Exposition Bases of the Museum Activity: from the Memorial Study to the Conception of the Traditional Culture Museum of the Kalmyk Institute for Humanities of the Russian Academy of Sciences

The Museum of Kalmyk Traditional Culture named after Zaya-Pandita at the Kalmyk Institute for Humanities of the Russian Academy of Sciences has undergone some changes before being transformed into the museum. In 2001 there was Zaya-Pandita’s memorial study. In this connection in 1999 an exposition devoted to the anniversary of the Kalmyk national system of writing - «todo bichig» was organized. It contained manuscripts in both Tibetan and in «Clear Script», Oirat and Kalmyk settlement maps, as well as Buddhist cult objects and works of art. The purpose of the exposition was to show the activity of Zaya Pandita or Namkhaijamts (1599-1662) as a scholar and a founder of the Kalmyk-Oirat written language. The Museum of Kalmyk Traditional Culture named after Zaya-Pandita as a research unit of the Kalmyk Institute of the RAS has become a part of the academic museums of Russia. As a result of the museum’s conceptual development of the permanent exposition - «Kalmyk traditional culture in the historical context of ethnogenesis» was created which was supported by the Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation (Grant 02-01-1000 4б) within the framework of the museum project implementation. The study of culture is integrated into the museum, which functions not only as a repository and an educational institution, but also as an ethnocultural research center. Having been reconstructed by museum means, the structured model of the Universe has covered such aspects as the life of the nomads, as well as the time and space of traditional culture. Сoupled with culture, science and education, museum work is becoming an important social project in developing various conceptions. The museum embodies a qualitatively new content of the exposition in order to meet the needs of the visitors who are in search for cultural identity and adaptation in a changing social space of the modern world. The culturological conception of the exposition expresses the evolution of ethnic culture reflected in the art of the 19th-20th centuries. Folk art, decorative and applied art, as well as fine arts of Buddhism refer to material and cultural wealth of the Kalmyk ethnos. In accordance with the new exposition, arts and culture are interdependent in their historical development. The symbolic picture of the Universe has been recreated by means of art with the help of a selected collection of objects from the exposition. The evolution of the permanent exhibition of the Museum of the Kalmyk Traditional Culture is outlined by the movement from formal to conceptual artistic image.