OUR ANCESTORS SAY NO
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OUR ANCESTORS SAY NO .
RETURN OUR SACRED OBJECTS!
Tashi Delek. We are a group of Tibetans holding the Rubin & Brooklyn Museums accountable for exploiting our stolen ancestral objects held in the Tibetan Shrine Room. In many museums, the Tibetan object relatives that you encounter were carried out of our homelands on our grandparents' backs when they fled the Chinese occupation in the 1950s.
Museums, which profit off the dispossession of our object relatives, can never be ethical stewards of our sacred objects. As demonstrated by their continued silence and complicity on genocides from Tibet to Palestine, these institutions do not serve us. We condemn the Rubin displacing the Tibetan Shrine Room to the Brooklyn Museum. The Shrine Room must be returned into the proper care of the Tibetan community.
Why isn't the Rubin Museum giving back our ancestors, our sacred deities?
New York City has the largest Tibetan community in the country. There are many Tibetan-led institutions, organizations, and community centers that can take care of our sacred objects. Instead, the Rubin has chosen to pass off our sacred objects to a museum that brutalizes Pro-Palestinian protesters and houses its own robust collection of stolen Tibetan objects. We expect no less of colonial institutions that extract from our communities and expect us to be grateful for scraps.
People often describe the Rubin Museum as a space of tranquility and peace, where they come to be inspired. This inspiration would not exist without Himalayan and Tibetan people. Our contributions in art, culture, and the "mindfulness" industry are rarely acknowledged, let alone compensated.
In contrast, in 2020, Rubin Museum Director Jorrit Britschgi made $360,000. The Rubin itself has a $138 million “sustaining fund”.
What could our communities do with this money? What could we make possible for ourselves and one another?
WE CALL ON THE RUBIN & BROOKLYN MUSEUM:
Return The Shrine Room to community spaces stewarded by Tibetan and Himalayan peoples such as monasteries, regional associations, and arts institutes.
Enter a genuine repatriation process with Tibetan and Himalayan communities.
To our allies & those who support Tibetans: