local culture and a treasure of calligraphic art. Over 416 pieces (FANG) of inscriptions have been
identified and recorded up to date, among which 38 dates back to SONG Dynasty (960-1279), 11 to－ 24 －

YUAN Dynasty(1206-1368), 142 to MING (1368-1644) , 61 to QING (1644-1911) and 15 to
Republican period(1911-1949). The date of 105 pieces is unknown yet and 44 are contemporary ones.
Most of the inscriptions are carved in negative type, largely due to the property of gravel-sandstones
in Wuyishan Mountain areas, most of which consists of quartzite gravels as aggregates, making it
more adaptable to negative carving instead of the other two methods.
DAI
Shibing

Figure 6. Types of Carving in Mount Wuyi：most are negative（left）and few are of
positive character of “寿”(right)

2.2 Color Evolvement of Stone Inscriptions in Mount Wuyi
Due to the humid climate in the area, the stone inscriptions are very apt to be covered by mosses andalgae grown on the stone, if, without the sheltering of cliffs. According to oral records, inscriptions inearly times were usually in red, some in white. Yellow was applied 1-2 decades ago; however because
yellow was the symbolic color of the imperial, and looks similar to the color of mountains,particularly those withering mosses and fungus, yellow will not be dominate color in Wuyi. Red ismore often used nowadays to highlight the artistic quality of inscriptions.

Figure 7. Inscription colors in history（original lime white and yellowish colored in history）

2.3 Coloring-related Damages
Thick layers of colorant not only reduce the third-dimension effects of the original inscriptions, butalso with its low vapour permeability lead to the seeping of moisture and salinity from the uncolored－ 25 －

edges, accelerating the weathering of stones. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a new specializedcolorant adaptive to the environment of Mount Wuyi.

DAI
Shibing

Figure 8. Accelerated deterioration caused by thick coatings

2.4 Research on New Coloring Materials
2.4.1 Technical Requirements
With high relative humidity, the stones in Mount Wuyi are rather damp, part of which are evensubmerged by flooding in summer. Therefore, thecolorant materials to be applied are expected to havequalities such as minimizing microbe growth like mosses, excellent water resistance and goodpermeability in addition to those regular functions of being adaptable to moist environment and color
fastness. The permeability determines the moisture balance inside and outside the colored surface of
inscription, otherwise there will be problems like cracking, peeling and discoloring, as well as
accelerating the weathering of the edges of fonts. In 2010, an R&D group composed by personnel
from Administrative Committee of Wuyishan Scenery Area and Tongji University launched a pilot
project to develop new colorant for Mount Wuyi areas.
2.4.2 Laboratory Research
The group has conducted comparative studies among 19 formulas including a comparison withproperties of Chinese traditional paint, which means to respect the history and traditional culture andto verify the quality of traditional materials at the same time.

Figure 9. Laboratory tests for colorant properties－ 26 －

Upon comprehensive consideration to properties like bonding, color fastness and resistance toflushing, following materials are chosen to run the field tests: cinnabar with natural resin dissolved inalcohol, water-borne PU-acrylic dispersion, water-borne acrylic-silicone-resin emulsion, sili-sol withacrylic emulsion.

Figure 10. Comparison between the colored scripts and the uncolored ones (a total of five formulas was used,
including Formula W-PF-01, W-PF-19, W-PF-18, W-PF-17-1, W-PF-13 from left to right)

The second site is the inscription of “武夷山第十六洞天道人方白张信海书” at the entrance of Zhi
Zhi Taoist Nunnery, where the old color was stripped prior to a new coloring. This spot is always wet
even during the trial period, water was flowing from substrate.

Figure 11 New coloring of formula W-PF-01, W-PF-19, W-PF-18, W-PF-17-1, W-PF-13 from left to right

The third site is the inscription on the stone of “有缘” inside the bell tower in Zhi Zhi Taoist Nunnery,
where the old color was stripped prior to a new coloring.

－ 27 －DAI
Shibing

2.4.3 Field Tests
On November 6th to 8th, 2010, the group worked on 3 sites to do the surface trials in Mount Wuyi.
The first site is the inscription”兴来独往”, where to directly cover the old paint with new colorant on
the top without stripping the original one. The inscription”兴来独往” faces south and has slope of app.
60 degree, a optimum location to understand the UV-stability and fastness of new colorant.

DAI
Shibing

Figure 12. Formula W-PF-01, W-PF-17-1, W-PF-13from left to right, repainting after removal agent

During the paint-removing process, multiple layers of diversified types of paints were found covering
one on top of another, up to 3mm in the thickness, which requires repeated cleansing before being
totally removed.
According to field testing results, the newly-developed water-borne PU-acrylic dispersion colorant iscompatible to old paints in terms of bonding and color fastness, showing good historic effects of theinscription after removing and re-coloring process. Though with very excellent bonding property, thetraditional cinnabar colorant appears discoloration within a short period of less than 6 months; andbecause the cinnabar-colorant contains harmful heavy metals after weathering, it is abandoned. Since
November 2012, new coloring materials have been applied to stone inscriptions in Mount Wuyi. The
materials can either be used directly onto the old color or be re-colored on the surface after the old isremoved. In this article, the latter is recommended to better highlight the third-dimension effects of
the inscriptions.

Figure 13. Inscription“兴来独往”: fading of different pigments one year later (the cinnabar in the left has turned
dark purple）－ 28 －

DAI
Shibing

Figure 14. Coloringprocessbegan in November 2012
3． Skill Transmissionof Stone
Inscriptions

As a traditional means for record and signing, stone inscriptions have seen a continuous passed-downin generations as a traditional artistic skill. Though there are no laws and regulations on the training
and skill transmission at the national level, various training and workshops have been organizedaround the country, most of which however, are aimed to increase the employment among poor
farmers instead of skill transmission. Moreover, the inscription work is processed by modern tools
like computer, sand blasting machine and electric cutter and grindings, and then colored with modern
paints that could be commercially available. The artificial color and short duration have hampered theartistic value of inscriptions.

Figure 15. The characters are written with modern technology and caved manually.
(Ancient Diaoyu City in Hechuan, Chongqing, photographed in October 2012)－ 29 －

4． Conclusions and Discussions

DAI
Shibing

Stone inscription is a typical artistic form in China. According to the types of the surface, the carving
falls into three categories of positive, negative and line. There are also overlapping types between
negative and positive carvings and between positive and line carvings. According to historic and oral
records, cinnabar-based colorant was the most common color used in the inscriptions in old times,
followed by lime white. Blue and green were also applied according to the pigments occurred invarious regions.
As a representative in south, the stone inscriptions in cliffs of Wuyishan Mountains are an integral
part of Mount Wuyi cultural heritage and an important epitome of local culture as well as the treasureof calligraphic art. According to the oral records, inscriptions in the early times are usually in red,some in white. Yellow was also applied for a while along the history. But the cinnabar used today is
not durable, and the repeated coloring has hampered the artistic value, accelerating the damages.
Based on tests in labs and on sites since 2010, a water-borne translucent colorant with iron-oxide
pigments as its base and PU-acrylic emulsion as the binder has been successfully developed, whosecolor is very close to the traditional cinnabar but contains no heavy metals with excellent
compatibility with natural stones and the old paints. The colorant has been applied in the stone
inscription maintenance in Mount Wuyi areas since November 2012.
As a traditional means for record and signing, stone inscriptions have seen a continuous passed-down
among generations as a traditional artistic skill. Though there are no laws and regulations on the
training and skill transmission at the national level, various training and workshops have beenorganized around the country, most of which however, are aimed to increase the employment among
farmers instead of skill transmission. The new cinnabar-imitation colorant is developed on the basis ofa modern scientific and environmental-friendly formula, which could be the future in terms of themaintenance and presentation the art of stone inscriptions.

Acknowledgment
The authors wish to thank Associate Professor Tang Zhong from Tongji University, Mr. Zhang Ximi,
an inscription artist of Mount Wuyi, Mr. Zhu Shangyou from Shanghai DS Building Materials Co.
Ltd., and Karin Toegel from HAWK Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaft und Kunst, Hildesheim,
Germany for their support and involvement in the work. The authors also would like to thank Ms.
Zhou Yue`e from Shanghai DS Building Materials Co. Ltd. for her help to review the manuscript.
References[1] Stone Inscriptions in Cliffs of Mount Wuyi, compiled by Commission of Mount Wuyi Chronicles.
Public Art and Literature Press, 2007
[2] Studies on Stone Inscriptions and Culture in Mount Wuyi, Xiamen University Press, 2007
[3] Discussions on the Ancient Carving Techniques and Carvers in“Shimen Ming”，
http://www.hzmuseum.cn/WenKu/show.asp?TAG=NDg1－ 30 －

III. Paper by Participant－ 31 －

－ 32 －

Traditional Building Skills in the Conservation of
Heritage Mosques in Malaysia
A Ghafar Bin Ahmad
Professor
School of Housing, Building and Planning
Universiti Sains Malaysia

Introduction

Malaysia is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-cultural country. The country’s 29.2 million
population comprises 51% Malay; 26% Chinese; 7% Indians; 16% other indigenous ethnic groups ofSarawak and Sabah States of the island of Borneo, as well as Eurasians and immigrants. The historyof Malaysia reveals remarkable influences of immigration, trading and cultural exchanges over timewith the Arab nations, China, India and the rest of the Malay Archipelago. Today, Malaysia inherits
an enriched intangible and tangible cultural heritage of ethnic attributes, languages, traditions andbuildings. The country’s vibrant ethnic diversity is evident in the religious buildings, sacrosanct
rituals and cultural festivities, which encapsulate the foregoing national spirit of social integration andethnic harmony.
Malaysia’s built heritage is facing a potential threat. This relates to issues of inadequate supply of
local skilled craftsmen to conduct appropriate repair works, assess material needs and other traditionalbuilding skills related to heritage building conservation. This paper presents experiences of traditionalbuilding skills as illustrated in the conservation projects of three heritage mosques conducted under
the auspices of the Department of National Heritage Malaysia during 2008-2010. The paper puts
forward some recommendations to address the key issues of traditional skills deficiency in heritagebuilding conservation works.

2

Overview of Traditional Building Skills

Built heritage including building, monument or structure is a testimony of human skills and ingenuityof traditional building skills. It is important to protect the heritage property by using only theappropriate methods and materials in building repair and restoration works. Traditional building skills
refer to those skills utilised in the construction, maintenance and repair of traditional heritagebuildings and their building elements. Such skills include brick laying and stone masonry, carpentry
and joinery, plastering, roof slating and tiling, lead works, steeple jacking, painting and decorating,and other specialised traditional building skills.
Many countries around the world including Malaysia, Japan and China are challenged to keep theirtraditional building skills alive as the skills pool needed to repair and preserve the heritage buildings
is on a decline. Heritage buildings are in danger of falling into disrepair as the pool of workers in thebuilt heritage sector is shrinking relative to the number of heritage buildings in need of maintenanceand upgrading. This situation calls for orchestrated efforts to help develop the traditional buildings
skills necessary for conserving the integrity and authenticity of heritage property to posterity.

－ 33 －

1

A Ghafar
Bin Ahmad

1

3Legislative Instrument: The National Heritage Act 2005 (Act 645)

A Ghafar
Bin Ahmad

In Malaysia, the National Heritage Act 2005 (Act 645) is instrumental in protecting and conserving
the National Heritage, natural heritage, tangible and intangible cultural heritage, underwater cultural
heritage, treasure trove and other national heritage matters. Since 2005, more than 370 cultural
heritage subjects have been listed as National Heritage including buildings, archaeological sites,
museum collections, National Art Gallery collections, National Archive collection, archaeologicalcollection, food items, arts and cultural items; and living heritage treasures. In May 2012, the National
Heritage Act 2005 has recognised one traditional building skill which is bamboo-weaving for
traditional wall panel as National Heritage of Malaysia (see 5.1 for further explanation of the bambooweaving panel). This is perceived as a good move by the Government of Malaysia to protect andsafeguard its traditional building skills.
The National Heritage Act 2005 also allows the Minister to declare any living individuals possessing
high skills and local knowledge of the cultural heritage as the Living Heritage Treasures of Malaysia.
However, since the establishment of the Act, none of the Living Heritage Treasures has a backgroundof traditional building skills, particularly in the building industry. After the National Heritage Act
2005 came into place, the Department of National Heritage Malaysia was established in 2006 as
custodian of the country’s heritage including in overseeing the practice of traditional building skills inbuilding conservation. The Department has organised heritage forums, seminars, workshops andtraining programmes to develop traditional building skills, especially among building contractors andskilled workers.

4

Building Defect Diagnosis in Conservation Works

In the practice of building conservation, conducting building defect diagnosis is an important task as it
relates to traditional building skills and local skilled craftsmen. Thus, a dilapidation survey should be
carried out prior to any building conservation work to ascertain the extent of building problems anddefects. In Malaysia, the dilapidation survey results often reveal common problems of heritagebuildings including rising damp, salt attack, termite infestation, broken plaster walls renderings,
harmful plant growth, peeling paint, roof leakage and damaged rainwater goods. The dilapidation
survey also discusses remedial treatments for termite treatment, salt desalination, restoring timber
panels, re-plastering, repainting; and mechanical and electrical works.
Multidisciplinary expert advice is necessary in the building conservation. This includes architects,
structural and mechanical engineers, quantity surveyors, interior designers, fine artists, historians,botanists, chemists; and other local experts. A comprehensive building defect diagnosis is important
to ensure that the conservation work is conducted appropriately in accord with the principle ofminimum intervention, which adopts only the proven methods and techniques, and is based onscholarly scientific and technical analyses.

5Conservation of Heritage Mosques in Malaysia

This section highlights the conservation projects of three heritage mosques in Malaysia which
required traditional building skills, local knowledge and experts; from bamboo-weaving skills andpainting to roof layering and wall mural restoration. The buildings are Old Mosque of Kampung
Kuala Dal in the state of Perak; Kedai Mulong Old Mosque in the state of Kelantan which is at theEast Coast of Malay Peninsula; and Old Machap Mosque in the historic state of Malacca. All projects－ 34 －

2were funded by the Government of Malaysia through the Department of National Heritage during
2008-2010.

5.1

Conservation of the Old Mosque of Kampung Kuala Dal, Padang Rengas, Perak

The conservation of the Old Mosque of Kampung Kuala Dal began in 2008. Skilled carpenters were
employed to restore timber lattice panels and bamboo-weaving walls, which were damaged due toprolonged dampness from rainfall and insect attacks. The workers identified the original timber
species and size of timber panels prior to replacing the defective timber carvings. New timber
carvings were hand-made by skilled local carpenters.

Views of the Old Mosque of Kampung Kuala Dal before and after conservation

Likewise, the skilled workers prepared an inventory of the original bamboo weavings by building
section and location prior to replacing the damaged bamboos. Since the bamboo type and skilledcraftsmen were unavailable locally, the material and skills were out-sourced from the town of Arau,
Perlis, some 2.5 hour drive north of the site. All traditional bamboo weavings were hand-made by ahandicraft entrepreneur, Mrs. Meriah Ahmad of Perlis. Her team workers soaked fresh bamboos andleave them to dry to soften their texture and enhance their flexibility for the traditional weaving
process. Treated bamboos were weaved by skilled hand into diamond-shaped designs and painted
based on the original colours. Skilled workers fastened new bamboo weavings onto the exterior wallsof the Old Mosque to finish the effect.

－ 35 －

3

A Ghafar
Bin Ahmad

The Old Mosque of Kampung Kuala Dal was built in 1936. It is also known as the Ihsaniah
Iskandariah Mosque after a Perak State Sultanate. The architectural quality of the mosque is evident
in its distinctive diamond-shaped bamboo weaving decorations (known as tepas) found on the exterior
walls. Local artisans had made the intricate weaving design by hand using a special bamboo calledbuluh minyak (Babbusa vulgaris). The colours of the original bamboo carvings and weavings werebased on the Perak State flag of yellow, black and white. Skilled craftsmen also carved fine flower
motifs of Meranti timber (Shorea parvifolia) on fanlights and decorative panels above the windows of
the mosque.

A Ghafar
Bin Ahmad

All traditional bamboo weavings were hand-made by a female handicraft entrepreneur.

Local villagers were involved in repainting the bamboo-weaving panels.

5.2

Conservation of The Kedai Mulong Old Mosque, Kota Bharu, Kelantan

The Kedai Mulong Old Mosque was built in the early 1900. It was originally built as a royal hall,constructed as part of the state regal complex. The original building was built raised on timber stumps
of Chengal hardwood (Neobalanocarpus heimii). The building portrays excellent Malay carpentry
work of wood carvings, lattice panels, columns, walls, ceiling, and two-tier roofs of curved fascia
boards. In 1958, the building was bought by a local, who dismantled and relocated the building to its
present site at Kedai Mulong about 7 miles away from the royal palace. The building was resized withnew additions including asbestos roofing, verandah and toilets to accommodate its new function as amosque.
Conservation works of the Old Mosque began in 2008 which involved repositioning the buildingalignment due to disputes over boundary line; replacing asbestos roofing with Singgora tiles clay
slates; building a verandah at entrance; demolishing an old toilet, and re-wiring works. A major
obstacle was faced in moving the building to its new location of 25 feet distance away. The local
workers lifted the building using a 20-tonne jack to place temporary timber beams and GI pipes－ 36 －

4underneath the timber stumps. With the help of 3 units of chain lock and man power, the building was
shifted to its designated site. The workers also fixed concrete blocks onto the timber stump base toensure building support and stability.

A Ghafar
Bin Ahmad

The Kedai Mulong Old Mosque was repositioned to its new location of 25 feet distance away

Views of the Kedai Mulong Old Mosque before and after conservation

The conservation of the Kedai Mulong Old Mosque involved local community participation Local
villagers, mostly women, had been engaged in repairing the timber lattice panels. Other skilledworkers were employed to replace the asbestos sheets on the roof with clay slates, which wereobtained from a nearby town of Bachok. Skilled workers also fixed new battens on the roof trusses tohold the clay slates in place. The original roof design of curved fascia boards was reinstated. Only theChengal hardwood was used in the new timber structures and elements to retain the building
authenticity. New timber structures were tagged using metal plates for future references and archival
records.

－ 37 －

5

A Ghafar
Bin Ahmad

Local women were engaged in repairing the timber lattice panels of the mosque

5.3

Conservation of Wall Murals at the Old Machap Mosque, Alor Gajah, Malacca

Built in 1902, the Old Machap Mosque was designed with two-tier roof structures and a small domed
roof. During the World War II, the mosque committee helped the local Chinese community; and in
return, the Chinese community raised much money for the mosque renovation. A marble plaque foundon the exterior wall lists, in Chinese characters, the donors’ names and their respective donations.
Apart from its unique roof design, the mosque is well known for its 27 wall murals depicting theimages of plants, flowers, fruits and vases as Islamic teachings forbade the use of figurative motifs
like people or animals on religious buildings. However, over the years, the wall murals sufferedserious problems of over painting from past restorations; chipping and breaking of plasters on muralsurface; and scratches on plaster and original painted surfaces. Only a few murals, mainly locatedabove the window and door frames, were left untouched, portraying the original colours of thepaintings. The mural colour scheme, design and painting methods are similar to that found in China.

The Old Macap Mosque was designed symmetrically with two-tier roof structures and a small domed roof

－ 38 －

6

Building diagnosis report revealed that the wall murals of the Old Machap Mosque suffered overpainting from past restoration works; broken plasters on mural surface; and scratches on painted
surfaces. Several murals located above windows and door frames remained intact in their original
colours. Conservation works of the mosque took place in 2009.

The wet cleaning technique involved the application of cotton tips and chemical solutions to remove the newlayers of paints－ 39 －

7

A Ghafar
Bin Ahmad

The conservation works involved removing old paint layers from the original pieces; identifying
defective murals and demarcating them on scaled drawings; and determining weather conditions,humidity levels and UV-ray intensity at the site. The skilled workers removed the old paint layers
meticulously using both dry and wet cleaning techniques. In the dry cleaning process, the workers
used soft brush, wire brush and scraping tools; while in the wet cleaning technique, the workers usedethanol and trichloroethylene solutions for cleaning. Paper pulp technique was applied onto wallmurals of high moisture content. All wall murals were finally protected with a synthetic resin coatingof methacrylates (paraloid B 72). Due to lack of skilled building workers, experts from the National
Art Gallery, Malaysia were engaged to document the conditions of the wall murals, and also to give
advice on the cleaning techniques and remedial treatments. Each wall mural was tagged with a special
code for documentation references and archival purposes.

A Ghafar
Bin Ahmad

Views showing one of the wall murals at the Old Machap Mosque before (left) and after (right) conservation

6.

Concluding Remarks

The three case studies of mosque conservation projects discussed in this paper have shown theimportant contributions of the local craftsmen and building workers in terms of their traditionalbuilding skills and long experience in the building industry. Most building conservation works require
multidisciplinary feedbacks and contributions from diverse expertise including the local craftsmen.
This input is necessary to establish authentic assessment and verification of heritage resources inparallel with the Nara Document on Authenticity (1994). Diverse inputs and interpretations bybuilding experts provide reliable and validated evidence based on scholarly scientific methods.
The establishment of National Heritage Act 2005 is a milestone in the cause of protecting andsafeguarding the country’s tangible and intangible heritage resources. The Act has provisions torecognise prominent Malaysian figures as the Living Heritage Treasures. This is an honour dedicatedto Malaysian men or women who acquire specialised skills in the intangible heritage of performing
arts. However, the provision of the Act should be extended to acknowledge any Malaysians who
possess outstanding traditional building skills and craftsmanship, particularly in the building industry,
as the Living Heritage Treasures. Such recognition is important to ensure their mastery skills onbuilding repair and maintenance could be passed on to the next generation.
An effective system of traditional building skills training and skills qualifications should be developed
systematically within the public and private sectors. A pragmatic response to the issues of ongoingskills shortage is providing more access and incentives for building contractors, construction workers
and interested persons to attend building skills training and re-training courses for re-tooling
qualifications. Training courses could be held at historic sites so that trainees could learn first-handabout repairing a structure or building within a heritage site. Trainees should be exposed to the
traditional methods and techniques for the conservation and repair of the heritage buildings using lime

－ 40 －

8

plaster, stone, sand and timber to demonstrate the value and relevance of traditional building skills. It
is clear that the overall vision of protecting and conserving Malaysia’s heritage buildings could not becompletely achieved without making sure that the building workers at all levels are equipped with thenecessary knowledge, materials, skills as well as a positive attitude and outlook to retain and upkeep
the legacy of the country’s timeless built heritage.

References“Restoration of the Ihsaniah Iskandariah Mosque: The Old Mosque of Kampong Kuala Dal, Perak,
Malaysia”. ACCU Nara International Correspondent: Fifth Regular Report. Cultural Heritage
Protection Cooperation Office, Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU). Nara, Japan.
2010. p. 12-15.
“Restoration of Kedai Mulong Old Mosque, Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia”. ACCU Nara
International Correspondent: The Fourth Regular Report With Special Reports. Cultural Heritage
Protection Cooperation Office, Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU). Nara, Japan.
2009. p. 8-10.
National Heritage Act 2005 (Act 645).
Nara Document on Authenticity (1994). Website: http://www.japan-icomos.org/pdf/nara.pdf.
Accessed on the 17th of June 2012.

－ 41 －

9

A Ghafar
Bin Ahmad

A Ghafar Bin Ahmad. “Conservation of Wall Murals at the Old Machap Mosque, Alor Gajah,
Malacca, Malaysia”. ACCU Nara International Correspondent: The Sixth Regular Report.
Cultural Heritage Protection Cooperation Office, Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO(ACCU). Nara, Japan. 2010. p. 14-16.

－ 42 －

Safeguarding Traditional Painting Skills in Nepal
Kai Weise
Chairperson / Architect
Planners’ Alliance for the Himalayan and Allied Regions - Nepal

Abstract
Most traditional buildings throughout Nepal will have used various colours of clay to give their houses
a pleasing appearance. However there are several examples of very highly developed traditional forms
paintings and Malla murals. Mithila Art might be considered a folk art which is transitional and thepaintings are redone during important occasions. The Buddhist wall painting and the Malla murals are
however highly developed forms of art with examples several centuries old still being preserved. The
conservation efforts of these art forms are dependent on retaining or reintroducing craftsmanshipwhich ensures the required quality to maintain the paintings. This has in some cases lead to theintroduction of commercial enterprises to ensure the viability of such a trade.
Keywords:
Mithila Art, Mustang wall paintings, Malla murals, painting conservation, skill transmission

1.

Introduction - Traditional Building Decoration in Nepal

Painting has always been an important component of architecture. Paints can have a protectivefunction, but is generally associated with colours and ornamentation. In turn colours have a
psychological impact and are used to create a certain atmosphere or might be linked to some symbolic
meaning. Traditionally paints have been used in a sparing manner. Gazing across Nepal, there doesn’t
seem to be too many examples of extravagant use of paints. There are clearly two considerations thatneed to be made here: paints are expensive and when used as ornamentation, require a certain degreeof craftsmanship.
Therefore most traditional buildings throughout the country will have used various colours of clay togive their houses a pleasing appearance. Earth in various hues of ochre to deep red is often mixed withcow dung to be applied regularly on the floors and lower portions of the wall to clean and strengthen
them. The upper parts of the walls are often plastered with white clay. The application of lime wash isalso used to safeguard from insects infestation. The application of these natural materials has more to
do with functionality than aesthetics; though the aesthetics does motivate the continued application ofthese methods. For example in Upper Mustang religious buildings stand out painted in strips of red,ochre, gray and white. The external earthen surfaces of the monasteries are covered in a striking deep－ 43 －Kai Weiseof painting on buildings. This paper will introduce three such examples: Mithila Art, Buddhist wall

red. The secular buildings are however only whitewashed, with a black band around the windows as aprotection against evil spirits. The various colours of clay are available in the surrounding landscape.
An additive which functions as an adhesive is required for the clay applied on wall surfaces. This caneither be collagen derived from boiling animal bones and skin or then molasses and fibres from grain
are used.
However there are several examples of very highly developed traditional forms of painting on
buildings. This paper will introduce three such examples: Mithila Art, Buddhist wall paintings andMalla murals. Mithila Art might be considered more folk art which is not preserved however repainted
during important occasions. The Buddhist wall painting and the Malla murals are however highly
developed forms of art with examples that are several centuries old still being preserved. The
conservation efforts of these art forms are dependent on retaining or reintroducing craftsmanship
Kai Weise

which ensures the required quality to maintain the paintings. This has in some cases lead to theintroduction of commercial enterprises to ensure the viability of such a trade.

2.

Mithila Art

2.1. Context
Mithila is an ancient region from the period of the great epics, which today straddles the border
between Nepal and India. The capital of Mithila was Janakpur, home to Sita, the consort of Lord Ramaof the great epic the Ramayana. This city in south-eastern Nepal is where the Janaki Temple is located:a site on the tentative list for World Heritage. The Maithili speaking people retained their ancient ritual
practices over centuries. One of their unique forms of cultural expression was the tradition of thewomen to pain t on the floor and the walls of their dwellings. Floor drawings or line drawings on the
ground are known as Aripana and wall or mural paintings are known as Mithila art. These activities
have been deeply rooted in the daily practices of all castes of women in the Maithili community. The
paintings which are prepared to beautify the dwelling as well as for ritual purposes, are comprised ofsimple and colourful forms depicting the everyday life and the important occasions of the Maithili
communities.

2.2. Motifs
The motifs of the paintings areclosely linked to the daily lives
as well as the traditional ritualsof the community. For example
the walls will be painted on
special occasions such as births,
sacred threat

ceremonies,

weddings andon religious

festivals.

Weddings

areFigure 1: Wedding of Rama and Sita. Image by Alessandra Campoli－ 44 －

important occasions and various motives would be painted on the walls of the bride’s home often
depicting the wedding party itself. The important annual festivals are for example Deepawali (thefestival of lights), Naag panchami (festival of worshipping the god of snake) andDurgasthami (the eighth day of the Goddess Durga festival). Accordingly decorative motifs,
mythological scenes, images of snakes and Goddess Durga astride a tiger are painted on the walls.
Additionally motives that occur in daily life are presented in an abstract manner. Motives can be basedon the images of birds and animals such as peacocks, tortoises, and scorpions. Mithila art can also
depict the sun and moon or human figures that narrate stories. The motives are given special meaning.
For example an elephant stands for good luck and a parrot for love and affection. A fish is a symbol of
fertility, which is also shared by the lotus. The lotus however also symbolizes female beauty andcouple is meant to encourage the union of the bridegroom and bride. The motif of a female and malebird symbolizes the future destiny of the married couple (Misra 2003 and Praween 2008).
The floor paintings or Aripans are usually more diagrams for ritual purposes. The motives can be
human and animals, flowers and plants, gods and goddesses or natural settings with mountains andrivers. Very designs can also represent yantras, cosmological diagrams of Tantra. Tantra is an esotericbelief system followed by both Hindus and Buddhist that originated in South Asia around the fifth
century C.E.

2.3

Materials and Application

The Janakpur Handicraft Centre website provides interesting information on the materials andapplications in Mithila art. The various bright colours used in Maitili art were derived from natural
sources, such as from clay, leaves, petals, bark, roots and soot. Yellow is obtained from petals of
flowers or turmeric while red is obtained from local clay. Black is generally obtained by lamp spot andwhite from powdered rice. Pink is obtained by drying the bark of the peepal tree (Ficus religious) andthen boiling it in water. Blue is obtained by crushing wild blue berries, locally called sikkar. Dark
green is made from the leaves of the Saim creepers. Parrot green is obtained from the sepals of thegulmohar tree (Delonix regia). Natural gum from the Babul tree (Acacia nilotica) is added to thepigments for durability. A light colour is obtained by mixing cow-dung and gum in fresh water. They
also sometimes use watercolour mixed with rice powder and vermillion.
The wall or ground surface is usually prepared by smearing with clay or cow dung before drawing.
The designs are then drawn using fingers. Generally brushes are not used and the colours are applied
using a piece of raw cotton wrapped around one end of a twig, bamboo splint or matchstick. Special
rituals are required for the preparation of the Aripans which represent purified spaces for rituals anddomesti c ceremonies. Cow dung is usually applied over the clean swept ground of the courtyard orroom so that the ground is sanctified for the painting of the tantric yantras.
－ 45 －Kai Weise

represents the female sexual organs, while bamboo represents the male sexual organ. The parrot

2.4

Issues on Restoration / Conservation

With the need to renew the earthen floors and walls, the illustrations needed to be regularly repainted.
The paintings fade, are washed away or deteriorate with the walls. Therefore they might last only fiveto six years. That meant that the paintings themselves were not conserved. However the tradition ofpainting has continued along with the persistence of the Mithila culture. Painting on walls of buildings
has however slowly become fashionable. Resorts such as Machan in the Chitwan National Park havedecorated their huts with Mithila paintings.
The Mithila art has become widely known through the promotion of handicrafts and painting on
traditional paper. It was in the 1990s that local handmade paper from the bark of the lokta shrubs wasintroduced. Today, the natural colours have often been replaced by acrylic paint which is applied using
Kai Weisemodern brushes. With the introduction of painting on paper, even the motives have slowly evolved.
The symbolism and ritual meaning has become less important. The colourful images are also preparedon commercial goods such as cards, stationary, ceramics, clothes, bags, cushion covers, tapestry andeven ashtrays. The expanding market has provided a definite income and much needed financial
empowerment to the local women. However, the form of art and its deeply rooted traditions arechanging. The motifs are changing as per the demand of the market. The rituals that go with the
preparation of the art are being lost. Along with this, even male members of the community havebegun to paint.
In general, this form of art is surviving especially since it has been able to adapt to the changing
circumstances. That which has lasted over generations has been what girls have learnt watching thework of their mothers, grandmothers and other relatives and neighbours, while they draw and paint on
the walls and floor of their homes (Misra 2003).

3.
3.1

The Malla Murals of Kathmandu Valley
Context

The close link between the artists of the Kathmandu Valley and the sphere of Buddhist influence
toward the north of Nepal is evident as early as the seventh century CE. Many celebrated Nepalese
craftsmen were commissioned to produce works of art by rulers as far away as Beijing and possibly
the caves at Dunhoung. It is said that King Srong-btsang sgam-po had the Nepali craftsman Khre-ba tohave eleven images of Avalokitesvara made in the Jokhang in Lhasa. It is said that in 1262 Kublai
Khan commissioned a Nepali architect A-ni-ko to design the Golden Pagoda in Tibet which then was
followed by the White Pagoda in Beijing. However a very important influence for the region was thepainting of mandalas. This was especially the case in the fifteenth century CE; Nepali artists from theKathmandu Valley were taken to decorate the Ngor Monastery with exquisite wall paintings. Within
the Kathmandu Valley we however do not find many examples of this legendary craftsmanship(Kramrich 1964: 43-44).

－ 46 －

In the Kathmandu Valley one finds the most exquisitely decorated buildings of brick, wood, bronze
and gold. This was one set of attributes which allowed for inscription on the List of World Heritage.
“The cultural traditions of the multi-ethnic people who settled in this remote Himalayan valley overthe past two millennia, referred to as the Newars, … are manifested in the ornamentation of thebuildings, the urban structure and often the surrounding natural environment, which are closely
associated with legends, rituals and festivals. … A high degree of ornamentation was achieved specificto each of the styles. This is especially the case with ornamental fired bricks, intricate carving ofwooden elements and stucco ornamentation of the Rana style buildings. The use of stone and carved
stone elements was limited to some temples. The correct interpretation and employment of theseelements is an important aspect in respect to authenticity” (Department of Archaeology 2007: 4-8).
However in the Kathmandu Valley there are very few historical mural paintings remaining. The
the Malla palace complex in Bhaktapur we have amural painting in the fifty-five window palace and in
the Taleju Bhawani temple in Mul Chowk. In Patan
there are remains of mural paintings in the Sundari
Chowk section of the medieval palace. Even in the
Hanuman Dhoka palace in Kathmandu there aresupposedly mural paintings in some of the sections of
the palace that are not open to the public.
When famed Chinese envoy Wang Hsüan-tse visited
Nepal in the seventh century, he noted manyarchitectural marvels and houses embellished with
sculptures and paintings. (Kramrich 1964: 18)
However there aren’t any murals that have survived
from this period. The earliest examples of Nepali
painting that have survived are in the form of
manuscript illustrations on palm leaves from theeleventh century CE. The Paubha painting on cloth
most probably originated in the Kathmandu Valley
and was later introduced to Tibet where it is known asa Thangka. The oldest preserved Paubha is of
Ratnasambhava from the thirteenth century, today
at the Los Angeles County Museum (Shakya 2011).

3.2

Figure 2: Mural with central figure of Lord Shiva
Vishworupa, Fifty-five window palace, Bhaktapur

MotifsThe motifs of the murals found in the Kathmandu Valley are highly influenced by religious motives.
These are supplemented with images of the rulers along with community activities. The palace in－ 47 －Kai Weisepainting of intricate murals on the interior walls seems to have been a pursuit of some Malla kings. InBhaktapur has one of the best examples of murals from the early eighteenth century. “Beside thearchitecture itself and the carved fifty five windows, the significant contribution of King Bhupatindra
Malla is the 'tempera paintings' on the first floor walls of the palace. The tempera paintings represent arare example depicting different devis (goddesses), along with dances, social life and culture of thepeople and the self-portrait of the king and the queen. The central figure of the painting is dedicated to
Lord Shiva Vishworupa. This has been classified as one of the rarest paintings of Nepal” (Shrestha
2006: 2). These paintings are the depiction of different stories as narrated in the Hindu epics:
Ramayana and Mahabharat.
“Mandala painting strictly does not lend itself to the creative experience of the artist. Where it does, itapproximates the form of a pata, a painting of images. Although this, too, is guided by prescription sothat it conforms to the original conception and to its religious significance, it demands from the artist
Kai Weise

identification with his work. He, who wants to paint an image, if he cannot be it, cannot paint it. Overand above its prescribed iconography, a pata may be great art. Mandalas painted in Nepal are lessrigorously controlled in their organization than those painted in the Tibetan monasteries” (Kramrich1964: 46). Such patas can be found in the Taleju Bhawani temple located in the Mul Chowk of the
Bhaktapur palace.

