An impressive South African collection of Buddhist art is to be sold off, writes Lorraine Pace
A collection of irreplaceable Buddhist art, dating from the third century to the present day, is in danger of being broken up and lost to South Africa. Were these Christian artefacts, there would probably be an uproar. But there is a perception that the 100 pieces – comprising large and small statues, silk and cotton banner paintings, and ritual objects like prayer wheels, drums and begging bowls – are idols and heathen artefacts and, consequently, not worth preserving.
“I slogged and slaved for years to collect them,” says Molly van Loon, whose collection originates from Tibet, Nepal, China, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Burma. Van Loon, widely regarded as the “mother of Buddhism” in South Africa, draws attention to an 11th century Amida Buddha. The lacquered and gilded figure is seated on a lotus and surrounded by a flame. Being wooden, it is rare. Other such statues have long rotted to dust. There is an 11th- century pure-iron flagon inlaid with copper, silver and brass that have metallurgists baffled: it is rust-free and they don’t know how it was treated.
Her search was not easy, she says, and confides that she received guidance in strange ways – including prophetic dreams. “I have things that would not have been possible for me to discover were it not for some subtle form of help.”
Van Loon briskly dispels any notion that the Buddha statues are sacred for their own sake, or that they are worshiped. “Ignorant Jesuits called them idols – sheer nonsense – and applied labels like `the laughing Buddha’. Buddhists do not worship images. The images are iconographical interpretations of the symbolic significance of the Buddhist philosophy. They reflect the teaching of Buddha and that is what makes the pieces sacred.
“Centuries before it was proven as scientific fact, Buddha taught that all objects vibrate with energy and that all things are interrelated. He taught that everything is transient, and created a rule of discipline that requires one to abstain from killing or doing anything that will support or cause suffering; of taking things that are not freely given, or of indulging in false speech. It’s a philosophy of compassion and brotherhood. Buddha is not a god and the teachings are non-theist.”
Van Loon, who presented the exiled Tibetian Dalai Lama with a white scarf on his visit to this country last year, was born in Rangoon, Burma, 76 years ago. Fascinated as a child by the orange robes of Buddhist monks, she has devoted much of her life to studying Buddhism, its art, symbolism and philosophy. Her lightly wrinkled skin, luminous eyes and upright bearing belie her age and a real frailty – recent bad health has awakened fears of mortality.
Despite that, she continues to lecture to art students from South African universities, and to private groups interested in broadening their horizons. Van Loon will exhibit her collection at the Festival of Body, Mind and Spirit at the Johannesburg College of Education, Parktown, Johannesburg, next year (February 21 to 22), which may be one of the last opportunities for the public to view the pieces. She will also lecture at the festival.
She speaks of the meaning of the art, interprets the walking, sitting, reclining and standing images, explains a multiplicity of limbs and the symbolism of colour. She goes beyond the surface of objects and invites her listeners to journey with her. “I tell people about these pieces, my mouth is full of words,” she says, then, modestly, “But I’m not a teacher. It’s the fool within that teaches.”
Sadly, her knowledge will die with her. And the valuable collection of historical and philosophical art will be auctioned off to foreign museums and collectors, and lost to South Africa. “I’ve tried everything and I don’t know how to save the collection. I’ve contacted everyone I can think of, from Harry Oppenheimer to our museums, to preserve it. But South Africans have turned their snouts up, as it’s not as fashionable as African art is right now. Others don’t believe that the pieces are old and irreplaceable and don’t even bother to come and look. And there is no other oriental collection like this in the country.
“The Dalai Lama has seen the pieces, and promised to open a display if they can safely be housed together.”
Van Loon has already had to dispose of various pieces, including the only surviving 12th-century “book of wisdom” of the original five which were the very first to be written in Tibetan script, and was weighed down by the gold and silver it contained. It was smuggled out of Tibet to India following the 1959 Chinese invasion and the Dalai Lama’s family passed it on to Van Loon. It is now in England.
“Why don’t South Africans do something?” she asks, bemused and sad.
BLURB: `South Africans have turned their snouts up as it’s not as fashionable as African art is right now’