Panel 2 | Biographies & Restitution of Hindu and Buddhist Objects from Java, Sumatra & Bali
Channel: SOAS University of London
Date: 2022-06-01

Panel 2 – Chair: Christian Luczanits, David L. Snellgrove Lecturer in Tibetan and Buddhist Art, SOAS

Lesley Pullen, Independent Art Historian, SOAS University of London
Object Biography - Mañjuśrī Arapacana - From Java to Russia

Mai Lin Tjoa-Bonatz, Assistant Director, Ethnologisches Museum, Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Berlin
The Afterlives of Gold Antiquities from Java 7th-16th century: Knowledge Engagements

Brigitta Hauser-Schaublin, Institute for Social and Cutural Anthropology, Georg-August University, Göttingen
Transformations and relocations: from edicts to gods, to antiquities. Glimpses into the biography of Balinese copperplate inscriptions

Biographies and Restitution of Hindu and Buddhist Objects from Java, Sumatra and Bali was recorded on 18th May 2022.

This symposium examines the life stories of certain Hindu and Buddhist objects which originated from the islands of Java, Bali and Sumatra.

Nine international scholars are being brought together to consider certain issues surrounding such objects now to be found in various locations around the world. In particular, the discussions will focus on the biographies of such objects and the issues of their restitution.

This symposium addresses why certain objects were selected to be moved from their find-spots, how such objects passed from one location to another, and who were their major agents in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Finally, it will touch on the various ethical issues surrounding such objects which occupy our deliberations today in the early 21st century.