Tibet’s Iconic Architecture Is Alive in
Rare Drawings, Maps, and Photos
西藏标志性建筑在珍贵的图画、地图和照片中再现
中文译者：@sunrrrr
Lhasa Old Town and Potala Kanwal Krishna;
commissioned by Hugh Richardson Tibet; October 13, 1939. Watercolor on paper.
Collection of Anthony and Marie Laure Aris
（作品名）：拉萨旧城和布达拉
（艺术家）：Kanwal Krishna
受委托于（资方）： Hugh Richardson
西藏，1939年十月13日
（材料）：纸本水彩
收藏 Anthony and Marie Laure Aris
Nestled in the Himalayas, at Earth’s
highest elevations, lies Tibet. For many outside observers, it is a land of
great spiritual tradition, vibrant color, and a culture uniquely and defiantly
different than the Chinese government with which it often clashes. One of the
great expressions of Tibetan culture is its architecture. This fall at The
Rubin Museum, visitors will be able to tour Tibet’s most celebrated
architectural sites through both a historical and contemporary gaze.
安卧于喜马拉雅山脉，位在地球海拔最高的，是西藏（图伯特）。对许多客观的观察者来说，这片土地有着杰出的精神传统，明亮鲜艳的色彩，以及独特的文化。这种文化具有独特的反抗性质，常常与中国政府发生冲突。西藏文化的强烈表达之一是西藏建筑。这个秋天，在鲁宾艺术博物馆，参观者可以通过对历史与当代的凝视，来游览西藏最著名的建筑古迹。
Titled Monumental Lhasa: Fortress, Palace,
Temple, the exhibition features over 50 drawings, paintings, pilgrimage maps
and photographs of monuments and sacred sites like Potala Palace, Jokhang
Temple, and Samye monastery. These are sites influenced by Buddhist religious
and historical narratives, instead of the West’s architectural tradition.
标题为“纪念拉萨：宗堡，宫殿，庙宇”的展览，突出介绍五十多件绘图、绘画、朝圣地图和历史遗迹、圣殿古迹等照片，比如布达拉宫、大昭寺、桑耶寺。这些古迹是受佛教宗教和历史叙述影响的地点，而不属于西方的建筑传统。
View of Lhasa with Jokhang Temple Padma
Rimomkhan, commissioned by L. A. Waddell Tibet (1890) Gouache with watercolor,
gold leaf, and collage on paper. Wellcome Library, London
（作品名）：拉萨风景和觉康（即大昭寺）
（艺术家）：Padma Rimo mkhan
受委托于（资方）： L. A. Waddell
西藏（1890年）
（材料）：水粉，水彩，金叶，拼贴画，纸本
（收藏）：Wellcome图书馆，伦敦
Curator of the exhibition Natasha Kimmet
says that when one visits Tibet and the Himalayas, one encounters buildings
that form a distinctive part of the physical and visual landscape.
展览策展人Natasha Kimmet说，当人们探访西藏和喜马拉雅山脉时，会遇到建筑物，形成实物和视觉风景中特别的一部分。
“These buildings also tell us a great deal about the region’s history
and culture, yet they have never been the focus of a major museum exhibition,”
Kimmet tells The Creators Project. “This is partly because it is difficult to
display buildings in a museum setting, and we don’t have access to many Tibetan
architectural fragments or structural elements.”
“这些建筑物也告诉我们大量的关于地域的历史和文化，目前为止它们还没有成为主要博物馆的一个展览的焦点，”Kimmet告诉“创造者项目”：“这部分的原因是在博物馆的设置中展示建筑物的难度，以及我们没有获取许多西藏建筑的碎片或结构元素。”
When Kimmet began her curatorial fellowship
at the Rubin nearly two years ago, her colleagues encouraged her to explore the
museum’s architectural material, as aswell as photographs of monuments in other
institutional collections. Through research and discussion Kimmetfound a rich
body of architectural images focused on Tibet’s capital city, Lhasa. She also
secured images on loan from public and private and public collections in North
America and Europe, including many from the British Library in London.
