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Education of Restorers in Ladakh, India
South North Project in Germany between ASA and THF Participants
By Suzy Hesse

In 2007, a so called South North Project was organized in cooperation with the European network for development education (Arbeits und Studien Aufenthalte, ASA) and Tibet Heritage Fund (THF).

Within the South North Project, 4 students from India and Germany received scholarships, being given the chance to learn in Germany and India about conservation and restoration, with the purpose of acquiring experience in a foreign country and working as team in finding solutions for conservation problems.

ASA is a network of global education which helps students and young professionals to get work experience worldwide and to take part in an active global learning process. ASA is a non-profit organisation and it is not related to any political party. It is administrated by InWEnt – Capacity Building International (Internationale Weiterbildung und Entwicklung gGmbH), who emerged from Carl Duisberg Society (Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft, CDG) and the German Foundation for International Development (Deutsche Stiftung für internationale Entwicklung, DSE) in 2002. Every year ASA supports around 10 South North projects all over the world. In these projects the participants and members of the Southern partner organisations are cooperating to find solutions to issues concerning development questions. Normally the projects take place in the host country for three months and in Germany for other three months.

The NGO THF (already presented in e_conservation magazine, no. 1, October 2007, pp. 29-40/124), as Southern partner, started to educate restorers in Ladakh in 2005 with the help of German students. In Ladakh there were no local experts involved in the protection of cultural heritage. There are a number of Indian restorers but not enough to save the many temples one can find. Often, the temples are in such poor condition that many of them are close to collapse. Another problem we were confronted with was that locals do not show a real interest in the temple paintings. Often they are not aware of the figures represented and they are not interested to know them because the Buddhist traditions changed during the centuries so that these figures are no longer of interest for Buddhists of today. Even monks do not know all the old figures. Another Buddhist concept that contributes to the little interest in the paintings is that the image must be in a good and clear visible condition in order to meditate on it.

In these projects, THF’s purpose is to train Ladakhis as restorers in order to sensitise locals on their ancient culture and to show them the importance of safeguarding the paintings for next generations. In this way, THF found 2 Ladhakis which learnt about the work of conservation and restoration and the ancient art and techniques in Ladakh: the dexterous and interested Yanchen Dolma and the painter Skarma Lotus who was a Buddhist monk for many years.
The first project was the conservation of Guru Lhakhang temple in Leh, the capital of Ladakh. In 2004 the roof of the temple was already repaired so that in 2005 a first conservation-restoration student, Suzy Hesse, came from Germany to work on the paintings together with the Ladakhian students.
The paintings were in very advanced deterioration state. The rain had infiltrated for years into the interior and only some traces of the old painting were visible at the time of the intervention. First Ladakhian students learnt basic conservation operations such as how to fill fissures and lacunas with mortar and how to consolidate plaster but also more advanced operations such as how to make chromatic integration by tratteggio. They had also drawing lessons and they learnt about the chemical and physical processes of the typical materials in Ladakh such as, for example, the mud that is traditionally used for plaster in every Ladakhian house. They also learnt about the ancient and contemporary work techniques.

In 2006 more students from the University of Applied Sciences in Erfurt came to work together with Indians on the Chamba-Lhakhang in Leh. The main purpose of this initiative was to realize an exchange between Ladakh and Germany with the help of ASA. ASA makes a careful selection of people who are suitable for these projects and prepares them for the stay in the foreign country.
The project, suggested by André Alexander and Suzy Hesse, had as participants Yanchen Dolma and Skarma Lotus from Ladakh, the civil engineer Steffen Klein who teaches a course in preservation of historic buildings and monuments in Leipzig and the student Suzy Hesse from Erfurt, who made her diploma in conservation and restoration with the South North project. Yanchen and Skarma came to Germany from May to July 2007 to learn, with the help of the North participants, about preservation of historic buildings and monuments, conservation and restoration in Germany and Europe.

Together with Steffen and Suzy, they learnt about European art history and building preservation. They visited cities like Berlin, Leipzig, Cologne and Erfurt. It was also possible for them to take part in several practical courses in the University of Applied Sciences in Erfurt. This way, they had the chance to work for 2 weeks on a mosaic project in Cologne together with the students from Erfurt.
They undertook as well Chemistry classes, learning about pigments and typical materials often used in Europe for buildings and paintings. They also had practical classes in the laboratories of the University, using for the first time equipment for investigation of works of art. In the studios of the city museum of Erfurt, they learnt book binding techniques, painting preservation and got in contact with many interesting people. They also took part on a meeting of 2007 Asia-ASA participants in the Eifel Mountain in Germany and gave a talk presenting their country, the Ladakhian traditions, the work they are
doing and the many things learnt in Germany which are helpful for their work in Ladakh.

Image 1. Guru Lhakhang Team (2005), from up left: Suzy Hesse, Yanchen Dolma, Skarma Lotus, Daniel Hackauf; Image 2. Yanchen Dolma, Chamba-Lhakhang, Leh (2006); Image 3. The Tstsapuri-complex in Alchi: the 3 temples from 15th to 17th century; Image 4. Yanchen Dolma, Chamba-Lhakhang, Leh (2007).

 In 2007 the North participants travelled to Ladakh  from July to September and worked in Leh and in Alchi together with the South participants. Here, the work for the conservation of the 15th century paintings from the “Tsatsapuri” temple was started. Every year some students help THF to realize these projects. In 2007, one of them was Julia Giebeler from Cologne, who helped for 2 months at the restoration of the temple in Alchi.
The project started with the research of the building condition and the conservation state of the walls and paintings. The causes of damage were identified and documentation drawings were made to map the different areas. It was decided that the most important thing for the paintings is to repair the roofs, task to be completed this year.

The Ladakian students also took part in the conservation project of Chamba-Leh on the Lhakhang, helping to find the right mud composition for the fillings, consolidating the plaster and learning how to make chromatic integration. This was an exciting project where all participants could learn many interesting things about each other, about different cultures and traditions and about the restoration practice in different countries, resulting in a memorable experience for everyone. Thanks to everybody who helped to realize this project, to ASA and to THF.

About the author

Suzy Hesse
Contact: lea-sue@gmx.at
Beth Shemesh Str. 2, 99734 Nordhausen

Suzy Hesse (b. 1980, Nordhausen, Germany) got her diploma in Conservation and Restoration from the Erfurt University of Applied Sciences (Germany) in 2007. Her professional experience includes working with Tibet Heritage Fund for the preservation and conservation of mural paintings in the Buddhist temples in Leh (India) in 2005 and Alchi (India) in 2007.

Contacts:

Steffen Klein

Industriestraße 26, 04229 Leipzig,
e-mail: st.klein_80@web.de

ASA - Arbeits und Studien Aufenthalte
www.asaprogramm.de

THF - Tibet Heritage Fund
www.tibetheritagefund.org