Exhibition: "Myanmar: Pagodas, Longyis and Nat Spirits" | Germany

The exhibition 'Myanmar. Pagodas, Longyis and Nat Spirits' can be visited at the Five Continents Museum in Munich, Germany, an ASEMUS member, between 19 September 2014 and 3 May 2015. It presents a collection of objects gathered over 100 years ago and which had not been exhibited before. In 1911 Lucian Scherman, director of the Museum of Ethnology in Munich (now Five Continents Museum), and his wife Christine travelled to Burma, today’s Myanmar. Together they compiled an ethnographic collection which is unmatched anywhere in the world. It contains over 2,300 objects, 1,200 photographs, detailed travel diaries and audio recordings. The most beautiful and valuable objects in the collection are now presented for the first time in an outstanding exhibition. Visitors will be able to follow these two researchers through one of Asia’s most fascinating countries, meeting a wealth of different ethnic groups, learning how they live, becoming familiar with everyday life in Myanmar, attending religious festivals and admiring incomparable works of art. The trip through beautiful and varied landscapes will introduce visitors to virtually unknown places. Whether at Inle Lake, on the Chindwin River or in the vast mountainous regions in the west and east of the country – a few steps will take them into completely different worlds. The “trip” starts at the market square. Like everywhere else in the world, the market in Myanmar is the place where people from near and far meet and where goods of all kinds are traded and news is exchanged. While the Schermans travelled “along dusty roads to golden pagodas”, visitors will experience no such inconvenience in viewing the highlights of exhibition which include a puppet theatre whose figures have been awakened to new life after one hundred years. The latest changes in the Golden Land are pointed out, enabling visitors to witness the rapid developments in Myanmar in recent years. How does a more fast-paced lifestyle, driven by economic goals, harmonise with the spirituality of Buddhism in its special Myanmarian form? How widespread is the belief in the ancient nat spirits in the new “Tiger on the Ayeyawady”? Are the Naga still an “inherently pugnacious people”, as Christine and Lucian Scherman recorded in their travelogue in the language of their time? Inspiring discoveries await visitors in the area dedicated to the contemporary art scene in Myanmar. Works by artists such as Nann Nann, Khin Zaw Latt, Zaw Win Pe and Htein Lin demonstrate impressively how fertile not only the ground of ancient Burma but also the political past and present of the country are for art in the new Myanmar. An accompanying programme including workshops, guided tours, film screenings and other activities rounds off the exhibition of the Scherman collection and offers an astonishing kaleidoscope of different facets of Myanmar. For additional information, visit http://www.museum-fuenf-kontinente.de/ausstellungen-und-sammlungen/sonderausstellungen/myanmar-english.html Pictures: Figurine of Goddess Vasundhara, Scherman Collection; and Pagodas in Bagan, by Heinz Schoeneich