近两年前，当Kimmet在鲁宾开始她的策展人研究员职务时，她的同事们鼓励她探索博物馆关于建筑的资料，还有其他机构收藏的历史遗迹照片。通过研究和讨论，Kimmet发现许多丰富的建筑图像是关于西藏的首都——拉萨。她也从北美和欧洲的公共和私人收藏中，通过租借获得图像，包括伦敦的大英图书馆。
Tashilhunpo Monastery from the south
GobonjabTsybikoff, Tibet (1900-1901). Black and white album photograph From the
American Geographical Society Library, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Libraries Digital Photo Archive, PC 40C 38
扎什伦布寺，南侧
（摄影）：Gobonjab Tsybikoff
西藏（1900－1901年）
黑白照片集，美国地理协会图书馆
威斯康辛大学，Milwaukee图书馆数码照片档案，PC 40C 38
Portals Palace in Lhasa, a monumental
structure that is the former seat of the Tibetan government and home of the
Dalai Lamas (the former religious and temporal leaders of Tibet). For this
reason, Kimmet says that the palace is emblematic of Tibet.
拉萨的布达拉宫，一座宏伟的建筑，是西藏政府从前的所在地和达赖喇嘛的家。因此，Kimmet说这座宫殿是西藏的象征。
The Jokhang, located at Lhasa’s center, is
Tibet’s most sacred temple, though it's less visually commanding as Potala.
Kimmet says another iconic site is SamyeMonastery, the first monastery in
Tibet. The structure’s layout itself is interesting because it presents a large
mandala, the circular cosmic diagram used by Buddhists in visualization
practices.
觉康（大昭寺，位于拉萨的中心，是西藏最神圣的庙宇，尽管在视觉上不像布达拉宫那样威严。Kimmet说另一个代表性的古迹是桑耶寺，西藏的第一座（佛法僧三宝俱全的）寺院。它的建筑平面设计非常有趣，因为展示的是一个大的曼荼罗，循环的宇宙示意图用于佛教徒形象化的修行。
“[Another building] that comes to mind is the great Kumbum Stupa at
Gyantse in South-Central Tibet,” Kimmet says. “This 15th century monument is
built in the form of a stupa(a type of Buddhist reliquary monument) and
three-dimensional mandala that also has a seven-story temple interior featuring
elaborate mural paintings and sculptures.”
“另一个出现在我脑海中的建筑是非常了不起的十万佛塔，在西藏中南的江孜县，”Kimmet 说。“这座十五世纪的古塔建成佛塔的形式（佛教的一种圣人圣物纪念塔），三维曼荼罗，七层庙宇，内部以壁画和雕塑为特色。”
“Perched on a
ridge, the palace-fortress of Gampa Dzongnear the Tibetan border with Nepal and
Sikkim might be one of Tibet’s most dramatic architectural structures known
from photographs,” she adds. “Like one taken by the British photographer John
Claude White in an album displayed in the exhibition.”
“照片中闻名的岗巴宗堡（县府），坐落在山脊上，靠近西藏与尼泊尔和锡金的边界，可能是西藏最惊人的建筑结构之一。”她补充道：“正如展览中的英国摄影师John Claude White 所拍摄的这一幅。”
Credit: John Claude White (British, 1853-1918),
KhambaJong, From an album of photographs of Tibet and Sikkim, 1902-1904, The
British Library; Photograph © The British Library Board, Photo 430/53 (4)
记录：John Claude White (英国，生卒年1853-1918)
岗巴县，西藏锡金照片集，（1902－1904年）
大英图书馆；照片@大英图书馆董事会，照片430/53 (4)
Kimmet is also impressed by Tibet’s
residential buildings, which she says reveal so much about how people structure
their everyday lives. “Although many of Lhasa’s historical aristocratic
residences have been destroyed since the mid-20th century, the Tibet Heritage
Fund has carefully documented many of the buildings,” she says.
Noble houses, according to the Tibetan
Heritage Fund, were arranged hierarchically, with storage rooms on the ground
floors, servant quarters and family chapel in the middle floor, and opulent
living quarters with large bay windows for the landowner. Courtyard houses were
designed for itinerant traders that came in and out of Lhasa, while the
single-family homes (Khang-pa) were built for craftsmen and retired officials,
or even as summer homes for aristocrats.
依据西藏文化发展公益基金会（的记录），贵族房屋分等级布置，储藏室在底层，并有佣人住处，佛堂在楼层的中心，有着富丽堂皇的大窗户为生活起居空间，属于主人。围绕庭院的房舍通常安排给进出拉萨的流动商旅，单独的住宅（藏语音康帕）通常属于工匠或卸任的官员，或者是贵族消夏住处。
“The materials and construction techniques characteristic of Tibetan
buildings contribute to their distinctive appearance and functions,” Kimmet
explains. “Tibetan architecture is built primarily of earth, stone, and wood.
The buildings feature an interior post-and-beam framework, which is supported
by exterior load-bearing walls made of courses of stone, sun-dried mudbricks,
or rammed earth.”
