Lahore Museum

Lahore Museum
عجائب گھر لاہور
Entrance to the museum
Established1865, moved to present site in 1894
LocationThe Mall, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan
Coordinates31°34′06″N 74°18′29″E / 31.568226°N 74.308174°E / 31.568226; 74.308174
TypeArchaeology, art, heritage, modern history, religious
Collection size60,000
Websitelahoremuseum.punjab.gov.pk

The Lahore Museum (Urdu: عجائب گھر لاہور, romanized: ajā'ib ghar lāhōr; lit. 'Lahore Wonder House') is a museum located in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Founded in 1865 at a smaller location and opened in 1894[1] at its current location on The Mall in Lahore during the British colonial period, Lahore Museum is Pakistan's largest museum, as well as one of its most visited ones.[2][3][4]

The museum houses an extensive collection of Buddhist art from the ancient Indo-Greek and Gandhara kingdoms. It also has collections from the Indus Valley Civilisation, Mughal Empire, Sikh Empire and the British Raj.[5]

The Lahore Museum, along with the Zamzama Gun located directly in front of the building, is the setting of the opening scene in the novel Kim by Rudyard Kipling,[6][7] whose father, John Lockwood Kipling, was one of the museum's earliest curators.[8]

History

Lahore Museum was originally established in 1865–66 on the site of the current Tollinton Market – a hall built for the 1864 Punjab Exhibition.[9] The present building was designed by Bhai Ram Singh and John Lockwood Kipling, while its construction was overseen by Ganga Ram.[10][11]

It was constructed as a memorial of Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria held in 1887, and financed through a special public fund raised on the occasion. The foundation stone of the new museum was laid on 3 February 1890 by Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence, Queen Victoria's grandson. On its completion in 1894, the entire museum collection was transferred to present building with its new name as Jubilee Museum.[12]

Rudyard Kipling's father, John Lockwood Kipling, was one of the museum's first curators, and was succeeded by K. N. Sitaram. The museum's collection was shifted in 1894 to its present location on The Mall, in Lahore's British-era core.[1]

In 1948, as part of the partition of Punjab, the artefacts of the museum were divided between the newly formed countries of Pakistan and India, with the museum retaining about 60% of its collection. The rest was given to India and eventually housed at the Government Museum and Art Gallery in Chandigarh, built specifically for this purpose.[13]

The museum's golden years are considered to be from 1970 to 1990, when scholar, archaeologist, and museologist Dr Saif-ur-Rehman Dar served as its director. He wrote several books about the museum, and his tenure was complemented by that of B.A. Qureshi, who was the chairman of the museum's board of governors back then.

Over 250,000 visitors were registered at the Lahore Museum in 2005. This dropped to 236,536 in 2016, 214,697 in 2017, but rose to 227,994 in 2018. It was the most popular museum of Pakistan among foreigners in 2016 (2,956 visits) and 2017 (2,941 visits). It dropped to second place (with 3,659 foreign visitors) in 2018, having been replaced by Taxila Museum.[14]

Scope

The museum displays archaeological materials from Bronze Age (Indus Valley Civilisation) to the medieval-era Hindu Shahi and Mughal period.[5] It has one of the largest collections of archaeology, history, arts, fine arts, applied arts, ethnology, and craft objects in Pakistan. It also has an extensive collection of Hellenistic and Mughal coins.[1] There is also a photo gallery dedicated to the emergence of Pakistan as an independent state, the Pakistan Movement Gallery.[5]

Collections

The museum has a number of Greco-Buddhist sculptures, Mughal and Pahari paintings on display.[1] Over 58,000 artifacts are reported to be part of its collection, with only 14,000 being on display.[15] The collection contains important relics from the Indus Valley civilization, Gandhara, and Graeco-Bactrian periods as well. The Fasting Buddha, dating from the Gandhara period, is one of the museums most prized and celebrated objects.

The Evolution of Mankind

The ceiling of the entrance hall features The Evolution of Mankind, a large mural consisting of 48 panels (each measuring 6 by 8 feet). It was painted by Pakistani artist Sadequain who originally completed it in 1973.[5][16][17] Due to the weather conditions and termite attacks, the mural suffered significant damage over the years. A grant was approved by the Governor of Punjab in 2008 to start the restoration work. It was taken down in 2010, while restoration work began in 2012.[18] By 2018, 16 of the panels had been restored by Uzma Usmani and Mumtaz Hussain.[19]

The museum also contains fine specimens of Mughal and Sikh carved woodwork and has a large collection of paintings dating back to the British period. The collection also includes musical instruments, ancient jewelry, textiles, pottery, and armory, as well as some Tibetan and Nepalese work on display.[1][5]

  • A Gandharan-era "Fasting Buddha"
  • A Gandharan-era miniature stupa
  • Relics from the Indo-Greek era
  • Gandhara Athena

Directors

The following is a list of the museum's directors and curators.[20]

No. Name Role Tenure
1 Captain I.P Westmorland Curator 1873 – 1874
2 A.R Becher Esquire Curator 1874 – 1875
3 John Lockwood Kipling Curator 1875 – 1877, 1879 – 1890
4 D. Gabbick Curator 1877 – 1879
5 Fred. Henry Andrews Curator 1890 – 1893, 1893 – 1897
6 Bhai Ram Singh Curator 1897 – 1898, 1906 – 1909, 1908 – 1909
7 Percy Brown Curator 1898 – 1906, 1907 – 1908
8 G.A Wathen Curator 1909 – 1912
9 Hugh Lionel Heath Curator 1912 – 1929, 1925 – 1926, 1927 – 1928
10 K.N Sita Ram Curator 1928 – 1940
11 Rai Bahadur S.N. Gupta Curator 1920 – 1925, 1926 – 1927, 1940 – 1942
12 K.B Molvi Zafar Hasan Curator 1942 – 1943
13 Malik Shams Curator 1947 – 1965
14 Syed Muhammad Taqi Curator / Director 07-06-1965 to 22–05–1974
15 Dr. Saifur Rehman Dar Director 07-08-1974 to 15–08–1993, 01-08-1995 to 16–04–1998
16 Dr. F.M. Anjum Rehmani Officiating Director 16-08-1993 to 31–07–1995, 17-04-1998 to 23–07–2001
17 Mansoor Sohail Director (Additional Charge) 23-07-2000 to 29–11–2001
18 Dr. Liaquat Ali Khan Niazi Director 30-11-2001 to 16–04–2004
19 Syed Gulzar Mashhadi Director 23-04-2004 to 30–06–2005
20 Naheed Rizvi Director 01-07-2005 to 29–08–2008
21 Dr. Asghar Nadeem Syed Director 17-09-2008 to 13–05–2009
22 Dr. Kamran Afzal Cheema Director 09-07-2009 to 12–08–2009
23 Muhammad Siddique Sheikh Director 12-08-2009 to 20–04–2010
24 Salman Ijaz Director 21-04-2010 to 18–05–2010
25 Humera Alam Director 19-05-2010 to 16–11–2012
26 Sumaira Samad Director 21-11-2012 to 08–06–2016
27 Syed Tahir Raza Hamdani Director (Additional Charge) 14-06-2016 to 23–07–2016
28 Humayun Mazhar Sheikh Director 25-07-2016 to 02–07–2018
29 Saman Rai Director (Additional Charge) 07-11-2018 to 19–03–2019
30 Nasir Jamal Hotiana Director 20-03-2019 to 31–08–2019
31 Tariq Mahmood Javaid Director 02-09-2019 to 23–09–2020
32 Ijaz Ahmed Minhas Director 23-11-2020 to 07–10–2022
33 Muhammad Usman Director 17-11-2022 to 24–11–2023
34 Sadaf Zafar Director (Additional Charge) 08-01-2024 to 15–01–2024
35 Sadia Tehreem Director 16-01-2024 to 01–05–2024
36 Nabila Irfan Director 01-05-2024 to 14–10–2025
37 Capt. (Retd.) Tahir Zafar Abbasi Director 24-10-2025 to 25–11–2025
38 Taseer Ahmad Director 26-11-2025 to date

Book

The book Masterpieces of Lahore Museum, written by Anjum Rehmani, was published by the museum in 1999 with financial assistance from UNESCO.[21] A new edition was published in 2006.[22]

  • The opening of Rudyard Kipling's novel, Kim (published in 1901), is set in the vicinity of the old/original Lahore Museum and the Mall areas.

Further reading

  • Shaila Bhatti (2012), Translating museums: a counterhistory of South Asian museology, Walnut Creek, Calif: Left Coast Press, ISBN 9781611321449
  • Whitehead, Richard Bertram (1914). Catalogue of Coins in the Panjab Museum, Lahore; Indo-Greek Coins : Volume 1. The Panjab Government at The Clarendon Press, Oxford.
  • Whitehead, Richard Bertram (1914). Catalogue of Coins in the Panjab Museum, Lahore; Coins of Mughal Emperors: Volume 2. The Panjab Government at The Clarendon Press, Oxford.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Lahore Museum | museum, Lahore, Pakistan | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  2. ^ "Tourism boom: Foreigners visiting cultural sites, museums in Pakistan up by 121%". The Express Tribune. 30 September 2019. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  3. ^ Akhtar, Anwar (7 July 2020). "Pakistan's Best Kept Secret: Lahore Museum". www.salzburgglobal.org. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  4. ^ Tariq, Minahil (22 January 2017). "A historic neglect | Shehr | thenews.com.pk". The News International. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d e "AROUND TOWN: Lahore Museum". Dawn. 31 October 2008. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
  6. ^ Kaplan, Robert D. (29 January 1989). "Lahore as Kipling Knew It". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  7. ^ Jordison, Sam (19 January 2016). "Rudyard Kipling's Kim: a zam-zammer wonder-house of wordplay". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  8. ^ "V&A · Research project: John Lockwood Kipling". Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  9. ^ Which later became the Tollinton Market after the completion of the new/present museum building, see "Murray's Handbook of the Punjab", pub. 1883. Mention also made in Peter Hopkirk, "Quest for Kim", London, 1996, pp.46–47 ISBN 0-7195-5560-4
  10. ^ Bryant, Julius; Weber, Susan (2017). John Lockwood Kipling: arts & crafts in the Punjab and London [exhibition, Victoria and Albert museum, London, 14 January - 2 April 2017, Bard graduate center gallery, New York, 15 September 2017 - 7 January 2018]. New York New Haven: Published by Bard graduate center gallery Yale University press. ISBN 978-0-300-22159-6.
  11. ^ Sami, Usman (2017). Understanding the Lahore Museum for the Definition of a Conservation Process (Master thesis). Ankara: Middle East Technical University.
  12. ^ Sami, Usman (2017). Understanding the Lahore Museum for the Definition of a Conservation Process (Master thesis). Ankara: Middle East Technical University.
  13. ^ Shukla, Vandana (30 September 2018). "One foot in Lahore, the other in Chandigarh: How Partition's sundering affected a museum's artifacts". Firstpost. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
  14. ^ "Cultural Heritage & Museum Visits in Pakistan". Gallup Pakistan. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  15. ^ Hanif, Intikhab (27 March 2002). "Museum unable to display its 'treasure'". Dawn. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  16. ^ Bhatti, Arshad (18 September 2012). "Museum to conserve Sadequain's mural". The Nation. Archived from the original on 8 November 2019. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
  17. ^ Chishti, Rabia; Naz, Salma; Mujeeb, Zile Huma; Seemi, Imrana (30 December 2016). "The Evolution of Mankind: A Gigantic Mural by Sadeqauin". Archived from the original on 1 October 2022. Retrieved 14 July 2022. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  18. ^ Malik, Sonia (9 September 2012). "Sadequain mural: Long process of restoration begins". The Express Tribune. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  19. ^ Ahmed, Shoaib (27 February 2018). "Sadequain's mural panel to be displayed". Dawn. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  20. ^ "Our Directors | Lahore Museum". lahoremuseum.punjab.gov.pk. Retrieved 14 July 2022.
  21. ^ "Masterpieces of Lahore Museum – UNESCO Digital Library". unesdoc.unesco.org. Retrieved 10 September 2019.
  22. ^ Rehmani, Anjum (1999). Masterpieces of Lahore Museum. Lahore Museum. OCLC 137232699.
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