|
Ladakh a region which to a high degree is imbued with tradition - the village communities as well as the monastic life.
Monasteries and the omnipresent chörten are important components of this tradition and they stamp the tilled landscape and the mental attitude in a decisive way.
On the other hand Ladakh opens more and more to foreign influences and is probably entering an age, where tradition does not survive by itself, but has to be defended. Architecture and painting, both have left important testimonies of this tradition and these have to be maintained, not to fall into oblivion.
The medieval wall paintings and sculptures in the temple structures and monasteries are outstanding art objects, concerning not only their beauty, but also the high grade of technical execution or workmanship. This is also one of the main reasons why many of them have survived in this good state of preservation.
Apart from problems like different settle-down of mud walls and paint layer and static problems like off slipping of single parts of the building, the most important factor of damages is penetrating rainwater.
Indirect, what means penetrating into the walls structure, rainwater is a heavy cause of damages and unfortunately in most cases produced by missing maintenance of the buildings structure. For that reason the static problems increase because of new movements in the mud wall structures, consequently resulting in damages like cracks and cavities between plaster and wall structure.
But also directly penetrating rainwater already caused harm by washing away whole parts of the paint layer.
Working out the conservation concept, every conservation in Ladakh to take into consideration the geographic location, what signifies to use materials also used in the original paintings and which can be found in Ladakh. Above all this is important because up to now there is not enough experience on how modern conservation materials will alter or react in this climate. In addition we have to consider the possibility that we may not be able to control this situation every year.
We also believe to be able to demonstrate that the materials obtainable in Ladakh, for a wide range of conservation problems, are sufficient to guarantee the preservation of the cultural property of Ladakh.
The tradition of painting is still alive in Ladakh and the high quality of so many medieval paintings can serve future generations of Ladakhi painters for studying the painting technology.
|
