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| J with participant wearing elegant Mongol dell |
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| Princess robe, Bogh Kahn |
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| j holding silver Mare's milk bowl |
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| J displaying Manchu antique skirt |
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| J and Peace Corps Volunteer |
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| Serena Lee, director of TAC and Janet Roberts, Presentor viewing felt artist's work and workshop at De Young |
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| Bob, Yoshiko TAC Bd member, Serena Lee, and Chere Lai Mah |
TAC: Introduction to Janet Roberts and her relationship to Mongolia and its textiles. .
I will present costumes and jewelry remaining from my collection, and discuss its relationship primarily to Yuan China and Tibet as influences on Nomadic dress.
The Nomadic tradition, and the vast space and worship of the sky prefigures in the Mongolian Costume. The high altitude, the cold arid climate and the vast arid mountains and desert as well as living in gers(yurts) affect the choice of traditional clothing. The horse plays a key role in Nomadic life and in the Mongolian tradition. I will look at the role of imperial expansion into India, Iran, and (Turkestan) Central Asia and Azerbaijan) , as well as China, and these culture’s respective and reciprocal influence in the court costume of Ghenghis Khan, and his successor, Timur, but also the court of Kubla Khan in the Yuan Dynasty, as well as Babur in India. Gold and Silver, Silks, Furs, and Felt are a part of this tradition. The symbols on the costumes, of the sun and moon are adopted from China, but also from Tibetan esoteric Buddhism and the Near Eastern worship of the Sun and Moon. The Phoenix and Dragon prevail on court costume adapted in both Persia and the Yuan court. The major festival Naadam, in June-July in Mongolia has taken place since Chenghis Khan’s time and is the place in which traditional costume on men and women is displayed today but any journey into the land of the Gobi reveals it on an everyday basis.
Note: (I will provide a bibliography for participants) My sources are the major studies, travellogues, literary references, and personal experience of the culture while a guest curator at the Zanabazar Museum in Ulaan Baatar Mongolia, and while working with various international Humanitarian organizations in the field and at the university. I have travelled into the Ordos, slept in the Gobi, flew and then travelled by jeep off road to the Lake Hovsgahl bordering Russia and across the length and breadth of Mongolia, and have traversed all of its sacred mountains, monasteries and archaeological sites, sleeping in yurts, riding horseback, and by offroad vehicle.
Introduction to janet Roberts
PRESENTATIONS: In a professional capacity, Professor Richard Barnhardt at Yale University invited Janet Roberts to present her findings about Mongolian art , “The Mongolian Horse. Sacred Art in the Land of Chenghis Khan, while working as a consulting curator at the Zanabazar Art Museum at Yale University for a MARAAS conference.. 1999
· Dr Elizabeth Ettinghausen in Princeton, New Jersey, the director of the Rug Society, invited Janet Roberts to give a presentation on FELTS IN MONGOLIA . 2000
· Janet Roberts was a NEH Humanities Presentor in outreach to most of the museums in Pennsylvania, administered by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. In that capacity, she provided included a lecture on Mongolia.1999-2000
· A professional presentation on “Teaching Beowulf in Mongolia: The Warrior Tradition” was given at the International EFL conference(college section) in Toronto, the abstract of which was published in the conference catalogue.
COLLECTIONS: The collection of art books about Mongolian art brought from Mongolia are a part of the permanent collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Philadelphia Museum of Art also acquired various Buddhist objects, for teaching purposes, as well as a 17th century sacred sutra. Early century Buddhist high gold robes and prayer cloth were acquired by the Eveyjian Art Museum,(now the Chazen Museum) at the University Of Wisconsin, Madison.
Publications: Himalayan Sacred Texts and Charms” Asian Art, London. 2005. Review of exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. www.asianart.com Includes one of my 17th c sutras from Mongolia, a gift to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
· Festivals of the World. 2000 HK publisher. Inclusion of my photos of Naadam.
· Note: Elizabeth Knight Editor Publisher Orientations asked Janet Roberts to write an article on Mongolia, for a Mongolian issue, 2002, but the issue was postponed indefinitely . Update: See October 2014.
Bio : Janet Roberts spent a year in Mongolia.. Director of the program for teaching English at the University of Colorado, Boulder with the University of Ulaan Baatar, she was invited by the UNDP representative to become his consultant, managing professional applications in English for all the professional staff and creating the model for UNDP shelters for children based on her consulting with Didi’s Street Children. She created a primary school for learning English, for an entrepreneur, complete with Human Resources, hiring of teachers and creation of a start up curriculum. The Director of SAVE THE CHILDREN invited her to train his staff in professional communications, and the Christina Noble Fund invited her to train its local staff in documentation of stateless children. She cooperated with the Asia Foundation in building a library in English for the Ulaan Baatar university and in placing volunteers to monitor Rickets. She travelled with Drs without borders into the steppe land to assist them with cultural communication as they administered to the people living in yurts. She did curatorial training for the Soros Foundation, whereupon the Zanabazar Fine Arts museums, with its newly trained curators, invited her to consult with them for the year in museum development and curatorial skills. .Janet Roberts was also owner in an entrepenuerial project with a group of foreigners of a successful French café and art gallery, which served to support the bankrupt Academy of Art.
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