Itumbaha Museum Is Inaugurated in Kathmandu, Nepal

On July 29 the Itumbaha monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal, inaugurated the Itumbaha Museum, the first public galleries for the display of the monastery’s extensive historic collection. Itumbaha (also translated as Itum Bahal) is a vihara, or monastery for Newar Buddhists, and is one of the oldest, largest, and most important Buddhist monasteries in Nepal. Its galleries will house a permanent display of 150 objects spanning over six centuries from the monastery’s collection.

As the first dedicated display of art at any vihara (monastery) in the country, the new galleries at Itumbaha represent a significant development in the growing cultural heritage preservation and museum sector in Nepal.

In February 2022 the Rubin Museum of Art, the Keshchandra Mahavihara Conservation Society, Itumbaha, and Swosti Rajbhandari Kayastha, a museology and Buddhist collections lecturer at Lumbini Buddhist University, formed a partnership to research, catalogue, and preserve over 500 objects in the monastery’s collection.

The Rubin contributed principal funding as well as expertise on museum practices to help the Keshchandra Mahavihara Conservation Society realize this project. Kayastha and students in the museology and Buddhist collections master’s degree program led the research, documentation, and curation of the collection display. In March 2023 Kayastha participated in a three-week professional development residency at the Rubin Museum in New York City, serving to advance her museology practice and foster a network of learning.

This innovative partnership was established following the Rubin’s voluntary return of an object from its collection to Itumbaha in January 2022: the lower part of a wooden, faux window decoration showing a 14th-century garland-earing apsara. Research confirmed that the object had been originally situated at Itumbaha and was unlawfully removed from the site years before it entered the Rubin collection.

The garland-bearing apsara will be reinstalled in its original location at Itumbaha—as of inauguration, it is displayed in a section of the galleries aimed to educate the public about the history of the monastery, including the impact of illicit art trafficking in Nepal.

Read the full story in the press release