A user’s guide to saving heritage

Published in 2009

Straddling the Himalayas between China and India, the Kingdom of Bhutan has retained its unique cultural heritage, despite being surrounded by the world’s two most populous countries. But a key part of its culture – Buddhist monasteries, temples and religious artefacts – is highly vulnerable to decay.

French art restorer and 1996 Rolex Associate Laureate Sabine Cotte created a handbook to prevent damage to its religious treasures. Her handbook, which is helping to save Bhutan’s cultural riches, is now a model for others to copy.

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Bhutan, its people and its culture are inextricably linked to the tiny kingdom’s imposing dzongs, extraordinary fortress monasteries perched on the mountain ridges of this predominantly Buddhist country. Ancient and massive, they have stood since the 17th century as sentinels over the people who live there, providing social and spiritual structure, security and a link to their rich past.

But dzongs are not only home and school to Buddhist monks and the focus of religious ceremonies; they also typically serve as a district’s administrative headquarters. In serving these various functions, daily use by hundreds of people – along with a harsh climate – has caused steady erosion.

Bhutan’s government has adopted a national strategy to ensure the maintenance and renewal of its heritage. Focus has been on the dzongs and their contents, as well as the ancient lhakhangs, temples that can be found in every village and valley. Relaying to the people the need to conserve it has not been easy: inherent in the Buddhist faith is the doctrine of impermanence – every creature or being will disappear and be born over and over again. Material objects too are seen as ephemeral. So, until recently, the monks were not particularly disturbed by the deterioration of their monasteries.

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A solution to the problem came unexpectedly from afar. French art restorer Sabine Cotte was inspired with a solution during a trek through Bhutan with her partner, British-Australian architect David Nock, in 1992. During their visits to various dzongs, they noticed cracks in the walls and crumbling foundations. As the buildings house substantial collections of religious art, including Tibetan painted banners – thangkas – and statues, Cotte was concerned that these artworks would also be destroyed.

“I realized immediately that something needed to be done to conserve this living heritage,” she recalls. “Being a conservator, I am always sad to see artworks deteriorating, but I also realize that artworks are much more beautiful when they are ‘alive’ in the context of their use, rather than ‘half-dead’ in a museum.

“The significance of a religious object finds its roots in the living practice of the religion or tradition. When transferred into a museum, the value of the object shifts from sacred to work of art. This underlines the importance of conserving objects and buildings within their cultural context, despite the challenges and difficulties.”

After some reflection, Cotte, together with Nock, came up with a practical solution to help Bhutan’s religious community take responsibility for preserving this heritage. Bearing in mind their audience – caretaker monks who do not read or speak English, who often live in remote monasteries and who are replaced every couple of years – the couple conceived the idea of a handbook outlining the basics of preventative conservation.

For this project, Cotte was selected as an Associate Laureate of the 1996 Rolex Awards. The Award funded an intensive, eight-week research trip to Bhutan. Singye Dorji, from Bhutan’s Home Ministry, accompanied the Cotte and Nock, acting as their interpreter and providing invaluable local insights. The team visited 17 sites that ranged from small village temples to elaborate monasteries and compiled an extensive report of each site that was presented to the government of Bhutan to aid in the planning of specific interventions. The report also lay the groundwork for the Handbook of Preventative Conservation in Bhutan which was published in 2000.

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“The upkeep of a temple usually rests with a monk or layperson who, though they care deeply for the temple, generally has no particular awareness about preservation,” she explains. “Interestingly, our research visits became mini-preventative conservation workshops for the caretakers. Their enthusiasm and willingness to learn helped confirm the need for a training tool, and we felt a handbook was the simplest and most effective way to communicate the need to maintain buildings and their contents.”

The handbook’s text, which is kept to a minimum, is in both English and Dzongkha, Bhutan’s national language. Printed by Bhutan’s Royal Printing Works, it is divided into four main sections: the prevention of water damage; preserving mural paintings, statues and thangkas; hygiene; and fire prevention.

