The Asian Collections
Almost half of the Museum's costume and textile collections - more than two thousand pieces - are from Asia, ranging from the Middle East and India to Mongolia and Indonesia. Five hundred Indian items include early twentieth century Assam body cloths from the Naga and related tribal groups, and contemporary clothing such as shirts and saris from Orissa collected by anthropologist Deborah Swallow in the 1970s. The Museum's Tibetan collections include a significant group of Tibetan thangkas (Buddhist devotional paintings on fabric) as well as Margaret Williamson's 1930s collection of Tibetan fabrics and garments. In the 1930s anthropologist Ethel Lindgren collected material from the Reindeer Tungus peoples of Inner Mongolia, including a rare female shaman's costume and thick hide coats designed for cold weather. The Japanese collections include an Ainu woman's costume with an elaborately embroidered jacket. Numerous examples of Chinese costume include eighteenth century shoes. In 1899 Alfred Haddon purchased an outstanding collection of Iban ikat fabrics and garments in Sarawak from colonial officer Charles Hose. In the same year a substantial collection of textiles, tools and raw materials was made during William Skeat's expedition to Malaysia. Recent Asian acquisitions include a fine Indian silk painting, purchased by Soumyha Venkatesan during anthropological fieldwork in 2002, and Indonesian batik textiles bequeathed by Robert Ward in 2003.