3.3.

Materials and Application

Painting in the Kathmandu Valley was carried out by the Chitrakar caste or guild. Like with many ofsuch specialized guilds, the techniques of producing the materials and instruments and theirapplication has been a tightly guarded trade secret. According to Dr. Rohit Ranjitkar of the Kathmandu
Valley Preservation Trust, all this information is collected in books which are not published and on the
cover there is written a curse to anyone who shows the book to the uninitiated.
“The murals, of which only a few
instances are known, are executed
mostly

with

water

solubleingredients, in tempera techniques,on a mud plastered base” (Banerjee
1980:162). The basic informationthat we do know is that watersolublevegetable

andmineralpigments were used along with egg
as a binding material. The Tempera
technique is a fast-drying painting
medium which is usually applied innumerous thin, semi- opaque ortransparent
colours

layers.

might

not

ThoughtheFigure 3: Devi Bhairav, Taleju Bhavani Temple, Bhaktapur 17. C. Image

seem

very

from M. Singh－ 48 －

saturated, the paints are lasting and do not change over time. Today the traditional tempera paint has
been replaced by poster paints with a gum binder.
The Taleju Bhawani temple in Bhaktapur displays exquisite examples of Malla period murals. “Themethod adopted in preparing the surface, drawing and colouring is, with slight variations, very
similar to that adopted in the Ajanta caves at the beginning of the Christian era. The wall was firstcovered with two or three layers of slaked lime mixed with water and animal glue. The surface of the
thickened and dried lime was then polished by rubbing it with a smooth substance. (Contrary topractice at Ajanta, in Nepal rice husk was not employed to increase the tenacity of the plaster.) The
surfacehavingbeen

thus

prepared, the figures were traced in black with soot from oil lamps,

always beginning with the central figure as the nucleus around which the secondary scenes were thendrawn. Paintings belonging to a later period also used black outlines, sometimes with Indian ink
being red, yellow, vitriol green, carmine, indigo, lime white, and blue from lapis - lazuli” (Banerjee
1980: 214-5).
As with the materials, the Chitrakar or painters guild were given specific painting tasks within thecommunity. For example they would be required to annual repaint various ritual and symbolic portionsof temples and community buildings. This less intricate form of painting has continued in many places.
The quality of these paintings is clearly of degenerated quality, though even this tradition seems to be
dying out.
Dr. Ranjitkar, who is working on the restoration of
the Sundari Chowk of the palace complex in Patan
mentioned the ongoing discourse on the age of thepainting which can be found on the carved wooden
struts. The traditional construction materials in
Newari architecture are not normally known to be
painted. Stone, wood and burnt earthen bricks andtiles are left with their natural finish. Therefore thepainting of wooden elements and even stone statues
would have been a very recent development.

3.4. Issues on Restoration / Conservation“Apart from the factor of moisture in the humidity
affecting the colours, these have been affected bystreaks of water running down the leaks in the roofs.
Some of these are on the outer walls of temples,
where they are subject to too much exposure to thesun’s rays and heat, rainfall and moisture. They are－ 49 －

Figure 4: Ratnasambhva 12. C. Newari Artist
in Tibet Image from Bangdel and Huntington

Kai Weise

replacing the soot. The colours, mainly from mineral sources, were then filled in, prominent colours

also, particularly in the lower levels, easily accessible to the human hand and its evil affects. Besides,
as animal sacrifice is an inescapable ritual in Nepal and the frenzy of the devotees leads to directing
splashes of the blood spurting from the freshly cut up arteries of the sacrificed animals onto thepainted deities. The problem of organic invasion and intrusion upon the murals is further accentuated”(Banerjee 1980: 162).
Restoration of the fifty-five window palace in Bhaktapur was complicated by the fact that the central
load-bearing wall was covered with exquisite mural paintings. This meant that any reconstruction
works such as the replacement or strengthening of structural elements could not be done in this section.
Additionally the painting needed to be protected during the restoration period. Most of the palace wasrestored over a period spanning practically three decades and was completed in 2008. Restoration
work on the murals was carried out by a team from the Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo
Kai Weise

Oriente (IsMEO) over numerous years. These delicate paintings might however not last too long if thecurrent trend of allowing visitors is not controlled. The exquisite paintings on the Taleju Bhawani
temple of the Mul Chowk are however in danger due to their restricted access and linkages tomysterious tantric rites and rituals.
During a survey carried out by a UNESCO team in 1995 on Sundari Chowk (part of the Royal Palacein Patan), some murals were discovered that had been covered by whitewash. The condition of thesemurals was however in precarious condition possibly even before they were painted over. It might
have actually been the reason for covering up the murals, since there were no interest, resources andknowhow to preserve these. This further supports the theory that mural paint probably died out rather
early due to their susceptibility to earthquakes.
There have also been major discussions on when the painting of stone and wooden elements andstatues was introduced. This topic was raised in discussions with Dr. Rohit Ranjitkar. There arevarious temples and parts of the royal palaces of the Mallas where wooden elements, mainly struts
have been painted in numerous colours. The general painting of wooden doors and windows wasintroduced in the Rana period in the late nineteenth century with the influence of Europeanarchitecture. There is great probability that the painting of elements in the Malla style building was
also introduced only after this influence of the Rana period took root. Even the huge stone statue of
Kal Bhairab at Hanuman Dhoka was originally not painted.
Impact on conservation has also been due to the Chitrakar guild being a secretive society. Additionallythe changes in their customs and rituals have had a major impact on the maintenance of various
monuments. The regular painting of the protective deities in front of the Mul Chowk of the Patan
palace has stopped over the past few years. Soon the images will disappear and the custom of having
this painting will die out and be forgotten.

－ 50 －

4.
The Buddhist Wall Paintings: Case Upper Mustang
4.1. Context
One of the great traditions of wall paintings in the country would clearly be that of the Buddhist
monasteries. The tradition has spread along the entire Himalayan range and continues to be practiced
in the new monasteries that are being built. The wall paintings of the monasteries in Lo Manthang,Upper Mustang have come to highlight due to a restoration project that was launched over a decadeago. Lo Manthang has also been put on the tentative list for World Heritage and the State Party is in
the process of nominating the property.
During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries CE, Upper Mustang was an independent kingdom of Lo
within the sphere of influence of the western states of Tibet. During this period, of the four major
school of Tibetan Buddhism, (Nyingma-pa, Sakya-pa, Kagyu-pa, and Geluk-pa) the Sakya-pa schoolfounded the great Ngor Monastery in Tibet in 1429 which then became the centre of cultural activities.
The Ngor Monastery was famous for its mandala paintings, many done by Newari painters brought infrom Kathmandu. Lo gained its wealth from the trade that flourished along the main route that woundalong the Kali Gandaki River through the Himalayan range. The king was thus able to commission thebuilding of two gompas or monasteries: Thupchen and Jampa. It was under the cultural influence of
the Ngor style with the help of Newari craftsman from Kathmandu that these magnificent monasteries
were built (Selter 2006: 25-29).
Ngor was completely destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, leaving the monasteries in Lo as soleremaining examples of this style from the Ngor period. Upper Mustang remained a restricted area forforeigners until 1992. There were a few adventurers and Tibetologists such as Giuseppe Tucci, who
was allowed to visit Mustang in 1952, and reported on the state of the exquisite wall paintings.
“The great temple of Thugchen ison the verge of collapsing. … The
frescoes running round the walls are
excellently done and of a good
period; beneath them, in letters ofgold, a long inscription explains their meaning and commemorates theking, the nobles who provided theillustrious

work

at

their

own

expense, and the names of the artists.
… The other temple is dedicated to
Chamba, Maitreya. It used to be twostoreys high, but the upper storey is

Figure 5; Mandala Wall Paintings in Jampa Gompa, Lo Manthang.

completely ruined and numerous

Image from E. Selter, UNESCO Kathmandu－ 51 －Kai Weiseof Tibetan Buddhism was predominant. It was the Sakya-pa lama Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo whocracks are splitting the lower chapel too. To the left of the entrance there are frescoes from the same
period by the same artists as those in the preceding temple, portraying Dorje Sempa, Metabarba, themandala of Dorje Sempa and to the right Tigten Gompa. The paintings are blackened, in some parts
erased by the water dripping from the ceilings” (Tucci 1953: 62).

4.2 Motifs
Jampa gompa is covered with hundreds of mandalas over the entire wall surface of the three floors,linking the temple to the Ngor tradition. “Mandalas are visual supports of concentration andmeditation, ritual aids on the way toward the Centre of the cosmos and self. Cosmos and self coincidein the image of the central and main divinity of the mandala. … Mandala painting is an art applied to
an instrument (yantra).

It must be correctly made to fulfill its purpose, which is to serve as a chart or

guide out of the chaos of the unconscious and the entanglements of the world. The execution of these
Kai Weise

instruments demands correctness and precision from the painter. Mandala painting strictly does notlend itself to the creative experience of the artist (Kramrich 1964: 44).
The murals were painted in secco technique on several preparatory layers on clay. Strict rules of
iconometry govern the figure of a Buddha. Therefore to begin a painting, an iconometically correct
diagram must first be prepared. Since the images are to express religious concepts and to serve
devotional and spiritual practice, they will only function
and have the power if they are correctly drawn. The
Buddha is said to have been of perfect proportions andthe reproduction of these proportions are essential. The
portrayal of the mudras or hand positions, the pose, thedress along with the colours must be correctly followed.

4.3. Issues on Restoration / Conservation
Due to the remoteness and isolation of Lo Manthang,
the gompas and their murals were preserved. Due to theeconomic downfall of the kingdom, not even thecustom of painting over the faded murals wasundertaken. However the state of the main structure of
the gompas were in a precarious state and leakages
from the roof had allowed many parts of the murals to
be damaged. In 1998 these gompas were put on theWorld Heritage Fund Watch List and a restoration
project under the American Himalayan Foundation wasstarted. The wall painting conservators for theAmerican Himalayan Foundation were led by an
Italian expert: Luigi Fieni. The main structures of the

Figure 6: Repainted portions of Wall Paintings at

gompas were secured and the leaking roof of Thupchen

Thupchen Gompa, Lo Manthang. Image from J.
Sanday in SPACES－ 52 －

replaced using the traditional technique of round timbers, river stones, and local clay for waterproofing.
The wall paintings were then cleaned of the soot that had accumulated from the burning of butter
lamps. Detached parts of the plaster were secured using mud plaster and the paint was consolidated
using chemical adhesives. More detailed information can be obtained on the following website:
http://www.luigifieni.com/.
Numerous painters included locals who then took pride in their own heritage were trained through thisproject. This was done through the knowledge of masters in thangka painting. The painting skills havebeen well preserved through thangka painting, which has a much better commercial viability. However
various new issues arose in respect to the usage of the gompas. The community was supposedly notsatisfied with the conservation of the paintings and wanted the parts that were lost to be repainted.
This was discouraged by the foreign specialists. Even though earlier attempts of poor quality“In answer to the question of worshipping

handicapped divinities noted scholars, of Tibetan art and the Italian conservators themselves agreed
that it a best to outline the missing parts of the figures, depicting this new work by using a single
colour and that a lacuna or “divide” should separate the new from the old” (Sanday 2011: 55). Thismethod was however not followed and an attempt was made to actually recreate the lost portions of
the paintings.
A further example of a much less extravagant project was the proposed restoration of monasteries in
Rasuwa district. The UNESCO Office in Kathmandu was to support the Community Learning Centres(CLC) in Dhunche, Thulo Bharku and Syabrubesi. Since Gompas (Tibetan for “A solitary space”) are
the centre of traditional community activities for the Tamangs, it was found necessary to help thecommunities with the restoration of their Gompas. Through the process of restoration of the Gompas,
the communities would become aware of the importance of conserving their heritage, architecture andhandicrafts. The walls needed to be secured, especially where cracks were found. The roof structuresneeded to be strengthened and traditional slate roofing fixed or reintroduced. The flooring in andaround the Gompa needed to be improved or covered with flagstones or thick slate. The paintings on
the internal walls need to be repaired and painted with traditional murals or preserved where possible(Piya and Weise 2003).

5.

Transmitted to the next Generation

The transmission of traditional painting skills requires a holistic approach. This means that along wit h
the actual skills in painting, it also requires the knowledge in preparing the paints and the necessary
instruments. This is often linked to traditional rituals during all stages of such activities, which again islinked to the social context. Additionally, the motivation of the craftsman must also be taken into
consideration. It could be that the motivation is purely religious; however economy and prestige often
play an important role in ensuring the continued survival of a given trade.
The craftsmanship required for Mithila art is being preserved through the introduction of painting on－ 53 －Kai Weise

repainting were found, it was possible to remove them.

local paper that has become a commercial enterprise such as at the Janakpur Handicraft Centre. Thesepaintings are not dependent on the specific religious or social event and can be painted anytime andanywhere. However, through the commercialization of this art form, certain changes have taken place
which includes the material, the instruments, the motifs and the quality of the product. The painting on
paper does not consider the rituals that are the basis for the creation of such art. Nevertheless, the art isflourishing and the continued use of this art-form on the buildings has already been reintroduced.
There are few historic murals remaining in
the Kathmandu Valley. Possibly due to theirsusceptibility to destruction by earthquakes
and other forms of impact, this form of art
seems to have died out. Painting within the
Kai Weise

Newari community has been the occupationof the Chitrakar guild. They have howeverbeen very secretive and have not allowed
for their trade secrets to be openly
disseminated. In many cases, their guild has
however not been able to continue carryingout their duties in maintaining the painting
on monuments. Mural painting as such has

Figure 7: Malla Murals at Sundari Chowk, Patan Durbar.

totally died out.

Image K. Weise

The skills of the Newari artists have been kept alive through the commercialized production ofthangkas. Various schools for thangka painting have emerged which teach the correct iconography aswell as the painting techniques. There are however many contemporary interpretations of motifs andvarying quality of thangkas on the market. The skills seem to have survived and new generations ofartists are being trained. These same artists have been utilized in the restoration of the Buddhist
monasteries in Lo Manthang. The international restoration project also trained local artisans. The local
philosophy of conserving the historic wall paintings however diverged drastically and lost portions of
the paintings were recreated.
With these examples we see that a strategy can be developed to ensure the continued transmission ofskills over generations. This would require awareness of the importance and need of painting. It would
require the enabling of such transmission through the possibility of trainings and apprenticeships. It
would also require the consideration of economic return and social prestige for those who choose to
dedicate their lives to this discipline.

－ 54 －

Bibliography
Bangdel, D. and Huntington, J.C. 2004. The Circle of Bliss, Buddhist Meditational Art. Columbus
Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio. Serindia Publications, Chicago
Banerjee, N.R. 1980. Nepalese Architecture. Agam Kala Prakashan, Dehli, India
Bonapace C. and Sestini V. 2003. Traditional Materials and Construction Technologies used in the
Kathmandu Valley. UNESCO Paris
Campoli, A. 2008. Ritual Art of the Kingdom of Mithila, Traditional Paintings by Janakpur Women in
Nepal. Vajra publications, Kathmandu, Nepal
Department of Archaeology, Government of Nepal. 2007. The Integrated Management Framework for
the Kathmandu Valley World Heritage Property, (published in Nepali by UNESCO Kathmandu)
Gerner, M. 1987. Architekturen im Himalaja. Deutsch Velags-Anstalt, Stuttgart, Deutschland GTZ /udle. 1995. Images of a Century: The Changing Townscapes of the Kathmandu Valley . GTZ/udle,
Gutshow, N. 1997. The Nepalese Caitya; 1500 years of Buddhist Votive, Architecture in the
Kathmandu Valley. Edition Axel Menges, Stuttgart / London
Hutt, M., 1994. Nepal, A Guide to the Art and Architecture of the Kathmandu Valley. Kiscadale
Publications, Gartmore, Stirlingshire, Scotland
Korn, W. 1976. The Traditional Architecture of the Kathmandu Valley. Bibliotheca Himalayica, Series
III Volume 11, New Dehli, India
Kramrisch, S. 1964. The Art of Nepal. The Asia Society Inc. Asia House Gallery Publications
Lavizzari-Raeuber, A. 1984. Thangkas, Rollbilder aus dem Himalaya – Kunst und mystische
Bedeutung.Dumont Buchverlag Koeln, Deutschland
Misra, K.K. 2003. Mithila Paintings: Past, Present and Future, Digital Library of Indira Gandhi
National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi (www.ignca.nic.in/kmsh0002.htm)
Piya, M and Weise, K.P. 2003. Technical Survey Report and Proposal for Restoration of Tulku
Chhyeling Gompa at Dhunche, Tashi Gompa at Thulo Bharkhu and Dhuksang Tsheling Gompa at
Syabrubesi in Rasuwa District, Nepal. UNESCO Kathmandu, Unpublished
Praween, C.W.M. 2008. Mithila Art: Art of Living Lives. In http://mithila-art.blogspot.com/
Sanday, J. 2011. Above the Clouds: Conserving the Monaserty of Upper Mustang, Nepal. In Spaces
Volume 7 Issue 3 September – October 2011 pp. 48-55
Selter, E. 2007. Upper Mustang: Cultural Heritage of Lo Tso Dhun. UNESCO Kathmandu
Shakya, M.B. 1994. The Iconography of Nepalese Buddhism, Buddha Dharma Education AssociationInc.
_. 2011. Paubha Painting (http://www.artsofnepal.com/nepali-art-news/16/paubha-paintings.html)
Shrestha, R.G. 2006. A Final Report on Conservation of 55 Windows Palace. Heritage Section,
Bhaktapur Municipality, Nepal
Singh, M. 1968. Himalayan Art; Wall-painting and Sculpture in Ladakh, Lahaul and Spiti, the Siwalki
Ranges Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan. UNESCO Art Books, Macmillan and Company Ltd, London
Slusser, M.S. 1982. Nepal Mandala, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, USA
Toffin, G. ed. 1991. Man and his House in the Himalayas, Sterling Publishing Private Limited, New－ 55 －Kai Weise

Kathmandu, Nepal

Delhi, India
Tucci, G. 1953. Journey to Mustang 1952. Ratna Pustak Bhandar, Kathmandu Reprint 1977.
Weise, K.P. 1992. Kathmandu, The Metamorphosis & Present Issues. Unpublished Thesis, Federal
Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland -. 1998. Proposal and Feasibility Study: Conservation
and Town Planning of Lo Manthang, Mustang District, Nepal. Planners’ Alliance for the
Himalayan and Allied Regions, Unpublished Report.
Wiesner, U. 1976. Nepal, Konigreich im Himalaya, Geschichte, Kunst und Kultur im Kathmandu -Tal.
DuMont Buchverlag, Koln, Deutschland -. 1978. Nepalese Temple Architecture. E.J. Brill, Leiden,
Germany.

