Tribute to Richard Ernst - Nobel Prize Winner Scientist and a diehard collector of Thangka Paintings, on his 90th birthday, 13 August.

 

Professor Richard Ernst, the 1991 Nobel Prize, Chemistry winner, who we had the honour to host at the Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai in 2013, would have been 90 today, if he was alive. Dr Ernst was born on this day, 13 August, 1933 in Switzerland. Unfortunately, he passed away on 8 June, 2021 in the very city - Winterthur, outside Zurich, Switzerland, where he was born.

 

Prof Ernst was a frequent traveller to India, particularly because of his love for the Thangka paintings. Although, science was his first love, Dr Ernst was equally in love with his second love, Art – evidenced in his collections and research on the Tibetan Thangka paintings. In that sense he was an exception to the “Two Cultures” concept, which CP Snow articulated.

 

In April 2013, just two months after I assumed the charge of Director of Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai, I was privileged to host Dr Ernst at the Nehru Science Centre. He was on a visit to the TIFR and we used the opportunity to request Dr Ernst to spare his precious time to interact with the school students at Nehru Science Centre, which he so very kindly agreed. He delivered an outstanding lecture to an over packed auditorium with several more students sitting in the adjoining hall witnessing the event on a close circuit TV that we had to organised for an additional 200 plus students who had turned up for the lecture in addition to the nearly 400 students who had already over populated our auditorium. Dr Ernst mesmerised the students and had extraordinary patience to take so many questions and patiently interact with students, a rare attribute for a scientist of his high calibre.

 

Here is a link to a blog tribute which I had penned on 10 June 2018, when he passed away. https://khened.blogspot.com/2021/06/prof-richard-ernst-1991-nobel-prize.html

 

This blog covers the scientific contributions of Dr Ernst and so also touches upon his interaction with the students at the NSC Mumbai, while leaving out his second love – Thangka paintings. Therefore, I will therefore be confining this tribute to Dr Ernst and his love for the Thangka paintings.

 

Although Science was his first love, Dr Richard Ernst was equally in love with his second love, Art, which is evidenced from his outstanding collections, research and publications on the Tibetan Thangka paintings. In that sense Dr Ernst was an exception to the “Two Cultures” which CP Snow spoke about.

 

In a 1959 lecture by a British scientist and author C. P. Snow, titled "The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution”, Snow articulated his thoughts about an apparent divide that exists between the two main intellectual cultures of the modern world: the literary or humanistic culture and the scientific or technological culture. Snow observed that there was a growing gap between these two cultures, with intellectuals from each culture often having little understanding or appreciation for the other. He argued that this divide was harmful to society, as it hindered an effective communication and collaboration between scientists and those in the humanities and other areas of creativity.

 

In my career spanning 37 plus years in the field of science museums, I have experienced first-hand, this divide which exists between scientists and artists. As a science museum professional and a science communicator I have been privileged to interact with many scientists and fortunately for me I got another opportunity to work and interact with artists when I was given an additional charge to be the Director of the NGMA Mumbai for nearly six years.  During this period, I also had an opportunity to interact with many renowned artists at NGMA, Mumbai and this interaction and experience has made me to affirm to the Two Cultures, which C P Snow spoke about, with no disrespect to either the scientists or the artists.

 

Dr Richard Ernst is an exception to the “Two Cultures”, like our very own scientist Dr Homi Jahangir Bhabha, who was both a scientist and an artist and a great art connoisseur who helped TIFR collect and build some of the best collections of paintings and other art works. Post my retirement, I am engaged, in a way, with creative people in the field of arts and humanities at the CSMVS where I am currently working as the Advisor. Among the nearly 70 thousand plus encyclopaedic collections of objects which the Museum has, couple of the collections are the famous Thangka Tibetan paintings, which are on display in the Tibetan gallery of the museum. Whenever I see these paintings at the Museum, I am reminded of Prof Ernst and his enormous collections of the Thangka paintings and so also his study and research on these unique paintings. In my tribute to Dr Ernst I had not written much about his second love – Tibetan Thangka Paintings and therefore in this write up I am briefly writing on his works as an artist or an art lover. 

