Oral histories have the capacity to transport us not just across time but across space. Stories are in a sense a kind of ‘object’ encompassing trajectories of affect and sensation which is why I found this account by Dr John Clarke, curator of the Himalayan and southeast Asian collections, so compelling. He describes a research trip he made in 1986 to the Zanskar Valley, Ladakh, N. W India, an area that is culturally Tibetan. In Chiling, he found a village of craftsmen still producing the same teapots as the ones held in the V&A collections. He describes the ‘magical’ feeling of seeing these objects being produced as part of a living tradition.
Silver gilt, silver and brass gilt, with inset turquoise. IM.112-1927
| Transcript: Dr John Clarke interviewed by Dr Linda SandinoJC: We stayed at one village overnight – I think that was the end of the road, so we stayed there, and then we had this day of walking to the village that wasn’t connected to the road, and that village was a village of craftsmen farmers. They’d been there since the seventeenth century, so it was an old, long established village, and at times when they weren’t farming, in the winter mainly, they would do metalworking; and they were making exactly – some of the exact same things as in our collection, so there was this wonderful tie up between, for example, all these Tibetan tea pots- and they were making exactly the same things, which was the really fascinating part for me.There was one very skilled old craftsman – he was in his eighties then, and he could do work that was exactly as good as what we had in our collection. He was the exception – the younger ones weren’t doing quite as good work, but the skills were being passed on, so all the same types of things that I had been used to seeing in the collection were being made there. I didn’t ask them as much about style because they were, you know, a world unto themselves, just in this valley, but asked them about the history of their community and who they made for and who their patrons were; and then I also interviewed patrons in Leh and just outside – it was the main town in that region – and asked them about how they patronised the craftsmen- and it was, for example, one of the big local landowners said that it was the usual practice to ask them to come from this village every year – come and work at the house, and they would work for a couple of weeks, and they would make all these vessels and things, and then the vessels would be used in the house or they would be kept and used as presents, so that if you had a wedding or something and you had monks coming, then you would give them some of these as a present. So this went on [for] years and years on end, and at the end of the time the craftsmen were there, they would be given a big meal and money and presents, and then they would go back.LS: So how did you feel when you saw these teapots that were just like the ones that the museum [had]JC: Well it was a magical sort of feeling because you could really link what you had been seeing back in the Museum with a living tradition – you know, it all came to life. You understood its context, you understood how it was made, you understood where it was coming from, and you saw them being used as well, because there were – I think on that first occasion there was an archery contest – archery is a big thing there – and they were pouring out tea from them, so you got the perspective of the person making them, the person commissioning them, and the use in one of these festivals. |
Hi
I Want to know much for this one please ?
For me I really like it.but I can’t see your price!