“西藏建筑物的材料与建造技术的特点，促成了特别的外观和功能，”Kimmet解释说，“西藏建筑主要是由泥土、石头和木头建造。建筑物以内部柱梁结构为特色，以外部承重墙做支撑，承重墙以石块，晒干的土砖，及夯实的泥土筑成。”
Samye Monastery. Painted by a Tibetan monk,
commissioned by Major William Edmund Hay (1805-1879), Lahaul, present-day
India, ca. 1857. Watercolor on paper. The British Library Wise Collection,
Add.Or.3017, Folio 3 Photograph © The British Library Board.
桑耶寺
绘画：一位西藏僧侣
受委托于： Major William Edmund Hay (1805-1879),
拉胡尔，现今印度，1857年
纸本水彩
大英图书馆西区收藏Add.Or.3017, Folio 3 照片@大英图书馆董事会
“The walls
are constructed in such a way that they can withstand seismic activity, they
have excellent thermal properties, and they are carefully integrated with the
landscape (they often appear to emerge out of the earth),” she adds. “These
battered walls, the flat roofs, small windows, and interesting decorative
features are all important aspects of Tibet’s unique architecture.”
“以这样的方式建造的墙壁能够承受地震活动，并有极好的保暖性，而且，完全与环境景观成为一体，就像是从地上生长而出，”她补充说。“这些有坡度的墙壁、平坦的屋顶、小小的窗户，以及有趣的装饰特征，是西藏独特建筑的重要部分。”
These basic construction features are
common to all Tibetan buildings, says Kimmet, from the smallest single-room
dwelling to the 13-story Potala Palace.
Kimmet说，这些基本的建造特征常见于西藏所有的建筑物，从最小的单独住宅到十三层的布达拉宫。
“By
comparison to the monumental buildings, consider the structure of many
Himalayan villages—there, the clustered houses share party walls and are
seemingly fitted together like a 3D jigsaw puzzle,” says Kimmet. “There are a
lot of intriguing regional variations in the architecture that merit further
exploration.”
“与重大的建筑物相比较，考虑到许多喜马拉雅村落的建筑结构——在那里，聚在一起的房屋共享界墙。表面上看，就像三D拼图一样在一起非常合适。”Kimmet说。“还有许多建筑具有引人入胜的地区异质性，值得进一步探索。”
Interestingly, Kimmet says that artists and
architects often remain anonymous in Tibet and the Himalayas. A master
craftsman would typically be tasked with the design and construction of a
Tibetan building, but they would consult with the inhabitants or patrons of the
project.
Kimmet说，值得注意的是，在西藏和喜马拉雅地区，艺术家和建筑师常常是匿名的。一位大师级的手工艺人，其主要任务是承担藏人房屋的设计和建造，但他们会与居住者或房屋的属于者咨询并讨论。
鲁宾艺术博物馆图像
“Some
buildings have been attributed to historical religious figures,” Kimmet notes.
“Other buildings were established by notable kings and royal patrons; however,
the names of the architects remain largely unknown.”
“有些建筑已经具有历史的宗教的标志，”Kimmet
强调：“王公显要建造了其他建筑；然而，建筑师的名字无人知晓。”
While nothing competes with actually
visiting Tibet to experience the architecture, Kimmet says that the Rubin wants
to bring its key architectural landmarks to a New York City audience that might
not others have the opportunity to visit them. Though she hopes that audiences
will come away with a new appreciation for Tibetan architecture, she would also
like it if people see monuments in a new way.
无法身临其境去参观西藏建筑，Kimmet说鲁宾（艺术博物馆）是想给那些没有机会去实地参观的纽约参观者，带来最重要的建筑标志。尽管她希望参观者离开时会怀着一种对西藏建筑新的欣赏感受，她也希望人们能以新的方式来看待历史遗迹。
“I hope that Monumental Lhasa will encourage people to think about
how we construct images and our ideas of places,” Kimmet says. “Most of the
time we experience iconic buildings and places through images rather than the
actual places. These images tell us a lot about the people who made them and how
they experienced the landmarks that we’re now viewing through their image.”
“我希望‘纪念拉萨’会鼓励人们去思考我们如何建立图像和关于地方的观念，” Kimmet说。“大多数时候，我们对标志性建筑物和地方的认识是通过图像，而不是实际的地方。这些图像可以告诉我们人们是如何建造它们，而它们又是如何成为我们通过图像所看到的地方标志。”