Kai Weise－ 56 －

Preserving the Painted Heritage of Sri Lanka
Jagath Weerasinghe
Professor
Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology

History of painted heritage of Sri Lanka goes as far back as to 2nd century BC. The earliest reference
to painting is found in the ancient chronicle, Mahavamsa, compiled in the 6th century BC, where adrawing of a palace drawn in cinnabar on cloth is mentionedi. The first reference to wall paintings isthe description of jataka (stories of the previous births of the Buddha) in the relic chamber of theMahastupa built by King Dutugamunu, 161-137 BC in Anuradhapuraii, the first capital of Sri Lanka.
However, the earliest and best-preserved mural paintings of Sri Lanka are found at Sigiriya, which is a
World Heritage site. These murals belong in the 5th century AD. The latest period of traditional Sri
regions of Sri Lanka. These murals while preserving many thematic and stylistic features of theprevious periods also constitute a pictorial idiom that can be best described as ‘post-traditional’ and‘proto-modern’. In this essay I shall be presenting the history of Sri Lankan painted heritage, thehistory of conservation of this heritage and the current issues pertaining to the preservation of thisheritage. First part of the essay will present the important mural sites and cycles in Sri Lanka and thesecond part of the essay will discuss the materials and techniques of these murals. The third part ofthe essay will present the history of conservation of painted heritage in Sri Lanka with special
attention to a few restoration projects in which I have been involved with. The fourth part, which isthe concluding section of the essay, will look into the current issues pertaining to the conservation ofpainted heritage of Sri Lanka while addressing the aspects pertaining to training of conservators,
current methods and techniques of conservation, and managing mural conservation activities.

1. Painted heritage of Sri Lanka: a very brief history
History of painted heritage in Sri Lanka is presented in this essay following the periodization proposed
by Senake Bandaranayake; Early Historical Period (EHP), Middle Historical Period (MHP), Late
Historical Period 1 (LHP1), Late Historical Period 2 (LHP2), and Modern Transition Period (MTP)iii.

Early and Middle Historical Periods (EHP and MHP) [250 BC to1250 AD]
Early and Middle Historical periods are considered together since the murals of these two periods
share so many stylistic and technical features. The best-preserved earliest painted heritage belonging
in this period is found at the Sigiriya World Heritage Site. Sigiriya is an ancient rock-shelter monasterysite, which later converted to a fortified palace and city in the 5th century AD by Kashyapa 1(AD477-95). The central feature of this site is a massive rock. The western façade of the rock, which－ 57 －

JagathWeerasinghe

Lankan murals began in the late 19th century, which can be seen in the Buddhist temples in the coastal

JagathWeerasinghe

The best-preserved earliest painted heritage belonging to the early and middle historical periods is found at the
Sigiriya World Heritage site.

has a prepared rock-surface protected by drip-ledges, which has originally been plastered anddecorated with painted celestial female figures. This must have been a gigantic mural painting,approximately measuring 140 meters long and 40 meters high. Currently there remains only afragment of this gigantic mural in a depression on the western faced consisting about 22 celestialfemale figures, popularly known as ‘apsaras’ of Sigiriya.
After Sigiriya, the next most important and sufficiently wellpreserved murals are found at the Tivamka Image House, 12th
century AD, in Polonnaruwa, belonging in the Middle Historical
Period. The interior wall surfaces of the Image House have been
decorated with murals of Jataka Stories and those of Buddha’s
life. The built spaces of the Image house consist of an entrance, avestibule, an antrala and the sanctum. The murals in the entrance
and the vestibule present the jataka stoies, the antrala, the spacethat link the vestibule to the sanctum is adorned with the incidentof gods inviting the Bodhisattva in heaven to be born in the worldof humans, and the high walls of the sanctum are painted withscenes from Buddha’s life. The murals of Tivamka Image House－ 58 －

is of utmost art historical importance since, as Bandaranayake has argued illustrate the continuity of
the Sri Lankan mural tradition from Early Historic Period to the Late Historical Period 2 of the 18th toearly 19th centuries.

Late Historical Period Murals (LHP1 and LHP2) [1250AD to 1800 AD]
Evidence for murals for the period that immediately followed the MHP is scant. The MHP is popularly
known as the Polonnaruwa Period, named after the Kingdom of Polonnaruwa that came into
prominence after the fall of the Kingdom of Anuradhapura towards the beginning of the 11th century
AD. After Polonnaruwa, in the 13th century, the main centers of political and cultural activity shifts
from dry zone plains of the north-central and eastern regions to the wet lowlands of the southwest andthe central highlands of the island. Painted heritage in the form of murals are rare between the late
13th and the mid-18th centuries. However the painted manuscript boards and some traces of oldmurals present a glimpse of the painting activities of this period. In the mid-18th century one can see aresurgence of murals activities with the coming of the Kadyan Kingdom in the central hills of Sri
Lanka.
JagathWeerasinghe

The largest portion of Sri Lnkan painted
heritage is composed of traditional wall
paintings found in Buddhist temples thatcame up with the great surge of religious
and cultural activity that came about
during the reign of Kirti Sri Rajasinhe,
1747-81, and his successor, Rajadhi
Rajasinhe, 1782-98. Construction of new
temples as well as the restoration of older
ones took place during this time. The
murals of this surge are popularly known
as the Kandyan school of art, named after
the ancient city of Kandy, the last kingdom of Sri Lanka.

Modern Transition Period (MTP)
Murals belonging to this period are mostly
found in the southern and western coastal
regions of the country. These were theareas that were under the influence andcontrol of Portuguese, Dutch and theEnglish in the 16th, 17th and the 18th
centuries respectively. Stylistically thesemurals share many features with the
Kandyan style but present much more

－ 59 －

densely decorated pictorial compositions that have incorporated elements of everyday-life under thecolonial influence. This articulation of the Sri Lankan mural tradition is popularly known as theSouthern style. By the end of the 19th century, there emerged a Buddhist mural style that seems more
departed, in terms of style, from the traditional aspects, nevertheless rooted more or less in the same
themes and in the imagination of a religious world. Murals of this tradition are abundant with motifs
taken from European art and the popular theater that came from India. Stylistically this was a highly
hybrid expression of artistic styles, and thematically both a traditional and a modern one. I havetermed these murals as ‘proto-modern’.

2. Materials and techniques of Sri Lankan painted heritage
The Sri Lankan mural painting technique has always been the ‘secco’ technique; the technique ofpainting on dry plaster with pigments mixed in a binding medium. However, in terms of use of paintmaterial one can suggest three broad technical phases. The first being ‘inorganic material phase’, thesecond being the organic and inorganic material phase’ and thirdly the ‘oil paint phase’.

JagathWeerasinghe

Materials and techniques of Early Historical Period (EHP) [250 BC to1100 AD]
The murals that are now extant of this period are to be found in the most durable support, rocksurfaces, which served as the walls and ceilings of shrines and buildings. The surface of the rock
support was artificially roughened to give key to the adherence of the first layer of ground, which wasmade of clay, sand, a vegetable binding medium consisting a plant gum and drying oil and vegetablefibers. Over the course of this period one can see that ground for murals are made with aclay-lime-sand mixture. The paint-receiving layer consisted of a thin application of fine limeiv. It’s
important to note here that the paint-receiving layer of Hindagala, a site belonging in this period but
located in the Kandyan region shows the presence of clay instead of lime in the paint receiving layer.
This technique is best illustrated at the Sigiriya murals. However, it has been recoded that in certain
cases the binding medium had been only a plant gum. The pigments commonly used were lime forwhite, red ocher, yellow ochre, green terre verte and carbon black. The rare blue pigment lapis lazuli
has also been found in Sigiriya murals.

Materials and techniques of Middle Historical Period (MHP) [1100 to 1250AD]
There is no significant difference in materials and techniques of mural painting of this period from theprevious one, except that murals of this period are found not only on rock support but also on masonrywalls. The pigments used are not different from the previous period, but the blue pigment lapis lazuli
is absent. As in the previous period the binding medium had been an emulsion made with a plant gum
and a drying oil and in certain cases only a plant gum.

Materials and techniques of the Late Historical Period 1 and 2
Materials and techniques of Sri Lankan murals begin to change with this period. However, we can stillfind at a place like Gadaladeniya, in the vicinity of Kandy, retaining the lime-clay-sand ground, which
has been used since the EHP. The paint-receiving layer from this period onward is a white clay layer, a－ 60 －

special clay variety found in the Kandyan regions. The binding medium in the ground continues to bean emulsion of a plant gum and a drying oil and the binding medium in the paint layer is only a plantgum. Pigments used in this period are both inorganic and organic.

Materials and techniques of the transition period
The mural painting technique of this period, as one can imagine becomes a practice mixed withvarious traditions. Ground making technique of the previous period is continued as well as changing itby making the ground with only lime and sand, as can be found in some sites in Sabaragamuwa region,an area that lie between the Kandyan hills and the western and southern littoral regions. The paint used
is a lacquer-paint, which was commercially available at that time.

3. History of preservation of Sri Lankan painted heritage
Sri Lanka has over a hundred years of experience in monuments conservation. Since the inception of
the Department of Archaeology in the late 19th century, restoration and conservation of architectural
remains was constituted as one of the main objectives of the Department.

Lanka can be traced at least to the early 19th century. The first scientific examination of the pigments
and techniques of Sri Lankan paintings was published by John Davy in his Account of Ceylon(1821:186-88). Sir James Emerson Tenenet (1859) also made some brief observations on fine arts in
Sri Lanka including painting. Some sixteen years later, the Orientalist scholar, Rhys Davids(1875:209-11) appended to his description of Sigiriya a long report on traditional painting techniques
gathered from an interview with a practicing artist craftsman. The first systematic collection of
information on the materials and techniques of Sri Lankan mural paintings was that of Ananda
Coomaraswamy in his classic monograph Medieval Sinhalese Art (1908). Raja de Silva carried out thefirst scientific study on the techniques and materials of Sri Lankan murals for his doctoral dissertation
at the University of Oxford entitled 'The evolution of the technique of Sinhalese wall paintings'(unpublished) in 1962. D.B. Nandadeva's doctoral theses submitted to the University of Delaware(2000), USA can be considered as the next serious scientific examination on the materials andtechniques of Sri Lankan mural paintings.

Department of Archaeology, Sri Lanka
Conservation of mural paintings was formally incorporated into the Department only in the 1950’s.
The mural painting conservation section of the Department was formed adopting the principals andmethods of conservation and conservation management practiced by the Indian Archaeological Survey.
Khan Bhadur Sana Ullah, who was an Archaeological Chemist at the Archaeological Survey of India
made two visits to Sri Lanka in 1943 and 1947 and worked at several mural sites in Sri Lanka, such as
Sigiriya, and Hindagala Temple in Kandy (de Silva 1990:19). On the guidelines proposed by Sanna
Ullah, the Departemnt of Archaeology (then the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon) established a'Conservation Unit' in 1951 to conserve and study the murals and other polychrome objects and－ 61 －

JagathWeerasinghe

Modern interests in the study of materials and techniques of the historic and traditional paintings of Sri

artifacts found in the Island (de Silva 1969).
Conservation interventions carried out in hundreds of mural sites by the Archaeological Department
has ensured the survival of many mural sites in the country. However, it can be suggested that theseinterventions have not been accompanied with appropriate conservation methodologies. For instancesystematic documentation processes have been often neglected and the treatment techniques have notbeen sufficiently tested and the materials used have not been critically considered. Nevertheless, thereattaching of the collapsed fragments of the relic chamber murals of Mahiyangana and those of
Mihintale and the cleaning of the Sigiriya murals after they were vandalized in 1967 can be regarded
as the high-points of the Department’s 'Conservation Unit'.
The management and organization of the 'Conservation Unit' of the Archaeological Department wasmodeled after the Archaeological Survey of India. As such the conservation section of the Department
was considered as a part of the scientific or laboratory division of the Department and a conservator
was considered as a specialist in chemistry who managed a team of skilled or unskilled laborers in the
JagathWeerasinghe

field, who cleaned and consolidated mural paintings with the ‘chemicals’ approved by the Chief
Chemist. Conservation of murals and artifacts was considered as a field in the domain of chemistry,
not as a field in its own right. It was ‘chemical conservation’, whatever this means, that the‘Conservation Unit’ attempted to do! Unfortunately this extremely outdated approach to theconservation of murals and to murals conservators can still be seen in practice in the Archaeological
Department of Sri Lanka (and also in India?).

Central Cultural Fund (CCF) and the international support
A different approach to the conservation of mural paintings, an approach that considered mural
painting conservation as a profession of its own right was introduced to Sri Lankan archaeology in theearly 1980s by the conservators of the Central Cultural Fund’s (CCF) UNESCO – Sri Lanka Cultural
Triangle Program.
This Program consists of five large archaeological projects that received funding support from
UNESCO, and the World Food Program, in the 1980s an 90s, and as well as from the Government of
Sri Lanka. Several academic and scientific institutions of international repute were also involved inthis Program. In 1983 the UNESCO-Sri Lanka Cultural Triangle Program started a mural conservation
program and recruited ten trainees in Mural Conservation. The Trainees in Mural Conservation werefirst trained at Dambulla Golden Rock Temple under Dr. Raja de Silva. Mural painting conservation
activities of the Cultural Triangle Program received much support from several international institutes
and individuals. Garry Thompson, The Scientific Advisor to the National Gallery, London visited the
Cultural Triangle sites in 1984 and advised on issues pertaining to painting conservation, especially onlighting and humidity control. The Institute of Archaeology, University of London sent two of its
young graduates, Ms. Gill Julleff and Ms. Annie Mc Clain to under take artifact conservation in Sri
Lanka in the mid 1980s. Ms. Jullef played a very important role in developing the conservation－ 62 －

program and training of conservators in Sri Lanka. International Center for the Scientific Study ofCultural Property (ICCROM) in Rome supported the mural painting conservation program by training
Sri Lankan conservators in Rome, and also by sending two ICCROM training missions to Sri Lanka
that involved many important Mural Paining conservators such as Paul Schawartzbaum, Elizabeth
Hollford, and Werner Schmidt. These international inputs to Sri Lankan murals conservation practice
did definitely play an important role in the making of mural conservators in Sri Lanka. If it were notfor this long period of training in the field, with international experts, Sri Lankan mural painting
conservators wouldn’t have reached the high level of proficiency in the discipline that enabled them tosuccessfully cope with a problem as difficult as the conservation of the bomb damage murals of the
Tooth Relic Temple.
The late 1980's was a crucial period in the development of new ethos in the conservation of culturalproperty, especially in relation to mural and artifacts. During this time the CCF's conservation team,the Directors of Archaeology and Conservation and the CCF's Laboratory Steering Committee
seriously engaged in critical and constructive discussions on various issues pertaining to the profession
accepting three main principles by the CCF’s management.
1. Conservation of murals is a profession in its own right with its own professional ethic andregulations with inseparable links to other professions that intervene with ancient buildings.
2. ‘A conservator is a conservator’, he or she is not an artist, a chemist or an art historian but a person
specially trained to intervene with mural paintings and who has a flexible and pragmatic approachbased on aesthetics, cultural and material consciousness of the cultural property concerned.
3. Any conservation program irrespective of its scale should be accompanied with a systematic
documentation program that records before, during and after conservation procedures and situations.
As the culmination of this long process in institutionally understanding the importance and the specificaspects of a profession, the CCF made history in the field of mural and artifact conservation in South
Asia in 1991 by creating a new category of positions titled murals/ artifact conservator. This was animportant achievement in the context of Sri Lankan archaeology, which had treated conservation ofmurals and artifacts as part of a Chemist’s work.
In 1986, the Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology, University of Kelaniya with the support of the
UNESCO-Sri Lanka Cultural Triangle Program began a training program in the conservation ofcultural property: 'Certificate Course in the Conservation of Cultural Property' with murals and artifact
options. The entire conservation team of the CCF has gone through this training program. CCF also
developed a system to employ most of the trainees of this program as ‘Freelance Conservators’ in the
Cultural Triangle projects, a scheme that worked successfully for over 10 years. By 1992 the CCF
murals conservators could develop a comprehensive management system and a complete conservationintervention methodology with a versatile documentation system that is informed by social and－ 63 －

JagathWeerasingheof mural painting conservation. Those numerous discussions and debates finally culminated incultural aspects of the Sri Lankan context in relation to mural conservation.

Traditional practices and the conservation training

JagathWeerasingheThis is the last member of the famous artist family hailing from the
Kandyan period, Mr. Jeevan Naide, whose service was acquired
for training murals conservators at the CCF. He passed away a
few years ago.

It is a compulsory part of the training of conservators that they undertake practical works in preparing
and using traditionally used materials and techniques in mural painting. The emphasis of this sectionof the curriculum is not only on Sri Lankan methods but also of Indian traditional mural techniques.
The trainee mural conservators are also taught with the technical, chemical, and physical aspects
governing the behavior of traditional materials used in mural paintings. This has enabled them to takeintelligent decisions regarding the use of traditional materials. It has been proven that traditional
techniques in the preparation of grounds and plasters are useful and work well in conserving andrestoring murals but the use of traditional materials and techniques for the restoration of paint-layers is
not efficient and long lasting.
The CCF murals conservation activities are currently carried out in various parts of the country. The
major conservation projects that it handled in the past include the conservation of murals of theDambulla Golden Rock temple, conservation and restoration of the bomb damaged murals of thesacred Tooth Relic Temple in Kandy, and the murals of Sigiriya. All these three sites are World
Heritage Sites.

