iHumboldt ForumMitte
Tracing Shiva. Between Berlin and Kathmandu
A film and research project by Deepak Tolange on the copper-gilded Chaturmukh Shiva Linga kosh in Berlin's Asian art collection and the loss of Nepal's cultural assets.
More in Berlin
Preview: written before the show opened
The copper sheath at the centre of this project is about 50 cm high, nearly 200 years old, and carries inscriptions naming the donors who gave it to a temple in Kathmandu. People there say it was stolen twice. The first time they got it back. The second time it never returned, and in 1993 Berlin's Museum für Indische Kunst bought it from a gallery in Radevormwald. Nepal has banned the export of such objects since 1956.
Nepalese visual anthropologist Deepak Tolange traced that history with the museum's provenance researcher Sophia Bokop, filming interviews with worshippers and scholars connected to the temple. His film sets historical material beside recordings of Shiva worship today. On an SMB podcast, Tolange said of the sheath: "It's a living being. It's a god."
You'll find it in Room 312 on the third floor, inside the Asian art and ethnological collections (the €9 exhibition ticket). Tolange and the curators give exhibition talks at noon on the opening weekend, 28 and 29 November.
Look for
Tolange's film
Look for documentary recordings of how Shiva is worshipped today, set beside historical material on the sheath and the loss of Nepal's sacred objects.
Good for
- An Hour Or Less
- Locals Who've Seen It All
- Nerding Out
Free in the same building
- Flashbacks36 objects placed throughout the building in unconventional settings, each recalling a moment from the site's history.
- History of the SiteFree displays covering 800 years of Schlossplatz, from medieval cellars and palace sculptures to the Palace of the Republic, with original objects and media stations.
- Impressions. The Humboldt BrothersFree display on Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt's lives, curiosity and cosmopolitan worldview, in the ground-floor stairwell hall.
- Palace CellarFree walk through the archaeological remains of a medieval monastery and the original palace foundations beneath the building.
- The Gate of SanchiFree full-scale replica of the East Gate of the Great Stupa of Sanchi, a UNESCO World Heritage site in India, installed outside on the Lustgarten side.
Also at Humboldt Forum
On now nearby
Nearby
Image credits
9
- Tracing Shiva. Between Berlin and Kathmandu© Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Photo: Pierre Adenis
- A Country in a Container – The Disposal of East German State SymbolsCourtesy of DDR Museum
- Founded on Antiquity: Berlin's First MuseumPhoto: Johannes Laurentius
- Nature and German History. Faith – Biology – PowerCourtesy of Deutsches Historisches Museum
- Humboldt ForumMike Peel / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- DDR MuseumAndreas Praefcke / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
- Altes MuseumJean-Pierre Dalbéra / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
- Deutsches Historisches MuseumAvda / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Alte NationalgalerieManfred Brückels / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain