Encountering – retracing – mapping : the ethnographic legacy of Heinrich Harrer and Peter Aufschnaiter

Abstract

In 1939 the Austrian mountaineers Heinrich Harrer (1912–2006) and Peter Aufschnaiter (1899–1973) set off for the 8,000 meter-high Nanga Parbat in Kashmir. On their return they were caught off-guard by the outbreak of the Second World War and interned by the British Army.
Five years later they managed to escape to the highlands of Tibet and on to Lhasa, where they remained. A good seven years later they left the Tibet capital once more – each with his own personal collection of ethnographic everyday and ritual artefacts, numerous black-and-white photographs, hand-sketched cards and diagrams, dairies and memoranda.
The Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich has been safeguarding these and is now presenting elements from the significant culturally historic collections.
The artefacts provide insights into the prevailing ethnographic records and documents of the time and, aided by material from various archives, reflect handed-down Western visions of Tibet. The impact of Harrer’s famous book Seven Years in Tibet and the mountaineers’ complex political ideologies in the 1930s and 1940s are also included in this survey.
Heinrich Harrer went on further expeditions in 1962 and 1962, into western New Guinea, to Brazil, Surinam and French Guyana, which were given their own format on German television under the title "Heinrich Harrer berichtet" (Heinrich Harrer Reports). In Surinam Harrer secured an extensive collection from the Saamaka Marron – descendants of African slaves, who managed to escape to the heartlands at the end of the seventeenth century. These artefacts contain important traces of the Saamaka’s turbulent history – from slavery to the founding of a new society. The collection, moreover, raises unique questions and introduces possible approaches to the objects on display.
An exceptional publication on Heinrich Harrer’s and Peter Aufschnaiter’s significant culturally historic collections – and an investigation into their scientific, spiritual and ethical value. A compelling example of contemporary research into collecting and of the task of communication in museums.