4. Current status and issues on conservation of painted heritage
Conservation of murals in Sri Lanka is currently carried out by the conservators of the Central CulturalFund and the persons attached to the Laboratory section of the Department of Archaeology. The CCF
conservation activities are managed and supervised by two Assistant Directors, who work as
consultants. Their contribution is both at policy and method development levels as well as at directsupervision of the activities along with the Head Murals Conservator of the CCF. The practice of－ 64 －

assigning mural conservation projects to experienced and trained individuals is also done, but only invery rare occasions.
One of the main problems that threaten the preservation of ancient murals in Sri Lanka is the attempts
by devotees and traditional custodians to repair and re-paint ancient Buddhist temples with new murals.
This situation has become rather increased in the recent times with a certain increase in wealthamongst village folks who have relatives working abroad, in the Middle East, Europe and South East
Asia. This situation has become a common problem in managing heritage in Sri Lanka. This problem
is somewhat managed by continued discussions with the traditional custodians, who are at times
extremely amicable to the need for preserving ancient murals without repainting. I have been involved
with programs that addressed this problem of heritage management through art projects that involved
children and natural village-leaders.

Procedures and materials used
Certain basic procedures pertaining to murals conservation, such as ‘pre-, during-, and postrenderings, grouts, and plasters, preparation of preliminary investigation reports, are generally
practiced by both the CCF and the Department of Archaeology murals conservators, but at varying
degree and scale. These procedures are, however, mandatory for CCF murals conservators who areunder my supervision. One of the mostly used traditional materials in murals conservation in Sri
Lanka is anthill clay. Finely ground anthill clay seems to work well for grouting and fillings. Use of
traditional binding media is not popular amongst conservators. This is because the preparation of themis time consuming; therefore the widely used binding medium is either Parloid B72 or PVA solution.
Service of the traditional crafts persons in conserving murals is encouraged but is not usually practiced
since the traditional crafts people of mural painting is almost non-existent now. However, theknowledge in traditional techniques is imparted to conservators as part of their training.
In concluding this essay, I’d like to mention that, in general the profession of murals conservation has
developed by many folds over the past 25 years. But, there still remains a gap in researching murals
conservation methods, techniques and materials used. The reason for this is that there is no laboratory
dedicated for cultural material analysis in the country as yet. But the Postgraduate Institute ofArchaeology has taken the initial steps to establish such a center with an initial funding of Rs.16M
received from the University Grants Commission of Sri Lanka. This center will be in operation from2013, which means in about two months from now. In addition to this, a comprehensive program inawareness enhancement amongst the traditional custodians and the lay-devotee groups at village levelis also of immediate need. The Heritage Program of the Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology with theassistance of the Central Cultural Fund and the Department of Archaeology are currently engaged indeveloping a scheme to address this situation.

－ 65 －

JagathWeerasinghe

intervention documentation; using of only analytical grade chemicals, using of traditional materials foriGeiger, W. 1908. Ed. Mahawamsa, Oxfrod University Press, London. Chapter xxvii, v.18

ii

Geiger, W. 1908. Ed. Mahawamsa, Oxfrod University Press, Londo. Chapter xxv, v.18 and 96.

iii

Bandaranayake, Senake 1986. Rock and Wall Paintings of Sri Lanka. Lakehouse, Colomboiv

De Silva, R.H. 1962. The evolution of the technique of Sinhalese wall paintings: a study employing

museum laboratory techniques. D.Phil thesis, University of oxford.

JagathWeerasinghe－ 66 －

Report on the Restoration of Interior Decoration of Khai
Tuong Pavilion, An Dinh Palace Hue City, Vietnam

Lê Phước Tân
Technical Staff
Technical Department
Hue Monuments Conservation Center

Introduction
Hue city is in the central part of Vietnam, it used to be the capital and the centre of economics,
politics and culture of Dang Trong (in the period of 17th and 18th century) and under the Nguyen
dynasty (1802-1945), the last feudal dynasty of Vietnam. With that long history, Hue inherited
relics of high value on culture, art and architecture with systems of fortresses, palaces,mausoleums… The relics are not only a worthless property of Vietnam but also the cultural heritageLê Phước Tânof humanity recognized by UNESCO on 11 December, 1993.
Besides the historical and cultural values,
the royal monuments, Hue is also famousfor outstanding values on artistic decoration,
especially the wall paintings. The typical
work of wall paintings in Hue royalarchitecture in the early 20th century was
An Dinh Palace. In this palace, apart fromthe decorative details on the ceiling andwalls, there are also six other wall paintings
in the main hall, all of which weremade by Vietnamese talented artists in theearly 20th century with traditional color
techniques and oil painting techniques
drawn directly on lime mortar material.

Map of Viet Nam

1－ 67 －

A. An Introduction To An Dinh Palace And The Conservation And Restoration Of An
Dinh Palace Interior Decoration
I. An Dinh Palace
An Dinh Palace, together with other monuments of the Complex of Hue monuments, was recognized
as the World Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO on 11 December, 1993.

Lê Phước Tân

Thua Thien Hue Province map

1. History of the Palace
An Dinh Palace was built during 1917 -1919 with the area of about 3ha and located in the South of
Hue city. An Dinh Palace consists of 10 subordinate constructions which are systematically arranged
according to NorthSouth axis.

The overall design of
the An Dinh Palace－ 68 －

2

In 1916 the French colonial government installed Khai Dinh on the throne, the twelfth andpenultimate emperor of the Nguyen dynasty (1802-1945). Khai Dinh lived in the illusory world of
the imperial court, playing the role of puppet ruler more perfectly than any of his predecessors. Hispassion was architecture in general and French Baroque in particular. Of the many buildings hecreated, only the An Dinh Palace and his mausoleum have survived. Khai Dinh's materials of choicefor the former were European: it was built with bricks, iron, steel and cement. He also modified
traditional Vietnamese interior design: patterned wallpapers, ornamental stucco and wall paintings
had now to incorporate Western motifs.
Soon after coming to throne, he dedicated the palace to his son Bao Dai, who became Vietnam's
final emperor when Khai Dinh died in 1925. After the Vietnamese liberation movement under Ho
Chi Minh had forced his abdication, Bao Dai moved with his mother Tu Cung, his wife and hischildren into the An Dinh Palace. When the Indochina War was over, he settled permanently inParis. An Dinh Palace was controlled by the contemporary government of South Vietnam until thereunification of country in 1975. The Palace’s function had been changed many times and finally,
it was included in the complex of Hue monuments managed by Hue Monuments Conservation
Center.

2. Characteristics of arts and the decorative themesLê Phước Tân

In the early years of the 20th century, the neoclassic in European architecture, especially the
French architecture penetrated into Vietnam and strongly influenced the architecture and art in
Vietnam. And one of the typical works of this style is An Dinh Palace. An Dinh Palace is anintercultural masterpiece and is the combination between the West and the East in many aspects. It is
one of the special works of art of Hue architecture in particular and in Vietnam architecture in
general. With the effort of French architects in corporation with Vietnamese artists andtraditional artisans, the interior and exterior decoration of An Dinh Palace is the peak of the
combination between wall painting style and decorative relievos.

3
Wall paintings inside Khai Tuong Pavilion－ 69 －

Especially, the European materials and decoration models have shown skillfully in combination
with the traditional decoration themes denoting a very high aesthetic effectiveness for thepalace. We can also see a very unique combination of the constructive technique between theEuropean reinforced concrete, steel truss form and the Vietnamese art configurations made frompasted traditional ceramic and porcelained chips; which contribute to make up a very typical andunique An Dinh Palace. The decorative themes in the interior space of the palace include floral
decoration and European decorative motifs in combination with Hue traditional decoration themes.
Particularly, the main hall is decorated with six large wall paintings depicting the mausoleums of
six Nguyen emperors, with the central perspective descriptive technique of painting in Europe, avery strange technique to the Vietnamese in the early years of the 20th century.

3. Materials in use
Although the main composition of this work was reinforced concrete, a rather new composition toVietnamese people in the early years of the 20th century, the interior walls and ceilings of thepalace were covered by lime mortar, a very traditional mortar of Vietnamese people which ismainly composed from sand, lime, molasses and some other botanic additives. The majority of thewalls in the palace were covered by barnacle lime, a popular type of lime used in many buildingsin the Central of Vietnam. The decorative details of the palace were painted by European oil paintand traditional Vietnamese pigments.
Lê Phước Tân

4. An Dinh Palace after the collapse of Nguyen Dynasty (1945).
After nearly 100 years of existingwith the time, the harsh weather of
the Central as well as thejuggernaut of the Vietnam war,
An Dinh Palace was badly
damaged. Particularly, with theimpact of the Vietnam war during
the years of 1945-1975, Cuu Tu
Dai Theatre, a royal theatre in
the complex of An Dinh Palace,totally collapsed; and many otherexterior items were also damaged
which made An Dinh Palace anabandoned place for a long time.
After the year 1975, somegovernmental authorities took over
Khai Tuong Pavilion-Documentary photo
to work or even to live here. Dueto the tight financial condition, the restoration and maintenance of An Dinh Palace were not paid
attention. Therefore, the quality of the palace was seriously deteriorated. Moreover, due to the highmoisture in the atmosphere, one of the typical features of Thua Thien Hue climate, the mould
species incorporated the time has destroyed some structure which influenced the surface of the－ 70 －

4interior decoration in the Palace.

5. The situation of the palace before restoration
There are 3,610 m2 of paintings and decorative details on the walls and the ceiling of the third floor
in the palace which are in the following condition:- The majority of the walls were covered by a layer of coats of monochrome paint- Many parts of the paintings were lost and discolored- In some place, the lime mortar layers were destroyed and peeled off because the iron girders were
corroded by natural factors.
- The decorative details on the walls and the ceiling were peeled off, dulled or painted over
- The interior structure of the palace was changed.

Lê Phước Tân

Decorative details covered by the lime mortar layers

Decayed decorative detai

II. The Process of Restoration and Conservation
With the purpose of restoring and refurbishing as well as promoting the value of An Dinhmonument, an incorporate project between Hue Monuments Conservation Centre and the German
Leibniz Beklin Cultural Exchange Organization was carried out to safeguard the architectural, artistic
and cultural value of the An Dinh Palace. The focus was on researching and preserving the interior
decoration of Khai Tuong pavilion, the theory and practice training about ways and techniques ofwall painting restoration and conservation for Vietnamese restorers. Firstly, the main point is to findways to conserve the patterns of wall paintings and interior decorated details which have been inpartly or totally damaged condition and give back its original look. Through the process of
researching and conserving the interior decoration of the palace, the on-site training and the transfer
of conservation and restoration technology according to international standard for Vietnameseexperts have been parallel carried out.

－ 71 －

5

The process of restoration and conservation
Under the guidance of Cultural Heritage laws and other legal documents of Socialist
Republic of Vietnam government as well as the international charters about conservation,
restoration, refurbishment and use of historic monuments, the restoration and conservation of An
Dinh Palace decoration was based on the following principles:- Respecting the long-term accumulated experiences in monuments restoration, the knowledge
about traditional architecture as well as using the traditional materials that were used to build thepalace in order to preserve the original architectural and artistic value of the monument.
- Maximum use of the traditional restoration and refurbishment methods and techniques. If theseones show their shortcomings, other modern techniques can be applied. But it is necessarythat these techniques have to be completely appropriate with the work of conservation andrestoration.
- Necessary possible effort in conservation should be made in order to limit and eliminate theshort-term and long-term bad impact on the monument for protecting the monument fromfurther deterioration and damage, especially the dominant, unique and original values.
We have incorporated with German specialists, those who have experience and skills coming from
Posdan city, to restore the interior decoration of Khai Tuong Pavilion (An Dinh Palace) following
this procedure:Lê Phước Tân- Investigating the overall structure of the palace, paintings and decorative patterns in orderto make up the restoration and conservation concept and procedure scientifically. The
specimens have been analyzed in a specialized laboratory in Germany to determine theircompositions so as to determine the fabrication techniques of the paint layers, the chemicalelements of the pigments and the solvent used. From those analyzed results, the restoration andconservation were carried out.
- After surveying many positions in the palace, we have carried out to demolish therecently-built walls and restore the windows which were bricked up.

The restoration of the artwork on the walls and ceilings
After investigating decorative details on the ceiling, the arch and the walls, we have found theoriginal artwork which was in different levels of damage under the paint layers. We determined thefragments needed restoring and then removed the unnecessary painted surfaces to maintain therestoring layers for the whole ceiling and walls of Khai Tuong Pavilion- An Dinh Palace.
In order to conserve the original interior decorative details of the pavilion, first of all, we took
photographs all the details shown after removing the painted surfaces, and made the conservation
plan for the decayed ceiling panels with decorative details which were peeled off, consolidated theeroded steel truss by cleansing the corroded parts and renewing in order to conserve the original
decorative details of the work in the best way.

6

－ 72 －

Consolidating the eroded steel truss

Restored decorative details

Next, we determined the material and the colors of the details in order to restore. The rignatino
technique, an Italian restoration method developed in the middle of the 20th century, was used torestore the badly damaged part of the artwork.

Lê Phước Tân

Restoring the decorative details on the walls

Restored decorative details on the walls

We tested the colors on the sample lime mortar and observed the penetration of the colors on thatspecimen, then we carried out to restore directly on the original patterns. This method has proven to
be the optimal one in restoring the artwork on the walls. Short, fine, usually vertical lines aresuperposed in alternatively warm and cool tones. With this technique, the restored part is in harmony
with the original colored layers and the restoration is seen clearly.

Wall paintings restoration
The interior of the hall in Khai Tuong pavilion was decorated with 6 wall paintings drawn directly on
the walls by oil paints, with the measurement of 1.40 m x 1.80 m. According to a variety of sources,
these pictures were painted by Luong Quang Duyet artist (a mandarin in Thanh Thai time) in 1917.
These paintings have finely carved frames and endowed with an opulent gilt timber architrave. All
these six paintings depict the mausoleums of six Nguyen emperors. After a very long time, there weresome cracks and color changes on the surfaces of these paintings, some parts were already lost, theframes were seriously damaged.

－ 73 －

7

Existing situation of the wall paintings before restoration

Wall paintings after restoration

With appropriate techniques that guarantee the work of conservation, we have eliminated the stains on
the surfaces of the paintings so that the original paint was seen. Besides, the damaged parts on the six
paintings were also restored with pointillism technique. This technique guarantees that the restoration
looks similar to but still remains distinguishable from the original artifact. After three years of working,the restoration and conservation of the interior decoration in Khai Tuong Pavilion were successfullycompleted by the enthusiastic and dedicated German and Vietnamese specialists as well as themembers of Hue Monuments Conservation Centre.

B. Related Issues
Lê Phước Tân

The results of the conservation and restoration of the interior decoration in An Dinh Palace haveconfirmed the necessity of the balance between the traditional and modern skills in conserving thepaint colors. Through the research of traditional materials, the pre-eminent features of the paint color
which mainly consist of barnacle lime and ocher color were determined. The traditional production
technology of the two major materials is still handed down in the local area. In addition to theadvantages, these materials also show some shortcomings such as: low durability and easily influenced
by natural factors. Due to these discoveries, the ancient craftsmen have skillfully combined the
traditional materials (produced manually) with different types of paints (originally from Europe,
produced by industrial line) when decorating the interior of An Dinh Palace. For large wall patterns,
they used the traditional lime mortar, which was cheap and easy to use, as a base. For the decorative
details, the oil paints, which had pre-eminent durability, cheerful colors and were easy to mix; wereused. These oil paints in An Dinh Palace still remained their basic features in Hue five- color palette,
which were basically popular in Vietnam. From these valuable experiences, the reintegration of theinterior artwork of An Dinh Palace was carried out on the basis of the combination between the
traditional skills and the modern ones. The traditional skills of colored plaster production and methodsof drawing traditional patterns were analyzed and skillfully used by the specialists and craftsmen.
Modern materials such as oil paints, Acrylic color, and some other modern chemicals for cleansing
process were scientifically used in order to preserve and restore the artwork; but also maintain the true
accuracy of materials, lines and colors of the interior decoration of An Dinh Palace.
One extremely important purpose of the An Dinh Palace interior decoration restoration project is toconserve and hand down to posterity the skills of processing and using colored plaster in decorating theinterior with traditional patterns. During the restoration procedure, groups of young trainees from－ 74 －

8

schools of art, construction units…. have eagerly joined the training course. With the knowledge
gained at schools as well as the guidance of the experts, they have realized the values of materials, thesophistication of traditional techniques in reality use at the construction site. After they have completed
the restoration and conservation of the An Dinh Palace, they are proud to have contributed to preserveand convey the message of the past for future generations so that they know the value of the cultural
heritage of humanity in a genuine way. This has attracted many tourists to visit and enjoy the Palace.
The mass media were also interested in this process and provide domestic and foreign readers withissues related to the value of the heritage as well as popularize the basic restoration techniques. This
has appealed to young generation, those who are indifferent to traditional cultural values. They have
paid more attention to traditional skills, and are interested in experiencing their learning in related work.
In reality, experiences in preserving paint colors and decorative patterns at An Dinh Palace wereapplied in the restoration of Buu Thanh Gate (at Tu Duc mausoleum), Toi Linh Temple (TheForbidden City- Hue) by young restorers at Hue Monuments Conservation Centre. These successes
have helped to get back the inherent values of Hue cultural heritage as well as the world cultural
heritage.

Lê Phước Tân

9－ 75 －

－ 76 －

“Lai Rod Num” on Traditional Building in Thailand
Jeetheng Piyakarn
Senior Conservation Architect
The Fine Arts Department, Ministry of Culture, Thailand.

The Fine Arts Department
Thailand has an ancestry dating back over 1,000 years of history, over and above its oral tradition ofgreat antiquity. The many diverse forms of its arts and culture are the foundation of nation-building,progressively sustained and harmoniously blending external influences and indigenous ingenuity togive the unique Thai-ness and a strong sense of identity as we see today.
The official management of the country’s arts and culture is under the authority of the Ministry of
Culture, of whose agencies the Fine Arts Department is one. Specifically, the department is
responsible for the conservation, promotion and development of the following offices: archaeology,
museums, architecture, Thai visual arts and Thai traditional arts, performing arts, literature and history.
In other words, it cares for and keeps alive the classical traditions of the country, manifest throughintellectual interpretation, performing culture, and material monuments and objects. The department
also supervises the depository of the historical, educational, scholarly records of knowledge andinformation: the National Library and National Archive. The Fine Arts Department’s authority extends
organizations and specialists dedicated to the conservation of culture, historic monuments and sites
worldwide.
Throughout

its

history,

Fine Arts Department

thedepartment, apart from tirelessly
advancing academic work and thecause of conservation, has served,
through

all

its

arms,

Office of National Museum

Office of Archaeology

Office of Architecture

Office of Traditional Arts

Office of Literature and History

Office of National Archive

Office of National Library

Graduate School of Fine Arts
Institutebothgovernment and private agencies andthe general public. It works intandem with society and individuals
atvariouslevelstowards

theachievement of the common goal ofpromotingandpreserving

thecultural heritage.
The Fine Arts Department’s majortasks are exclusively focused on the

Office of the Performing Arts

－ 77 －

Jeetheng
Piyakarnover all the regions of the country; moreover, it works in an official capacity with overseas institutions,nation’s heritage of arts and culture. Its operations fall within the perimeter of these terms-protection,
defending, conservation, preservation, restoration, promotion, creation, dissemination, education,
research, analysis, development, passing the torch of national art, treasures and cultural heritage. The
ultimate purpose is to hold aloft the aesthetic delicacy and unique cultural expressions of the ThaiWays, which are eminently evocative of nationhood, national ideals and identity, forming the basis forthe sustainable development of Thai society and security. Its duty and responsibilities thus growdirectly out of the above commitments, as follows.
1. To implement the Act on Ancient Monuments, Antiques, objects of Art and National Museums,
related laws and regulations.
2. To preserve, conserve, restore, promote, create, and disseminate the nation’s arts, sciences andcultural heritage through the specialized activity and proliferation of museums, archaeology, ancientmonuments, languages, literature, history, customs and traditions, national library, national archive,
performing arts, music, architecture, works of art.
3. To perform the study, research, analysis, and be the information centre for the preservation andenhancement of cultural heritage through the activity of museums, archaeology, ancient monuments,
languages, literature, history, traditions and customs, national library, national archive, performing
arts, music, architecture, works of art.
4. To provide education and perform research and analysis on performing arts, music, traditional arts,and other matters bearing on arts and culture.
5. To supervise all operations related to the nation’s arts and culture.
6. To fulfill any other obligations which, under law, falls within the authority of the department or as
Jeetheng
Piyakarncommanded by the Ministry of Culture and the Cabinet.
As the government agency responsible for overseeing national arts and culture, the Fine Arts
Department joins the networking of international agencies and organizations to engage in dialogue,
exchange, and constructive work in the conservation of arts and culture, through technical sharing,field work and training workshops. Participation takes the form of signatory to bilateral and multilateral agreements and pacts of cooperation, membership of international cultural organizations,service-providing and knowledge sharing to promote Thai arts and culture, and dissemination of Thai
culture in the international community.
The Fine Arts Department, as the government agency responsible for overseeing national arts andculture, by 15 regional offices of FAD, include 2,100 registered monuments and about 7000 non
registered monumentsin Thailand. These monuments can be categorized into world heritage sites,

historical parks, archaeology sites, traditional old buildings (temple, palace), historic buildings andsites.
On “Lai Rud Num”
Most of monuments in Thailand are wooden architectures and brick work architectures that someparts of them are wooden structure, such as roof structure, gable, ceiling, doors and windows
and their ornaments. All these wooden structure were painted on surface, main purpose is for－ 78 －

conserve the wooden structure. Some are painted in plain color. For those important monuments suchas temples, Royal palaces buildings, are decorated with high refinement work of Thai arts craft, suchas gold gilded lacquer arts (“Lai Rud Num”), and, in later period, glass mosaic, mother- of-pearl inlaid
work etc, on red or black lacquer painted on wooden surface of those wood structures and ornaments.
Causes of deterioration of wood and painted surface on wood are sunlight, heat, moisture, insects etc.
Conservation implementations in Thailand are to conserve the original forms materials, colours,
technique, art, architecture and structure.
“Lai Rud Num” is the specific term in Thai traditional gilded lacquer art with high refinement workof Thai arts craft. Produced by painting Thai tradition art pattern (kranok) on prepared lacquer surface(black rak or red chat), coating glue (horadan) on space outside the pattern, gilding gold leaves on
surface inside the pattern, and clean off glue by water to have only gold leaves left. With written
sources and material evidence dating back to the 13th century, in Sukhothai Period, Thailand imported
Rak resin from China, created and developed gilded lacquer arts and work. “Lai Rud Num” has been
widely used for interior and exterior decoration of architectural structures, as well as courts andBuddhist utensils and furniture, particularly cabinets for the keeping of Buddhist texts. “Lai Rud Num”
has the multiple functions of protecting the structural and architectural elements, decorating a building,as well as contributing to the beauty of the environment, and indicating their status (architectural
hierarchy). Most of those traditional buildings built before late Ayuthaya period were destroyed,
because of deterioration due to the nature of material used, environmental condition, and wars. The
important remains of “Lai Rud Num” art works, first, from Sukhothai period can be two wooden
Buddhist images, Prasrisakayamuni and Praputthachinnarach, with “Lai Rud Num” decoration, second,
the temple named Wat Sai in Bangkok, the pavilion with “Lai Rud Num” on whole exterior structuresurface and mural painting on whole interior structure surface.

“Lai Rud Num” has been widely used for interiorInterior of Vihara Laikam, Wat Phra Sing temple

and exterior of architectural structures.

－ 79 －

Jeetheng
Piyakarn

the teak wooden pavillion of King Pra Jao Seur from middle Ayuthaya period, it has been located inCase: The conservation of Salasumran pavilion, Bangkok, National Museum
Sala (pavilion) Sumran is the wooden Pavilion built in
1903, during King Rama the Fifth‘s reign, designed by
Prince Krom Praya Naritsaranuwattiwong. It’s originalsite was in the Ngae Tang Garden in Dusit Palace,
Function for King kame the Fifth’s Birthday ceremony,
During King Rama the Sixth’s reign, The King decided
to build the new pavilion and removed the old one to
Praratchawangbowornsathanmongkal

where

is

now

National Museum.
Architecture of Sala Sumranmukhmart is Thai style pavilion with two split level gable roof, wooden
roof structure, and wooden red-oil painted roof tile, wood carve gable and roof ornaments, Most of
exterior wooden surfaces ornaments and structures are decorated with gild gold-lacquer painted,
except the roof-tile surface is red-oil-painted surface. The plan of the building is square shape with
sixteen gold-filled lacquer painted wooden column, interior marble floor is fifty centimetres high fromground level, with four side three level marble stairs, interior wooden ceiling, wall and architectural
ornament are decorated with gild gold-red oil plaint. On wooden surface, except structure component
are decorated with gold-filled lacquer works.
Present Condition

Jeetheng
Piyakarn

Before the restoration, the pavilion was badly deteriorated, especially all the wooden surface expose to
sunlight and rain the painted surface came out and the wooden surface was damage some parts of thewood are damage by termite, especially base of the column, some part of structure became unstable.
Causes of deterioration of wood and painted surface on wood are sunlight, heat, moisture, insects etc.

－ 80 －

Restoration Implements
Before restoration works, the design team, architect and engineer and landscape-architect should
conclude and study the information data to the history, architecture and art characteristics, traditional
technique, construction, material, present physical condition, of the monument, summarize, analyse,
design and define appropriate use of material and methodology implementation is restoration whichemphasized the following aspects: conserve the original material and techniques art and architecturalcharacteristic.
The restoration implementation was set up as follows:
1. The restoration work of damaged parts of wood in the main architectural and construction
material of the monument, was done by repair, or replace of the damage and lost parts only; thematerials were with the same size, color, and type of the original material; also fixed the structure
and architecture at the right way.
2. The wooden roof tiles were replaced all by the new ones, with the same material, color, and typeas the original ones.
3. The restoration of the original painted surfaces was done.
4. The gold-filled lacquer painted surface was done by conserving the original good condition partsby cleaning painted surface and refilling gold leaves on only damage parts.
For those damaged parts, the surface support technique was very important steps that would result tomaintain permanent beauty of accomplishment.

Jeetheng
Piyakarn

Rak Surface Preparation
Different schools of artisans have different gilded lacquer work crafting steps and techniques in termsof surface preparation, reagent preparation or Rak mixture techniques. Such differences are due to thefact that the art has been traditionally transmitted through oral tradition and are subjected to variationand distortion of information. Rak surface preparation is a crucial step for the durability andexquisiteness of the final gilded lacquer art work.
Type of material used must be taken into consideration for surface preparation. Wood is the favor
natural material. The majority use the teak wood and another hard wood such as Takian－ 81 －

(Dipterocarpaceac)( Hopea wood), Daeng (Xylia, xyrocarpa var kerrii) (Inferior wood), and Makha(Afzelia xylocarpa)(Ormosia wood). Preparation steps for wood surfaces are as follows:
1. Apply raw Rak (resinous substance from the Mellanorrhea Ushitata trees), the resin (which atpresent can be obtained from the Buddhist monk-offering item shops in Bankok, Sao Ching Cha
area) is sifted and applied on wood surface to creates smooth surface which is subsequently left
to be partially dried for another 5-7 days. The resin gradually penetrates wood surface and acts aspreservative and adhesive for Samok and wood grains.
2. Apply Rak Samok, this is the mixture of raw Rak resin and ashes from dried ground banana leaves,coconut shell charcoal, or lalang grass ashes. These ashes are preferred by traditional artisans fortheir availability and lightness. After Rak Samok application, the work should be left for 7-10 days
to dry out completely before being polished with sand paper.
3. Apply Rak Num Gliang (Livinga) liquid. This liquid is obtained by sifting from raw Rak resin
through cotton wool sandwiched between two layers of thin white clothes to eliminate as muchresin impurities as possible. The resin is traditionally placed on top of the sifter and put out in thesun for melting and dripping into a container. Soft and highly elastic brushes are used to apply thesifted resin on the work surface in alternating horizontal and vertical direction for an even spread.
4-5 layers of Rak Num Gliang application are required, and 5-7 days of surface drying are needed
between each application. The surface is polished after each application except the last one. The
achievementofbeautifulgrossysurface depends on proper techniquesof Rak application, quality of theJeetheng
Piyakarn

resin,

andelimination

of

resin

impurities though careful sifting.
Curing of Rak resin is required ateach step of surface preparation toensure a completely dry and grossy
surface appearance. The process isdone in a completely dry and sealed
cabinet to prevent dust, the cabinet iscovered with wet cloth for the coolingand speeding up of the drying process.
In the ancient period, Rak surface
preparation for gilded lacquer work
painting required a lot of time as wellas meticulous effort and skills withrefinement and experienced of artisan,by observation from accomplishment
rak surface in decorating architecture.

－ 82 －

The success of these techniques is evident in the durability of Rak surface. In various architectural
decorations, especially the exterior decorations, that have withstand the tests of time and weather for
hundreds of years. Lacquer work with poor surface preparation will flake or fade in a short time,
destroying the quality, the beauty of the works.
The traditional technique of making painted surface on wood is an artistic peculiarity. The process
involves coating paint layer by over the surface. One of the disadvantage of the process is quite
complicates and it requires a long time for drying some craftsmen now prefer to use new chemical
paint.
Nowadays we face some problems in conservation of these monuments, such as lack of skillfulcraftsman and materials (such as Rak lacquer, wood), to conclude, spread out, share the knowledge
and cooperation with other countries is the best way to define the proper implement to conserve andprolong the monument.

Jeetheng
Piyakarn－ 83 －

－ 84 －

Traditional Painting of Bhutan
Lhaten Dorji
Project Manager
Paro Dzong Conservation Project
Division for Conservation of Heritage Sites
Department of Culture, Ministry of Home & Cultural Affairs

Introduction
Bhutanese art is based upon Vajrayana Buddhism,
with its pantheon of divine beings.
The thirteen arts and crafts also known as Zorig
Chusum, keeps the Bhutanese arts and architecture alive.
The thirteen traditional arts and crafts comprises ofpainting, carpentry, carving, sculpture, casting, blacksmithy, bamboo work, weaving, embroidery, masonry, paper work, leather work and silver and gold
smithy. The great 15th century treasure finder (tertön), Pema Lingpa is traditionally credited withintroducing the arts into Bhutan. In 1680, Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal ordered the establishment of
the school for instruction in the 13 traditional arts. Although the skills existed much earlier, it isbelieved that the zorig chusum was first formally categorized during the rule of Tenzin Rabgye (16801694), the 4th Druk Desi (secular ruler).
Lhaten
Dorji

Painting
Like arts and crafts, every Bhutanese painting is religious by nature. Bhutanese paintings areanonymous without painter’s signature. Lhazo is the Bhutanese tradition of painting. Lhazo refers to
all types of painting including traditional paintings, called thangkhas. Thankhas are scroll paintings of
Buddhist iconography executed in mineral paints. Thangkha painting follow strict geometricproportions.
 They are reflected on the prayer flags that adorn the mountain-tops and the sacred sites and valleys,in the intricately designed woven cloths, on wooden furniture and on the altars. Undeniably, every
material aspect of Bhutan is reflected in these shades of colors. Indeed, paintings represent themost amply people’s beliefs and ideas, feelings and thoughts and aspirations and hopes, way of life,
and the colors epitomize the Bhutanese art.

－ 85 －

 Painting is as old as the people themselves and the art of painting has been passed down fromgeneration to generation, from a master painter, lharip to novice students. This profession, likemost others, is considered an act of reverence and devotion and painters are believed to accumulate
merit and influence their karma.

 Painters work on a wide range including painting simple
LhatenDorji

motifs and the eight lucky signs to undertaking painting huge
scrolls of Thangka and Thongdroel. These are paintings ofimages of Buddhist deities that are often painted on the wall,or in simple cloth. Thongdroels are bigger in size and a mere
sight of these huge scrolls is believed to deliver us to nirvana.
Thus, it brings merit not only to the believers but for thepainters as well. A lharip can decorate a house, an altar; painta Thangka or Thongdroel, the statues of deities or on any
other article and piece that need painting.

－ 86 －

Types1) Dang-tshon (Shading paint)

LhatenDorji－ 87 －

2) Ser-Tshon (Gold paint)3) Sum-Dang (Three layers of paint fading away)

LhatenDorji－ 88 －

4) Yug-tshon (Paint applied over large surface 紅 ea and wlùch is usua11y applied as base for themain paint)

Materials
The materials used in Bhutanese painting are the natural pigmented soils that are found in most placesin the country. These natural soil pigments are of different colors and are named accordingly. The
black lump of soil is known as sa na and the red lump as tsag sa, for instance. The yellow colors can be
Trashigang and white from Paro.

Transferring of Skills
At present we have two national institutes teaching the 13 arts & crafts of Bhutan. Through work
experience while attached with master painter.
1. The National Institute for Zorig Chusum is located at Kawajangsa, Thimphu. The entry
qualification is class X pass from 2007.


Lhadri (Painting) 6 years

2. Trashiyangtse Institute for Zorig Chusum(TIZC) The Trashiyangtse Institute for Zorig Chusum(TIZC) is located in Trashiyangtse. The entry qualification is class X pass from 2007.


Lhadri (Painting) 2 and 6 years** (2 years - short courses; 4 and 6 years - regular courses.)－ 89 －

LhatenDorjiobtained from Gasa and Bumthang, the red color from Wamrong, black from Phuntsholing andPresent practice and promotion of traditional painting
As per the building rules & regulation, it is mandatory to provide traditional painting on the traditionalarchitectural components like cornice, window and door frames, etc.

Otherwise, in village and remote areas, the people are still adopting the traditional painting on theirhouse. Also very important structures promoting the traditional paint is the religious structures likemonastery, stupa, fortress, etc.

LhatenDorji－ 90 －

Current Issues of and Future Tasks for Restoration ofColoring and Painting in Japan

KUBODERA Shigeru
Director
Historical Research Institute for Architectural Decoration Technology

In Japan, since the government-led initiative for conservation and restoration of cultural properties waslaunched in 1897, restoration of several buildings has been implemented. For such work, traditional
techniques have been employed in principle. The same is true for restoration of painting and coloring,
for which traditional materials, as well as techniques, have been basically used. However, as society
has become modernized, techniques and materials for manufacturing have changed substantially,making it difficult to maintain the conventional production methods.
Under these circumstances, to ensure stable conservation and restoration of cultural heritages in
the future using traditional techniques and materials, having firm determination and good planning, or,in other words, more proactive national strategies, is crucial. This is what I basically believe.
In this presentation, I will first show the ongoing changes in paint restoration in Japan, then present
two examples of restoration work completed recently and some examples of the attempts for
succession of traditional techniques and development of human resources, and finally discuss the
future prospect for painting restoration.
1. Introduction – Historical changes in paint restoration
The Japanese policy for restoration of painting of
cultural property buildings came to a turning pointaround 1950. The basic policy before that was tomaintain the current state of painting of buildings
KUBODERA
Shigeru

as much as possible. This means that repainting
was not conducted for most buildings even though
they were painted, except for the buildings such as
Nikko Toshogu Shrine for which lacquering orcoloring was employed as an important part of
Fig.1. Yomeimon gate of Nikko Toshogu Shrine

their architecture.
However, after around 1950, buildings withornamental architecture were increasingly designated as cultural properties, and to demonstrate theirarchitectural features, repainting of buildings, especially their exterior, was conducted more frequently.
This trend was seen not only for the buildings with many ornamental elements but also for thebuildings having limited components that were lacquered or colored. Conservation treatment or
repainting was often provided in the case of damage found in the lacquered or colored portions. I used

-1－ 91 －to be engaged in design supervision of cultural property buildings as an engineer for restoration ofcultural properties, and have personally experienced several paint restoration projects.
Thus, repainting of cultural buildings is actively promoted in Japan today. Meanwhile, lack ofcareful consideration means a complete loss of traditional architectural painting. It is therefore
needless to say that careful consideration in determining paint restoration plans is crucial to ensure theauthenticity of cultural properties.
2. Examples of restoration work in recent years
Japanese paint restoration usually employs traditional pigments and solvents, as well as traditional
tools and techniques. This approach has been utilized since the launch of the government-led initiativeof restoration of buildings, and will continue to be maintained in the future. To perform restoration
with traditional methods, however, it is first of all necessary to understand accurately how the target
building was originally painted, which requires thorough and careful research before starting the work.
Here, I will present two cases of paint restoration in the past and explain the details.
2.1. Myogi Shrine buildings
Myogi Shrine is a Shinto shrine located in Tomioka
City, Gunma Prefecture. Its honden (main hall,)heiden (offering hall) and haiden (worship hall), as
well as the Karamon gate,

constructed in 1756, aredesignated as important cultural properties. The
work for conservation and restoration of thesebuildings was conducted for four years and six
months from 1985 to 1989, focusing mainly on
restoration of painting. The restoration policy for Fig.2. Myogi Shrine honden, heiden and haiden
interior painting was to basically maintain the paintas it was, and therefore, traditional materials of glue
solution and funori solution were used for
KUBODERA
Shigeru

conservation of colors to prevent paint fromshedding. Meanwhile, the exterior of the buildings
was almost totally repainted. Paint before restoration
was scraped off before repainting. Since the colorsof part of the haiden (gagyou), the front of thebuilding, were kept in a relatively good condition,
treatment for preventing paint shedding was

Fig.3. Making layout sketches for coloring work

provided for this portion using synthetic resin(Binder 17 and Paraloid B72).
At the same time, fluorescent X-ray analysis and X-ray diffraction analysis were conducted to
identify the original materials used, by using a total of 27 samples collected from the honden, heiden
and haiden, and also the Karamon gate. The results of the analyses were reflected in the restoration-2－ 92 －work. To reproduce the colors, current condition was recorded by photography and making layout
sketches. Based on precise observation, a total of 103 sketches for the honden, heiden and haiden and18 for the Karamon gate were made for coloring restoration. In the restoration work of the Karamon
gate, the original painting of a dragon on the ceiling board was provided treatment for preventing paintfrom shedding and kept in its original position, below which a newly painted dragon picture was theninstalled.
This restoration work is unique in that it discovered, from material analyses and investigation ofhistorical documents, the fact that a special base coat called chudei-shitaji, which was a prevailingtechnique in the Edo Period, had been used, and subsequently reflected this finding in the restoration
work. This was the first case of reproducing this traditional base coat in restoration of culturalproperties.

Fig.5. Copying the design of the dragon for the newpainting to be put on the ceiling board of the Karamon
gate

Fig. 6. The reproduced ceiling dragon painting of
the Karamon gate installed

Fig.7. Chudei-shitaji base coat seen in initial coloringmaterial analyses revealed that it is a coloring basecoat material composed of green verditer, whiting andbrass powder.

KUBODERA
Shigeru

Fig.4. Original painting of a dragon on the ceilingboard of the Karamon gate, with the painter’s
signature remaining

2.2 Shotendo Hall of Kangiin Temple
Kangiin Temple is located in Kumagaya City, Saitama Prefecture. Construction of its Shotendo Hall
was commenced in 1735 and mostly completed in 1760. The preservation and restoration work was
conducted from 2003 to 2010, a duration of seven years. The materials used for painting before-3-－ 93 －

restoration were identified through scientific analyses and the findings were reflected in the actual
restoration work, while the layout sketches were made in preparation for repainting. These are incommon with the preservation/restoration work for Myogi Shrine.

In addition to these, therestoration of this case adopted a procedure of repainting that has rarely been adopted for coloring
restoration in Japan.
In this procedure, the remaining colors of the exterior of the subject building were preserved tothe maximum possible extent before repainting of colors. Colored coating of most of the culturalproperty buildings is physically fragile due to deterioration over time, and it was therefore common to
scrape off the coating before starting the work of paint restoration. The coloring restoration project of
the Kangiin Temple Shotendo Hall challenged this practice. As the basic policy of repainting without
scraping off the original paint had been decided from the initial stage, steps to fully implement therestoration work were thoroughly discussed by the restoration committee consisting of academic
experts, restoration experts, building owners, etc. Consequently, the method of protecting the existingcolors with Japanese paper was selected. The steps of the work are as follows:[Steps for restoration of external colors](1) Remove dust on the colored surface with Japanese paint brushes, etc.
(2) Take photographs for record.
(3) Study the color paint and prepare record data.
(4) Make layout sketches for the coloring work.
(5) Provide treatment to prevent shedding of the existing colors using special glue solution.
(6) Provide treatment for preservation/protection of colored surface – Pasting Japanese paper using
shofu (wheat starch) glue
(4) Repaint colors.
Before these steps, test coloring was conducted in advance to confirm the validity of the preservation
treatment using Japanese paper and to ensure that the Japanese paper will not leave any impact on thecolored layers after the paper is removed in the future.
KUBODERA
Shigeru

Fig.8. Okuden and Chuden, Kangiin Temple
Shotendo Hall

Fig.9. Side of Okuden (a part), Kangiin Temple
Shotendo Hall

-4－ 94 －Fig.10. Pasting Japanese paper, and test coloring

Fig.11. Pasting Japanese paper to protect existingcolors (*Photograph reprinted from p.112 ofReference 3 graphic data)

3. Future tasks for restoration of painting
Architectural paint is inevitably subject to changes over time due to impacts of the naturalenvironment, such as deterioration or defacement of the painted surface. Therefore, I believe that tomaintain cultural property buildings in a healthy state, actions to restore the painting of such buildings
must be continued.
Meanwhile, functions of architectural paint are roughly categorized into the role of highlighting
the building’s solemnity and design, and the role of protecting the building’s construction materials.
When the selected goal is to ensure both, the basic principle should be to preserve/maintain as muchthe existing paint as possible even if repainting is planned, and it is important to carefully examine
which method should be selected for this purpose. This requires highly specialized techniques andhistorical knowledge. Based on these principles, I would like to point out the following issues asnecessary tasks to stably continue restoration work using traditional techniques and materials.

3.1. Problems in succession of techniques and securing human resources
3.1.1. Problems in succession of techniques and human resources development
However, it has long been pointed out that there is a limitation in this way of succession. Today,
traditional techniques should be handed over through specialized educational programs in schools andworkplaces. At the same time, to constantly secure human resources, it is necessary to ensuresufficient working opportunities for them. Thus, for constant succession of techniques and stablesecuring of human resources, it is urgently necessary to create educational opportunities not only at
schools but also at worksites and to secure sufficient opportunities to make effective use of thetechniques.
Now, it should be noted that what we call “traditional techniques” today may be just a part of
the techniques that existed in the past. In other words, when working on restoration of a culturalproperty building, we should remember that its painting may have been conducted using a technique-5－ 95 －KUBODERA
ShigeruIn the past, traditional techniques were handed down through the traditional apprentice system.

or method that was subsequently lost at some point in the past. It is therefore necessary to support
research/studies on traditional techniques on one hand, and to establish a practical education systemthat can offer programs to deal with restoration of cultural properties as a whole on the other.
Moreover, to secure human resources, the work of restoration of cultural properties should lookattractive to young people. To this end, it is necessary to raise the social status of this job. I believethat it is important to create an environment where those who have acquired professional skills andknowledge for restoration of cultural properties can receive high social recognition. In Japan, such anenvironment has not yet been established.

3.1.2 Practical examples for succession of techniques and human resources development
The Japan Association for Historical Art and Architecture (http://www.shabikyo.org) is composed of
the technicians and their companies who perform the work for preservation/restoration of architectural
ornamentations of historical buildings. It was approved by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports,
Science and Technology as an organization to perform the selected preservation technique [building
ornamentation] in 2007, and covers four categories of lacquering, coloring, ninuri (red-painting) andmetal fittings.
The Association continuously supports various activities and projects for succession oftechniques and development of human resources. Among them are the practical technical training
courses to improve the proprietary skills of each technique and to develop successors of the techniques.
In the training for the latter purpose, those who are interested in restoration of buildings are invited astrainees and accepted by the workshops of the Association members. The aim of the training is tosecure human resources for the future by providing the trainees with opportunities to experience theactual work. On-site exercise with actual buildings is included in such training. The trainers areexperts in actual preservation/restoration work.
Meanwhile, an interesting 5-year training program was launched in 2010. Young technicians of
the four categories mentioned above work on architectural models of one-tenth size of the actual
buildings. When the work is completed, the models are planned to be displayed publicly to
KUBODERA
Shigeru

communicate to the general public the details of ornamentations of historical architectures and theirrestoration work. This project was designed based on the architectural ornamentation techniques inJapan in the 17th century, and even the painting techniques that were lost in the modern period arealso employed for this project so that the technicians can experience them. In short, the goal of thisproject is to show almost all historical ornamentation techniques in these one-tenth models.
It is also important to communicate to the public through various media the details of these efforts by
the parties actually engaged in restoration of cultural properties, for the purpose of enhancing thesignificance of existence of cultural property restoration.

-6－ 96 －Fig.12. Training program of making architectural
ornamentation models, lacquering section

Fig.13. Training program of making architectural
ornamentation models, coloring section

3.2. Procurement of traditional materials
Traditional materials used for paint restoration include

mineral materials such as pigments andorganic materials such as lacquer and animal glue. Although mineral materials may be depleted in the
future, some pigments, for example red lead and vermillion, have traditionally been produced
artificially. From a viewpoint of protecting the global environment, a shift to dominant use of artificial
pigments seems inevitable.
Organic materials, on the other hand, include plant-based materials such as lacquer and naturaldye. These are renewable materials. It is necessary to actively promote their stable procurement by
establishing a system to produce these materials as a national strategy. Needless to say, production ofthese materials cannot be ensured without producers of them. But it is becoming increasingly difficult
to procure the materials and producers. Securing a certain amount of demand for these materials is
also crucial to ensure stable production of them.
Today, the world of restoration of cultural properties is faced with many difficult challenges.
As one of the countermeasures to address the issue of materials procurement, the Agency for Cultural
Affairs designates several forests nationwide as model supplier forests and training forests to procure
lumber and other plant-based materials necessary for restoration of cultural properties. These forests
Ministry has also launched the “Furusato Bunkazai no Mori System Promotion Project,” to provide
training for collecting materials and educational programs. (http://www. bunka.go.jp/ bunkazai/hozon/
system. html) For procurement of the materials necessary for paint restoration, sumac forests in Iwate,
Yamagata and Kyoto Prefectures have been designated as of March 2012.

-7－ 97 －KUBODERA
Shigeru

are named “Furusato Bunkazai no Mori (forests for our cultural properties).” At the same time, theFig.14.Sumac forest in Jobojimachi,

Fig.15. Sumac tree after tapping

Iwate Prefecture(J b jihi I tFig.16. Sumac sap (collected in Joboji,
Iwate Prefecture)

Fig.17. Lacquer tapping

Fig.18. Tools for lacquer tapping (old stock of Kiyotaro Omori in(Jobojimachi, Iwate Prefecture)

Jobojimachi)

4. Conclusion
Restoration of cultural properties requires highly specialized techniques and knowledge. What we
simply call “traditional” comprises a wide range of things, some of which cannot be known to us today.
The key to accurately identifying the techniques and materials that constitute a historical building is to
KUBODERA
Shigeru

thoroughly observe the building and make proper judgments based on the observations. To make thisprocess reliable, use of scientific research approaches is indispensable. I would like to emphasize at
the end of my presentation that implementation of such research approaches must be included in thesystem of restoration projects.
Based on what I have discussed so far, it is also important to examine the significance of
maintaining cultural properties. And to conduct restoration work with the aim of enhancing theirsignificance will be increasingly important. And we must re-recognize that securing human resources
who are capable of conducting such work appropriately is the most important task forprotection/preservation of cultural properties.

-8－ 98 －References
Reference 1
Concept and Techniques of Preservation and Restoration of Wooden Buildings, edited by Nara
National Research Institute for cultural Properties, 2003
Reference 2
Report on Restoration Work of the Important Cultural Properties Myogi Shrine honden, heiden,
haiden, tsuketari-shinsensho, tsuketari-sukibei, karamon, and somon, edited by The Japanese
Association for Conservation of Architectural Monuments, 1989
Reference 3
Report on Conservation/Restoration Work of the Important Cultural Property Kangiin Temple
Shotendo Hall, edited by The Japanese Association for Conservation of Architectural Monuments,
2011

KUBODERA
Shigeru-9－ 99 －－ 100 －Summary Report of the ACCU International Conference
Presentations for the Discussion on November 29, 2012
MASUDA Kanefusa
Secretary, ICORP (Risk Preparedness), ICOMOS ISC. /Visiting Researcher, Ritsumeikan University

1.

Over the three years since 2010, we have successively presented international reviews on humanresource development for the transfer of traditional techniques/skills to safeguard historicalarchitecture under the framework of cultural heritage in the Asia-Pacific region.

2.

The conference this year adopted a fieldon painting/coating and decoration for the conservationof historical architecture. Throughout the two days of the conference, we held two special
speeches, two keynote speeches, and seven case study reports, with Q & A and discussion
sessions after each presentation.
3.

To introduce the theme above, the first presenter, Dr. Stefano De Caro, director-general of the
ICCROM, shared broad-scale perspectives on how traditional techniques/skills of painting anddecoration should be treated, based upon a wide spectrum of viewpoints covering a range of
topics from the ancient earthenware of the Mediterranean Civilizations, mainly represented by the
Greek and Roman civilizations, to modern tourist souvenirs, as well as related international
efforts by UNESCO and other organizations.

4.

Secondly, Mr. YAMATO Satoshi of the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs, provided a detailed
explanation of the current state of efforts being made in this field in Japan, including specifics ofvarious projects such as; (i) the selection and recognition of traditional ”conservation-techniques”
in accordance with the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties; (ii) support for training of
successors by recognized holders of the traditional conservation techniques above; (iii)
training/education of conservation architects as well as carpenters/coloring technicians for thefor repairs.

5.

In addition, Professor Dai of Tongji University, China, presented a case study of the inheritanceof techniques/skills to preserve epigraphs inscribed on the rocks of Mt. Wuyi, a World Heritage
site, focusing on the historical/cultural values of the epigraphs and the diverse problems
encountered.

6.

Since then, we had various case studies presented by seven experts. Four lecturers made their1－ 101 －

MASUDA
Kanefusa

repair of building structures; and, (iv) the “Hometown Forest” projects to secure woods necessarypresentations yesterday; Mr. Aghafar Bin Ahmad from Malaysia, Mr. Kai Weise from Nepal, Prof.
Jagath Weerasinghe from Sri Lanka, and Mr. Le Phuoc Tan from Viet Nam. Three lecturers, Ms.
Jeetheng Piyakarn from Thailand, Mr. Lhaten Dorji from Bhutan, and Mr. KUBODERAShigeru
of Japan, will present today.
7.

These diverse case studies describe a wide range of historic buildings or other study objects,
including the difference between; (i) construction time periods, use applications, and structural
materials; (ii) types and materials of architectural decorations used for such structures; (iii)social/cultural backgrounds in which each cultural heritage exists; and, (iv) traditional techniques.
These reports may show the similar status and challenges described below.

8.

In most cases, because they serve as the finish of a building, architectural decorations haveproperties/characteristics that make enormous contributions to the artistic and historical values of
the architectural cultural heritage, and their deterioration leads directly to a reduction in the valueof the architectural cultural heritage. Furthermore, compared to building structures, aspects ofdecorations such as coloring are completely physically vulnerable, apt to deteriorate quickly
through discoloration and/or peeling off, and unavoidably, need to be repaired and repainted formaintenance frequently within a comparatively short time period. These factors also result insituations in which; (i) despite the long time-span of traditional cultures capable of maintaining
decorations, within just a few decades, sponsors/backers providing funds to repair structures
undergo changes/substitutions, or that; (ii) the artistic trend/vogue of any one era may be adopted
for the repair work, and the decoration skills and materials are disposed to change in each time
period. For instance, in the case a decoration is considered worthless in modern times, it could
deteriorate quickly, while the value as historical memento accumulated therein may no longer bemaintained. When an architectural decoration is valued due to its use in a religion, in some cases,
periodical repaints will occur as a mode of expression of faith, and some modes could result invandalizing the decorative layers accumulated through history by new decorations. In this case,the question may arise concerning which factor should be valued as a cultural heritage.
Depending on the religion, there may be instances in which the religion could reject the functionof cultural heritage to transfer historical information. However, one may define it as an aspect ofliving traditional cultures.

MASUDA
Kanefusa

9.

It may therefore be said that present architectural decorations as cultural heritage generally face
the following danger. First of all, if the decorations are disregarded through modernization, they
become liable to disappear automatically and physically in a short period of time, along with theirtraditional, technical, and artistic foundations. In this case, as is obvious, the technicians capableof producing the decorations will disappear with knowhow of traditional materials and tools,
causing difficulty not only in reproduction but also even in ill-effected restoration. Generally, themaintenance of conservation techniques and skills is based on the premise that there continuously
exists a body of work necessary for craftsmen/technicians to earn their living. On the other hand,as mentioned above, there are cases in which cultural traditions are living/active, and in which
2－ 102 －

historical values may be lost due to periodical repainting undertaken for religious/ritual purposes.
Even in cases of decoration works created in the past and which have a certain worth/value, manycannot maintain their value. There are cases in which preservation records of the decorations ofespecially high value should be made, or wherein such decorations should be preserved bymuseums or other facilities, in order to enable the revival and accession of related techniques.
However, in some cases there is the difficulty of removing the decorations from the building
structure itself without highly advanced techniques. At any rate, it can be said that in order tomaintain and pass on such architectural decorations, technicians and craftsmen in various fields
play an extremely important role.
10. It is necessary to take into account the following factors for reviewing the fundamental conceptsof the preservation, repair, and restoration of architectural decorations as cultural heritage. First,
considering the vulnerability of decoration materials, it is essential to provide good maintenancesuitable for each characteristic of the materials. Regular repairs are also indispensable forpreventing the deterioration of the cultural heritage. In case deterioration is advanced, it may beeffective to apply reversible, connectable fixing using traditional methods or restoration usingpreservation science. Furthermore, it is necessary to establish appropriate policies forconservation taking into account the diversity of each cultural heritage and culture, while
conforming to the Venice Charter, the general philosophy for safeguarding building structures ofcultural heritage. Architectural decorations necessitate conservation planning with a view tocomprehensive safeguards of the diverse cultural heritage, in addition to coordination between
related specialized fields. (The report made by Mr. KUBODERA Shigeru as aconservation andrestoration expert ofarchitectural decorations acquires significant importance in its technicalaspects.)
11. Considering the above, the following recommendations will be addressed to related internationalorganizations and the governments, groups of the skills/techniques holders, and the parties
concerned with the conservation of cultural heritage. As a prerequisite for modern society inwhich traditional culture has faded, the creation of a nationwide inventory of the key people foreducation/training programs for successors is urgently needed. In addition, to ensure themaintenance of the quality of the techniques and skills, continuous policy support is required(including, if necessary, the creation of works using conservation techniques capable ofrespect, to build an economic foundation, and to pass along their techniques/skills collectively as
an expert group. In addition, taking into consideration the changes and deterioration of
decorations within a short period of time, as well as targeting the procurement of raw materials,
manufacture and distribution of tools, and decoration techniques for paintings and sculptures,
policies should be implemented as rapidly as possible, as a preservation measure for intangible
techniques, in order to facilitate; (i) making videos, drawings, and/or text records of the skills,
techniques, tools, etc. and; (ii) the training/education of the next generation while expert
technicians are still alive.
3－ 103 －

MASUDA
Kanefusa

contributing to modern culture) that enables the holders of the techniques/skills to gain social

Effective prior case examples in each and every country should be referred to in order toreview these policies. For instance, a series of Japanese policies, based on the Law for theProtection of Cultural Properties, to select conservation techniques, to secure the materials forrepair, and to designate the safeguard of intangible cultural heritage and folklore techniques may
serve as an effective case example.
12. Through these discussions, it would appear that the overall situation and challenges with respect tohuman resource development related to the succession of traditional techniques/skills of
decoratively representing historical architecture in this Asian region have been addressed
extensively and satisfactorily. I am uncertain that my report could do justice to all of the points
under consideration, but I hope that this summary will be of some help for the overall discussions
scheduled this afternoon.

MASUDA
Kanefusa

4－ 104 －

IV. Recommendation－ 105 －

－ 106 －Recommendations of International Conference 2012
"Human Resources Development for the Transmission of Traditional Skills:
Building Decoration with a Focus around Painting and Colouring"

1. Nature of Cultural Heritage (Painting and Colouring)

Colouring and paintings include designs, patterns, furnishings and renderings by applying
coatings on the elements or surfaces of buildings, panels and reliefs.

Cultural heritage in the form of decorations by paintings and colourings have tangible andintangible dimensions. The tangible dimension consists of the physical elements, while theintangible dimension consists both the skills and knowledge of the craftspeople who produce
them and the meanings that people using the buildings assign to themFurthermore, the tangible form of paintings and colourings are of two kinds. One is connectedwith living traditions and is susceptible to continuous renewal by the custodians, while theother belongs to the past that is no longer in use.



Decorations such as paintings and colourings convey different values in the society, which
may be defined by the experts, local community and associated socio-religious belief systems
and functions. They convey meanings or tell stories through their figures, designs and patterns,
the process of their creation and preservation. The art form and style of paintings, use ofmaterials and the complex skills, procedures, workmanship and tools needed to produce them
are all part of their values.



They are intimately connected to contemporary lives of people either through religious, social
activities, ethnic identities or through their commercial/business interests. Therefore thesereflect multiple values depending on who defines these and for what purpose.



Paintings and colourings also are living part of the contemporary society which may give newmeanings, form and designs according to new tastes and needs, which may contribute to thevalues.



Paintings and colourings are part and parcel of the architecture/built form and landscape,which form their immediate context and from which they derive raw materials for pigments,
binding mediums, finishing and preservation techniques.

－ 107 －

2. Threats to Traditional Skills in Painting and ColouringTraditional skills in painting and colouring face threat due to changing perception of values
because of which people may lose the meanings thereby threatening their continuity.



Traditional paintings and colourings may be at increasing risk due to conflicts in theperceptions of values defined by the experts, local community and other stakeholders.



These may also be threatened due to changes in the functions of the buildings (for example
when residential houses get converted to restaurants and shops).



The craftsmen who possess the knowledge and skills to carry out traditional paintings andcolourings are diminishing due to lack of demand, which can lead to loss of knowledge, skills
and techniques that are difficult to recover once lost. As a result these can be easily replacedby modern materials, which are easier and faster to apply.

Traditional materials used for painting and colouring may not be easily available and thus
their production and maintenance may become unaffordable.



Paintings and colourings are becoming increasingly fragile to the environment due to local
factors such as pollution, global factors such as climate change and natural and human caused
disasters.



Paintings and colourings may be at risk due to improper physical and chemical interventions ,lack of maintenance and monitoring.

3. Principles of Conservation, Repair and Restoration of Painting and ColouringConservation of painting and colourings require both protecting the physical elements as well
as retaining the knowledge and skills needed for creating/renewing them.

The social and religious values of paintings and colourings should be considered for theirconservation.

Traditional renewal process and repairs should be encouraged where these are an inherent
character of the living heritage. However these should not compromise their heritage values.

In-situ conservation of paintings and colouring is preferable to keep their original context andsocial meaning.



Their conservation should respect not only the material but also the structure of the buildingon which they are carried out.

－ 108 －



Original materials and workmanship should be used to the best possible extent for the
restoration of paintings and colouring.



Scientific research of traditional materials and techniques should be carried out before
restoration of paintings and colourings and where possible, original parts should retained andpreserved in-situ



In case removal of paintings is absolutely essential, these should be properly documented andresearched at every stage; before, during and after the removal, storage and conservation
process. These procedures should be carried out under strict technical supervision.

All the historical layers for paintings and colourings should be considered and documented fortheir conservation.

Preventive conservation through regular maintenance, monitoring and appropriate response to
local environment should be encouraged.

4. Recommendations of Regeneration and Transmission of Traditional Skills in Painting
and ColouringThe responsible authorities should establish legal and financial supporting systems, including
subsidies to encourage protection of traditional skills and their bearers (craftspeople).



Paintings and colourings of scientifically assessed special value(s) in the material and/or
structure as historic evidence should be preserved in a state that protects these values.



Natural resources needed for raw materials for paintings and colourings should be protected
for their sustainability.



Knowledge and skills for carrying out paintings and colourings should be officially designatedas heritage to secure their protection and conservation.

Research on traditional materials and historical layers of paintings and colourings should be
encouraged for recovering original techniques. The results of such researches should be
published and disseminated.

Capacity building of human resources in traditional skills and knowledge for paintings andcolourings and their conservation should be encouraged, especially to transmit these to the
future generations.



The potential of traditional paintings and colourings to contribute towards the benefit ofcontemporary society and economy should be explored.

－ 109 －

A dialogue between experts and the community members should be encouraged in order toachieve a balance between technical needs for conservation and retaining the social/religious
meanings of paintings and colourings.

Considering that the Asia-Pacific region is characterized by a very large and articulated heritage withpaintings and colourings with common elements and regional differences, there is a need and an
opportunity for establishing international shared tools for research in the field of traditional skills.
Such tools could be a multi-language specialized online thesaurus, a web-based database of current
research and conservation works, a peer reviewed scientific digital journal and literature review.

－ 110 －

V. Appendix－ 111 －

－ 112 －1. General Information of the Conference

International Conference 2012
“Human Resources Development for the Transmission of Traditional Skills:
Building Decoration with a Focus around Painting and Colouring”(27 – 29 November, Nara, Japan)

1. OrganisersThis conference is jointly organised by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan (Bunkacho); the Asia-Pacific
Cultural Centre for UNESCO; National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, National Research Institute forCultural Properties, Nara and Tokyo; and WHITRAP Shanghai in co-operation with the International Centre
for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), the JAPAN ICOMOS
National Committee, the Japanese Association for Conservation of Architectural Monuments (JACAM),
Nara prefectural government and Nara municipality.

2. Background and Objective
International Conference 2012 is the third and last in a series, which began in January 2011, withconferences held once each fiscal year over three years, under the general theme of “Human Resources
Development for the Transmission of Traditional Skills”.
The first conference aimed at achieving a common understanding of the theme’s current status by presenting
different national approaches and policy measures regarding the restoration of historic buildings. The
sub-theme of the first conference was woodworking, and the practical aspects of repair work were discussed
in detail. Following on from this, the second conference took up the restoration of stone and brick as a
sub-theme while deepening the discussion by taking a comprehensive view of both tangible and intangible
cultural heritage.
At the last conference, this year, we will take up the restoration of decorations such as painting and colouringof the heritage building as a sub-theme. In addition, for the purpose of transmission of traditional skills andmaterials that are necessary for restoration of traditional heritage buildings, how to develop conservation
professionals equipped with traditional skills and how to secure traditional materials for repair work will be
discussed comprehensively at the conference.

3. Dates and Venues
Dates: From 27 to 29 November 2012
Venues: Nara Prefectural New Public Hall (101 Kasugano-cho, Nara City), etc.

－ 113 －

4. Provisional Schedule
Day 1

Tuesday, 27 November
08:45~16:40 Participants will visit to the East Pagoda of Yakushi-ji Temple, a restoration site andNakagawa whiting manufacturing plant.
Day 2 Wednesday, 28 November
09:15 ~ Opening Session
10:00 ~ Special Speech
11:00 ~ Keynote Speech I - II
13:50 ~ Case Study Report I - IV
Day 3 Thursday, 29 November
09:30 ~ Case Study Report V-VII
11:35 ~ Summary of the Conference
13:30 ~ General Discussion
16:00 ~ Closing Session

5.

Working Language

The working language of the conference is English. Simultaneous interpretation between English andJapanese will be provided when necessary.
6. Financial Arrangement
Organisers will provide each of the participants with:
1. Travel Expense: A round trip air ticket (economy class) between the international airport nearest to theparticipant’s residence and Osaka (Kansai) International Airport.
2. Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA): A fixed amount of DSA from 26 to 30 November to cover theparticipant’s meals; and a hotel room (including breakfast) will be also provided.
7. Correspondence
All enquiries and correspondence concerning the Conference should be addressed to

ACCU Nara
Cultural Heritage Protection Cooperation Office,Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU)
Nara Pref. Nara Branch Office757 Horen-cho, Nara 630-8113 JAPAN
Tel: (+81) 742-20-5001 Fax: (+81) 742-20-5701
E-mail: nara@accu.or.jp



WHITRAP Shanghai
World Heritage Institute of Training and Research for the Asia andthe Pacific Region under the Auspices of UNESCO (Shanghai)
3F Wen Yuan Building, Tongji University
No. 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai 200092 P.R. CHINA
Tel & Fax: (+86) 21 6598 7687
e-mail: whapshanghai@gmail.com－ 114 －

2. Schedule of the Conference
Day 1 (Tuesday, 27 November)
Excursion: Participants visited Yakushi-ji Temple and had the on-site lecture of the temple by Rev.
MATSUKUBO Kashu, a Bhuddist priest; and proceeded to the restoration site at East Pagoda in the precincts
under the guidance of Mr NAKAMURA Nobuo, Head of Yakushi-ji Field Office, Cultural Assets Preservation
Division Nara Prefectural Board of Education. In the afternoon, they visited the Nakagawa whiting manufacturing
plant guided by Mr NAKAGAWA Haruo, President & CEO and Mr NAKAGAWA Hiroyuki, Production/Technical Manager of the company at Uji city, Kyoto.
Day 2 (Wednesday, 28 November)
09:15 – 10:00 Opening Session
Welcome addresses by organisers and guests: Mr YAMATO Satoshi, Councillor for Cultural Properties, Agency
for Cultural Affairs, Japan; Mr SHIMAZU Masakazu, Secretary General of Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for
UNESCO; Mr FUKASAWA Yoshiki, Deputy Director General, National Institute for Cultural Heritage, Nara
National Research Institute; Ms Lu Wei on behalf of Prof. ZHO Jian, Director, WHITR-AP Shanghai, World
Heritage Institute of Training and Research-Asia and Pacific (Shanghai); Mr SUGITA Norihide, Vice-Governor,
Nara Prefectural Government; and Mr NAKAGAWA Gen, Mayor, Nara City.
10:00-10:45
11:00-11:45
11:45-12:30

13:50-14:25
14:25-15:00
15:20-15:55
15:55-16:30
18:30-20:00

Special Speech: Mr Stefano De Caro (ICCROM)“Global Trends on Human Resources Development for the Transmission of Traditional Skills”
Keynote Speech I: Mr YAMATO Satoshi (Japan)“Transmission of Traditional Skills for Preservation of Cultural Properties in Japan”
Keynote Speech II: Mr DAI Shibing (China)“Traditional and Modern Coloring of Stone Inscriptions on Precipices in China: an Example fromWorld Heritage Wuyishan, PR China”
Case Study Report I: Mr A Ghafar Bin Ahmad (Malaysia)“Traditional Building Skills in the Conservation of Heritage Mosques in Malaysia”
Case Study Report II: Mr Kai Weise (Nepal)“Safeguarding Traditional Painting Skills in Nepal”
Case Study Report III: Mr Jagath Weerasinghe (Sri Lanka)“Preserving the Painted Heritage of Sri Lanka”
Case Study Report IV: Mr Le Phuoc Tan (Viet Nam)
“Restoration of Interior Decoration of Khai Tuong Pavilion - An Kinh Palace, Hue City - Viet Nam”
Reception

Day 3 (Thursday, 29 November)
09:30-10:05
10:05-10:40
11:00-11:35
11:35-12:00
13:20-16:30
16:30-

Case Study Report V: Ms Jeetheng Piyakarn (Thailand)“Lai Rod Num on Traditional Building in Thailand”
Case Study Report VI: Mr Lhaten Dorji (Bhutan)“Traditional Painting of Bhutan”
Case Study Report VII: Mr KUBODERA Shigeru (Japan)“Current Issues of and Future Tasks for Conservation of Coloring and Painting in Japan”
Summary of the Conference: Mr MASUDA Kanefusa
General Discussion: All participants“Human Resources Development for the Transmission of Traditional Skills”
Closing Session
1－ 115 －

3. List of Participants
ICCROM
Stefano De Caro

MASUDA Kanefusa
Secretary of ICORP (Risk Preparedness), ICOMOS ISC
Visiting Researcher, Ritsumeikan University
e-mail: pfe02120@nifty.ne.jp

ICCROMe-mail: sdc@iccrom.org

BHUTAN
Lhaten Dorji

NARUMI Yoshihiro
Restoration Architect / Ex-Technical Staff(Wakayama Pref. Archaeological Center）
e-mail: syohaku2005@yahoo.co.jp

Project Manager (Paro Dzong Conservation Project)
Division of Heritage Sites, Department of Culture,
Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs
e-mail: lhatendorji@hotmail.com

NISHIMURA Yasushi
Director, Cultural Heritage Protection Cooperation Office,Asia Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU)
e-mail: nishimura@accu.or.jp

CHINA
DAI Shibing
Professor, College of Architecture and Urban Planning
Tongji University
e-mail: ds_build@163.com

YAMATO Satoshi
Councilor for Cultural Properties
Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan (Bunkacho)

ZHOU Jian, Director
LU Wei, Executive Vice Director
QU Ying, Staff

MALAYSIAA Ghafar Bin Ahmad

World Heritage Institute of Training and Research
for the Asia and the Pacific Region under the Auspicesof UNESCO (WHITRAP Shanghai)e-mail: whapshanghai@gmail.com

Professor, School of Housing, Building and Planning
Universiti Sains Malaysia
e-mail: aghafar@usm.my / aghafar7788@yahoo.com

NEPAL
Kai Weise

INDIA
Rohit Jigyasu
Professor, Research Centre for Disaster Mitigation
Of Urban Cultural Heritage, Ritsumeikan University
e-mail: rohit.jigyasu@gmail.com

Chairperson, Planners' Alliance for the Himalayan &Allied Regions (PAHAR Nepal)
e-mail: paharnepal@gmail.com

JAPAN
FUJIMOTO Masayuki
Associate Fellow

SRI LANKA
Jagath Weerasinghe

International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural
Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region (IRCI)e-mail: guu1925@unesco-c2jp.jp

INABA Nobuko
Professor, Graduate School of Comprehensive Human
Sciences, University of Tsukuba
e-mail: inaba@heritage.tsukuba.ac.jp

KUBODERA Shigeru
Director, Historical Research Institute for Architectural
Decoration Technology
e-mail: cosmos0707@gmail.com

Professor, Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology
e-mail: jagath.weerasinghe@gmail.com

THAILAND
Jeetheng Piyakarn
Senior Conservation Architect
The Fine Arts Department, Ministry of Culture
e-mail: jeethengpiyakarn@hotmail.com

VIET NAM
Le Phuoc Tan
Technical Staff, Hue Monument Conservation Centere-mail: lelep2004@gmail.com－ 116 －

C ’ 12

“Human Resources Development for the Transmission of Traditional Skills: Building Decoration with a Focus around Painting and Colouring”

International Conference 2012
“Human Resources Development for the Transmission of Traditional Skills:
Building Decoration with a Focus around Painting and Colouring”(27 – 29 November, Nara, Japan)

Cultural Heritage Protection Cooperation Office,Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU)