Lush Lives: The Peregrinations of Borobudur Buddha Heads, Provenance, and the Moral Economy of Collecting

via the International Institute for Asian Studies Newsletter: An article by Marieke Bloembergen on the collection histories of Buddha heads from Borobudur.

Fourteen Buddha heads in the National Museum of World Cultures (NMVW) “probably” originate from the 8th-century Buddhist shrine Borobudur in Central Java. This would mean that they belong to 14 of the 504 Buddha statues that, from the temple, once overlooked Javanese rice fields. They share the same fate with a much larger number of tokens from Borobudur – heads, statues, and reliefs, carried away in colonial times – being kept in museums worldwide. Research into these objects, therefore, cannot be restricted to national or bilateral forms of collaboration; rather, it requires international coordination. That said, research in PPROCE has shown how rich the stories are that objects hold within them, and how lush their lives can be – stories that transcend the interests of institutes, nations, and states. Precisely because of these stories, the results of PPROCE might be treasured and mined: to the benefit of further research and new stories.

Source: Lush Lives: The Peregrinations of Borobudur Buddha Heads, Provenance, and the Moral Economy of Collecting | IIAS