Ts.Tsendsuren: Remnants of our history will be destroyed over the years if we don’t take any action

Journalists recently interviewed Director of Department of Cultural Heritage Ts.Tsendsuren about the Natural History Museum as well as the issue of Mongolian cultural heritage.

- Why was the Natural History Museum closed during the peak tourism season? Please enlighten us on this situation.

- Related organizations and a state inspector reached the conclusion that the building of the Natural History Museum can’t withstand a 3.0-magnitude earthquake. Therefore, we took measures to prepare containers and packages to keep museum exhibits as well as to decide on the financing of strengthening the museum’s structure. In addition, the public operation of the Natural History Museum was stopped for the purpose of ensuring the visitors’ safety in accordance with the order from the Minister of Culture, Sports, and Tourism dated May 31. Preparations for transferring the museum’s exhibits will continue for a long time. A museum’s operations include many tasks such as collecting, studying, registering, storing, protecting, and advertising its exhibits. Hence, experts of the Natural History Museum are doing research and exploration in local areas and carrying out a national census of cultural heritage. Moreover, the guidelines to relaunch the Natural History Museum are being drawn up.

- It is said that this substandard museum building will be demolished. So where will the new building be constructed?

- We sent an official letter about this issue to the State Property Committee. Experts deem that this building needs to be demolished. The building is still substandard even if it is repaired. The museum’s administration presented a proposal for demolition and the construction of a new building. We’re doing research and exchanging opinions with museum officials and workers on how to relaunch the museum and make it meet international standards.

- It is believed that museum buildings weren’t built in accordance with a proper standard. Is this true?

- There are very few museum buildings that meet this set standard. The Lenin Museum and National Museum are museum purpose-built buildings. The same thing goes with the Museum of Victory in Khalkh Gol Soum in Dornod Aimag. Unfortunately, the heating of this large building was cut off due to the administration’s failure to pay the bill. Hence, this building got frozen last winter. Although the Museum of Bayan-Ulgii Aimag is a fine building, other organizations and companies have been using most of the spaces of this museum rent-free for the last 10 years. There is almost no office left for the workers of the museum. Only one building which complies with up-to-date requirements is the building of the Kharkhorum Museum in Uvurkhangai Aimag. This museum was built through the Japanese government’s assistance and the Museum of Khushuu Tsaidam, through the assistance of the Turkish government. The Mongolian government hasn’t built any museum with its own investment within the last 20 years except for the State Historical Museum. Above all, we need a museum purpose-built building which satisfies international standards and has laboratories for restoration. There is an old government-made blueprint of the Center of Cultural Heritage and its building work will begin soon. If this building is put into operation, we will have a laboratory to restore any museum’s exhibit and any relic of our intangible cultural heritage.

- Where are the intangible and tangible artifacts of cultural heritage stored? What can you say about the building for restoring them?

- Artifacts of cultural heritage are stored in the Consolidated Fund of Registration and Information of the Mongolian Cultural Heritage as well as the Center of Cultural Heritage. Because we had to store them in buildings that were not built for this purpose, models of monuments and khun chuluus (stelae) in Mongolia are stored in the Center of Cultural Heritage which were destroyed by fire during the riot of July 1, 2008. The scripts on the khun chuluus are becoming indistinct and their shapes are slowly being deformed over time. And models of monuments which were made in order to protect and preserve them got burned. The storage and protection of over 500 thousand exhibits in the National Museum are in a very difficult situation. For instance, a total of 11 organizations have boilers for centralized heating in a cellar which stores these exhibits. What will happen if water will leak out of these sets of equipment? Therefore, these stored cultural heritage artifacts face a very risky situation. In order to resolve this issue, we need a large building for storage. For instance, there’s no place to store archeological and paleontological findings. Although the Archeology Institute of the Science Academy is operating a little museum in a cellar of an apartment building, currently most of its findings are stored in containers. Also, there’s no archeological laboratory in Mongolia. Even though universities and colleges do archeological excavations, they store their findings in teachers and researchers’ safes or places which don’t meet proper storage requirements. This issue is always criticized by both the domestic and foreign press. Hence, we painfully have the necessity of building a laboratory to restore and preserve these artifacts as well as of gathering funds to create reliable conditions of storage with up-to-date facilities and equipment. Remnants of our history will be destroyed over the years if we don’t take any action.

- Are there any pressing issues right now?

- Today, the work on cultural heritage restoration is in a crisis. A roof of Makhranz Monastery in Bogd Khan Palace Museum got punctured due to constant raining. As an urgent measure to restore this part of the monastery, a tender should be announced according to the law. Therefore, this problem won’t be solved in a short time. Secondly, only few companies which have permission to restore cultural heritage artifacts can participate in this offer to bid. In other words, there are only two or three companies which have been doing restoration work on monasteries and temples since the privatization of the Authority of Cultural Heritage Restoration in 1990. They can’t handle a lot of strain because their workforce is lacking. Therefore, the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism is reconsidering the privatization of this authority by doing some relevant research and reflecting on the new draft bill of the Cultural Heritage Protection Law. This authority has to be a large organization in charge of restoring cultural heritage and museum exhibits; repairing monuments, sculptures, and khun chuluus; as well as providing packages, containers, and equipment for transferring exhibits. Repair work of the fence in the Choijin Lama Temple hasn’t been done in the last 20 years. This year, “Suld Uul” LLC was working on restoring this temple with the Ministry’s funding. But this work has stopped because people were opposed to restoring an old memorable place with red bricks. However, there’s no factory which makes blue bricks in Mongolia. There’s financial difficulty in buying those bricks. If the fence completely falls down, what should we do? And what about other museum exhibits that are “in trouble”? Who will take responsibility in these situations? It is said that dried wood is used for restoration. But there’s no company which provides this type of wood in Mongolia. For the purpose of solving these problems, establishing a new authority of restoration is absolutely necessary. There aren’t even positions of restorer in monumental places such as Amarbayasgalant Monastery, Erdene Zuu Monastery, and Bogd Khan Palace Museum. In any case, the department or working group in charge of restoration should be working hard in these places.

- How many restorers are working in museums? Typically, how sufficient is the trained staff?

- There isn’t any position of restorer in both state and local museums. A lot of museum exhibits are becoming damaged and losing their unique qualities because of the lack of financing for their restoration and the museum staff’s inability to do primary restoration work including conservation and repair. Over 200 museum exhibits are restored in the Center of Cultural Heritage every year. In such cases, we have to expand the function of this center with the aim of full restoration and set up a unit which is responsible for restoring artifacts of tangible heritage, museum exhibits, and monasteries; as well as transporting museum exhibits and providing the materials, techniques, and equipment to promote our cultural heritage. Reestablishing the Center of Cultural Heritage with the status of State Factory is a complex measure to improve conservation and the storage of historical and cultural exhibits of monumental value. Having a position of restorer as well as training and educating him or her abroad are very necessary. Therefore, firstly, we’re working on creating a position for a restorer in each of the 21 aimag museums. Museum workers do not have the right to repair an exhibit that has defects or is damaged. For example, because museum workers can’t fix a broken arm of a statue of a god in the Museum of Govi-Altai Aimag, they kept this broken arm and waited for an expert restorer given that only professional restorers can do so. We should resolve this issue. We should train experts and give them government scholarships to study abroad. And even if these people graduate in foreign countries, they still won’t return to and work in Mongolia because of the low salary. We have to expand the Center of Cultural Heritage to a national center by increasing its employees. For instance, it is very important to involve the public to contribute to the Registration and Information Fund. The Historical and Cultural Heritage Protection Law of 1994 refers to setting up this fund in every soum, aimag, and city. This resolution can’t be implemented fully up to now. As a result of the 2005-2008 program of registering our country’s cultural and historical heritage by the decision of the government, the museums of 21 aimags and state museums are now connected to the Internet and have an online Registration and Information Fund. Now, we should decide on the issues that remain in 330 soums.

- Today, how many places are there which aren’t included in the state’s protection list? How can we protect them?

According to the government’s 175th resolution, there are 450 places that should be under national and aimag protection. But this protection is only on “paper.” Recruiting a contracted custodian in a museum, putting up a fence, being included in the tourism route, as well as advertising and restoring cultural heritage are the real forms of protection. The Ministry, governors, and state inspectors can’t protect it. We have an obligation to hand down our cultural heritage to our descendants. We should circulate information on cultural heritage violation. According to a study in one aimag from the Archeology Institute of Science Academy, about eight to 10 thousand artifacts and places of historical and cultural heritage were registered. Therefore, there are still thousands of unregistered remnants and sites in Mongolia. We need a museum purpose-built building and laboratory for the purpose of registering, collecting, and protecting them.

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