OUR ANCESTORS SAY NO
.
OUR ANCESTORS SAY NO .
RETURN OUR SACRED OBJECTS,
SUPPORT LIVING HIMALAYAN ARTISTS!
Tashi Delek. We are a group of Tibetans who engaged in public protest on March 15, 2024, in front of the Rubin Museum of Art, which will close its physical location in October 2024. As our ancestors have always done, we prostrated before our sacred object relatives to demand the Rubin Museum pay reparations and return the precious items held inside back to Tibetan and Himalayan communities.
We join the calls of previous and future Tibetans to remember where these objects came from and who they belong with. Tibetan people who fled their homelands in 1959 carried sacred texts, statues, and ritual items over the mountains as they escaped. We object to the Rubin Museum, a predominantly-white institution, profiting off our ancestors’ sacrifices while completely ignoring the political conditions of Chinese occupation that led to their possessing our sacred objects. As demonstrated by their continued silence on genocides from Tibet to Palestine, these institutions do not serve us.
Why isn't the Rubin Museum giving back our ancestors, our sacred deities?
After the museum closes, where will they go?
What is the provenance, the origin, of the Rubin Museum? How did it come into being?
We reject the premise that Tibetan and Himalayan people must be “included” into the work of the museum. We have never needed the Rubin Museum, it has always needed us -- the deep wisdom, creativity, and beauty of our cultures, both ancient and living. None of the art in the Rubin today would exist without Tibetan and Himalayan people.
We fully support all Himalayan artists, including the many amazing artists featured in the Reimagine: Himalayan Art Now exhibit, and ask:
Why is this the first major exhibit of Himalayan artists living and working today in the 20 years of the Museum's history?
People often describe the Rubin as a space of tranquility and peace, where they come to be inspired. This inspiration would not exist without Himalayan and Tibetan people. Our contributions in art, culture, the "mindfulness" industry, are rarely acknowledged, let alone compensated.
In contrast, in 2020, Rubin Museum Director Jorrit Britschgi made $360,000. Michelle Bennett-Simorella, the staff member who curated the Reimagine exhibit, makes $170,000. The Rubin itself has a $138 million “sustaining fund”.
What could our communities do with this money? What could we make possible for ourselves and one another?
We call for The Rubin Museum to:
Give objects back. Enter a genuine repatriation process with Tibetan and Himalayan communities. Return The Shrine Room to community spaces stewarded by Tibetan and Himalayan peoples such as monasteries, regional associations, and arts institutes.
Invest money into living Tibetan and Himalayan artists and communities, who often struggle to make livings from their work.
To our allies, scholars of Tibet, and those who support Tibetans: