THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF MONGOLIA

The National Museum of Mongolia is a cultural, scientific, and educational organization that presents Mongolian history and culture from the dawn of humanity to the present day. A significant responsibility for preserving Mongolian cultural heritage therefore lies with the museum. Today museum has 50 employees. The museum has been implemented several different projects related to museum research work in cooperation with foreign and domestic museums as well as scientific organizations.The Museum is supported through admission fees and government funding from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. The origins of the National Museum of Mongolia date back to 1924, when the first collections were begun for a national museum, whose building no longer stands.

The present building of the National Museum of Mongolia was built in 1971, when it was erected as the Museum of Revolution. At that time all collections of ethnography, prehistory, middle history, natural history and paleontology were housed in the building of the Central Museum, which was built in 1956. In 1991, the ethnography, prehistory and medieval history collections of the Central Museum were combined with the 20th century history materials at the Museum of Revolution to create the collections of the National Museum of Mongolian History, and the Museum of Revolution building name was changed accordingly.  One of the key missions of our museum, which we will discuss today, is the development of relations and collaborations with other museums and organizations, both domestic and abroad.

Brief History of Foreign Relations

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Mongolia began to shift toward democratic policies and an open-market economy. As a result, ties between our museum and foreign researchers and institutes began to develop rapidly. Since then, the museum collections have been displayed in 28 exhibitions held in 17 countries. In 1994, the Mongolian government issued the “Law of Mongolian for the Protection of Items of Historical and Cultural Value,” which was renewed in 2001 as the “Law of Mongolia for the Protection of Cultural Heritage.” According to this law, the Mongolian government regulates all activities related to the collection, preservation, research, promotion, ownership, possession and usage of items of historical and cultural value.

Support from International Foundations and Embassies within Mongolia

Starting from the mid 1990s our museum has been supported by international foundations, foreign embassies, and organizations within Mongolia. These include Open Society (OSI), Art Council, Danish International Agency (DANIDA), Canada fund, Turkish International Cooperation Agency (TICA), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JAICA), and Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development, as well as the embassies of USA, Great Britain, Japan, Germany, and Australian volunteers and Youth Ambassadors. They have all given grants and donations for training our museum staff, printing museum guides, restoring old photos, integrating Mongolian museums into tourist networks, museum education programs, and renovating exhibition halls, placards and labels. Educational, informational, marketing, outreach and other such projects of differing scope have been implemented since 1998 to attract visitors and raise awareness of our museum and Mongolian cultural heritage.

Collaborative Exhibitions

The NMM has organized some exhibitions which have toured foreign countries as well as many exhibitions with additions from other Mongolian museum collections. These international collaborative exhibitions are foremost an instrument of dialogue between countries and cultures, and such exhibitions abroad have opened our museum and its collections up to the international community. The first significant international exhibition from Mongolia occurred in 1989, called “Mongols.” It was a joint effort of collections from the NMM and the Fine Arts Museum of Mongolia and was organized in collaboration with the German Ministry of Culture and the Ethnography and Art Museum of Munich. The exhibit was held in Munich, Berlin and Hildershtain in Germany and in Shaufhausen in Switzerland. Since then, NMM has been involved in international inter-museum exchanges with other museums outside of Mongolia. The most significant exhibitions which originated from  and were organized by the NMM with other Mongolian museums include those done  with Japan, USA, the Republic of Korea, the Netherlands, France, Spain, India and the recently concluded world tour exhibition, “Chinghis Khaan and his Heirs,” which went to Germany, Austria, Turkey and Hungary from 2005 to 2007. Our museum also organized international exhibitions in Norway, China, Italy, USA, Taiwan and Germany.

International Collaborative Research Projects

To ensure the long-term preservation of the National Museum of Mongolia’s collection as well as its expansion through further crucial acquisitions, the museum has helped to organize numerous archaeological and cultural field expeditions, many of them in collaboration with foreign researchers and institutions.  From 1997 to 2003, our museum had one joint expedition: the “Monsol Project” with the National Museum of Korea and the Institute of History of Mongolia, and since that time we have continued the close relationship with the National Museum of Korea. In 2003, our museum began collaboration with the National Museum of Natural History in the Smithsonian Institute from USA to launch the “Deer Stone Project.” Then, in 2004, researchers from Russia and Japan began to collaborate with our museum on archaeological investigations at Chin-tolgoi Khitan city and inscription translation. In 2005, we began our present collaborative project with Chinese archaeologists to investigate monuments of the early medieval period of Mongolia. By 2006 our museum had 5 projects, and this year we added a joint project with Russian scholars form Buryiat to investigate a Xiongnu walled site at Terelj and also began a collaborative project with the University of Pennsylvania USA on archaeological remains in Khovd aimag of west Mongolia. The National Museum of Mongolian History now has a total of 7 joint field expeditions with the Republic of Korea, USA, Japan, Russia, China and other Mongolian organizations.

The NMM has also hosted several foreign researchers from Japan, Hungary, Korea, USA and Germany who have researched our collections, and have had foreign volunteers from USA, Australia and Japan to assist in museum training, collections management and public relations.

Results of Collaborations

Joint projects and international collaborations have helped the National Museum of Mongolian in the study of cultural and historical monuments as well as the enrichment and conservation of its collections. From 2004 to 2006, more than 500 objects from joint field projects were integrated as new acquisitions into the rotating exhibition collections, and research results of these expeditions have been published as journal articles and scientific reports. Members of the museum staff have been sent to Korea and China for further training. The exhibition halls have been fully renovated with new floors, lighting facilities and display cases from the National Museum of Korea, and artifact labels and explanation plaques. The museum has hosted conferences, held museum workshops, produced ten research publications in addition to exhibition catalogues, and raised funds for research equipment and conservation.

In the future, our museum aims to further the following:

1. Staff training, conservation, and an adequate environment for collections
2. Conservation center and related scientific equipment
3. Information technology (especially creation of a searchable database)
4. Clarification of international collaborative regulations, devised by international organizations (Contracts, exhibition exchanges, copyright issues, etc.)
5. Integration into a network of international museums.