The handbook offers advice that may seem obvious to those aware of the value of conservation, but to a monk educated within a religious context, it can be groundbreaking. “During our research visits, we would take caretakers on the roof to inspect the flashings, or into the cellar to look at foundations, which to them seemed absurd – until they could see the defect and relate it to the damage inside the building,” the Laureate says. “Our handbook includes pictures that show, for example, water damage to mural paintings caused by a leaking roof. By explaining the causes of deterioration and offering cheap, practical solutions, the handbook empowers the caretakers to make sensible decisions on how to prevent decay and, in the process, protect a beautiful cultural heritage.”

This low-key approach to educating the religious community about the benefits of preventative conservation has been well received. By involving the caretakers as much as possible during the research phase, Cotte was able to gain an intimate insight into the Buddhist way of thinking and way of living. Dzongs are central to the lives of Buddhist monks, some of whom are as young as five years old: they live and sleep within the temples’ intricately decorated walls, the statues are a focus of worship and the thangkas are used as holy scriptures.

By relating actions to a consequence, and learning simple, preventative solutions, the monks have been able to adapt their behaviour to incorporate the notion of conservation. “Buddhism is a religion of great tolerance; accepting one idea does not mean having to relinquish another idea,” Cotte says. “I was careful not to come in as the expert foreigner who gave instructions on what they had to do. Monks are naturally proud of their beautiful cultural heritage, and now we have been able to give them a means to share in preserving it, while still being able to use it.”

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In the eight years since the handbook was published, conservation has developed enormously in Bhutan. An inventory of cultural property is being undertaken and, to date, 16 out of 18 regions have been completed, with everything registered – from statues, scriptures, precious stones, to antiques, art and artefacts. Meanwhile, the handbook is being used extensively in training sessions for caretakers and has proved to be an indispensable tool for the government to help raise public awareness of the need for conservation.

It is not only the Bhutanese who have embraced the handbook. In May 2008, Cotte visited the Kingdom of Mustang, one of the last remaining authentic Tibetan Buddhist kingdoms located within the predominantly Hindu country of Nepal. Cotte was invited to Mustang by the HimalAsia Foundation to train architecture students from Khwopa College in Bakhtapur, Nepal, in documenting mural paintings. As part of their final examination this year, the architects – post-graduate students in heritage conservation – have to produce a similar handbook, adapted to the regional practices of Mustang. “I am very proud to say that soon there will be a little brother to the handbook,” Cotte says. “The handbook is starting to lead a life of its own, it truly is blossoming.”

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The National Textile Museum of Bhutan has also produced a handbook based on Cotte’s concept, but aimed specifically at preserving textiles. And the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) has also recognized the value of Cotte’s handbook as a versatile training tool, making it available for download on its Collasia2010 website, which promotes a seven-year programme aiming improve the conditions for the conservation of moveable heritage collections.

Cotte now works as a private painting conservator in Melbourne, Australia, where she lives with Nock and their two children. Her passion for the art of Bhutan and neighbouring countries has not waned. She frequently returns to the Himalayas to lead conservation workshops on behalf of UNESCO, and, in 2005, she was one of three conservation experts leading a major UNESCO workshop on the conservation of thangka paintings in Nepal.

Dzongs have no blueprint – they were built purely from the spiritually inspired directions of a high lama. Unique and irreplaceable, they are important monuments of Bhutan’s religious, cultural and political history. In a country that espouses harmony with nature and all beings, but whose religious and spiritual essence is threatened by the impact of modernization and globalization, Cotte’s simple, hands-on approach to conservation provides a bulwark against these and other environmental threats. Thanks to the handbook, the dzongs will continue to serve as citadels protecting Bhutan’s heritage.

Alexa Schoof Marketos

To download the Handbook of Preventative Conservation in Bhutan, go to collasia2010.org.

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