Powerful Patina: The Value of Odors in a Tibetan Buddhist Temple

Abstract

In the past decades, attention towards a more sensory perception in the arts and architecture has gained momentum and concerns a variety of disciplines. Nonetheless, hands-on conservation efforts still overwhelmingly concentrate on the visual qualities and values of places. In the following article, I present a case study of a Tibetan–Buddhist temple in Ladakh/India that empirically examines questions of value as they extend to the idea of patina found on wall paintings inside the temple produced by the burning of butter lamps. The layer of soot which obscures these centuries-old wall paintings has particular olfactory qualities. The paper draws from my professional and personal experience as art conservator working with an NGO from 2004 until 2014. It is a methodological re-thinking of our original conservation approach through the framework of Alois Riegl's value model applied to olfactory perceptions of patina. Examined are the meaning of odors concerning heritage values, memory, and the formation of identity. Odors are site-specific, therefore, conservation work at heritage sites needs to include the documentation and value assessment of their olfactory qualities to determine the impact a removal of patina may have on stakeholder communities.