 

Sotheby’s catalogue, “HIMALAYAS – The RICHARD R. & MAGDALENA ERNST COLLECTION OF IMPORTANT TIBETAN PAINTINGS AND OTHER HIMALAYAN WORKS OF ART” published during the Paris auction in December 2022, exemplifies the passion and love of Dr Ernst for the Thangka paintings. The catalogue carries an excellent essay by Dr Ernst, where he articulates his thoughts on how he fell in love with the Thangka paintings. He says “Human beings are “collectors” by nature. They want to preserve their glorious history forever. They try to leave indelible traces of their past. But not everybody is a creative artist and most humans depend on the creativity of others to design a worthy tombstone or a respectable monument. Naturally, this is true also for me”.

 

Dr Ernst’s interest in chemistry started with his curiosity to explore an old wooden box full of chemicals, which his grandfather had stored in their attic in their old house away from people. It ended in a disaster when the young tried experimenting with the chemicals leading to an explosion. Fortunately, no one was injured. This disastrous beginning of experimenting with chemistry, however, did not deter him from the subject, rather it kindled an interest in chemistry for Ernst. He quotes “Fortunately, our house and I survived (from the explosion), nurturing my decision to study chemistry at ETH Zürich. In particular, spectroscopy became my preferred tool of exploration. My thesis advisor suggested that I acquaint myself with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), an upcoming analytical method that was “worth investing a lifetime”. And the rest is history, winning Dr Ernst the coveted Nobel Prize singularly in Chemistry the details of which I have described in my blog whose link has been shared above.

 

During one of his early travels in 1968, from California back to his home in Switzerland, Dr Ernst and his wife began their tryst with the Thangka paintings. His wife Magdalena and Dr Ernst were exploring the market of Kathmandu when they first encountered the Thangka paintings in a store. It was love at first sight for Dr Ernst who says “I was struck by their fantastic colourfulness”. Although Dr Ernst was initially unaware of the spiritual messaging that these paintings carried, and his love for these paintings was primarily because of the vibrancy of the rich colours - the chemistry of which was a major attraction to the scientist in Ernst, it did not take long for Dr Ernst to understand and appreciate the socio religious spiritual messaging that the Thangka paintings carried.

 

Thangka Paintings serve as a window in to the spiritual realm of Buddhism, which was one of three main religions of the world that originated in India, a land where Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism was born. Thangka paintings are a distinctive form of religious art originating from Tibet, which hold a profound significance within the realm of Buddhism. These intricate and colourful scroll paintings serve as more than mere artistic creations; they are windows into the spiritual and philosophical world of Buddhism. With their intricate detailing, vibrant colours, and portrayal of deities, mandalas, and sacred scenes, Thangka paintings play a significant role in conveying Buddhist teachings and guiding practitioners on their spiritual journey.

 

The Thangka paintings have a rich history that dates back centuries. They have served as instructional tools for conveying complex Buddhist spiritual concepts to a large population using vibrant visual means. In monasteries and homes, these paintings became tangible manifestations of Buddhist philosophy and devotion, allowing practitioners to connect with the teachings of Buddha on a visual level. Thangka paintings are not merely artistic creations; they are meticulously crafted visual representations of Buddhist beliefs. Every element in a Thangka holds symbolic significance, often rooted in the teachings of the Buddha. Deities, bodhisattvas, and mandalas are rendered with precision to convey specific qualities and attributes. The symmetry and geometry within the paintings reflect the cosmic order and the interconnectedness of all things – central tenets of Buddhist thought. One can witness the reverence that the Buddhist monks and the followers of Buddhism have for these paintings at the Himalayan Gallery at CSMVS, where two of these paintings from the collections of CSMVS have been displayed. Incidentally the National Museum, New Delhi and also Bihar Museum, Patna also have a large Thangka Paintings in their collections.

 

Dr Ernst fell in love with these paintings primarily because of the rich and vibrant colours, chemistry to Dr Ernst, embedded in these paintings that lend them their unique aesthetic beauty. But then deeper study and understanding helped Dr Ernst learn the significance of these paintings for Buddhists and very soon he became a collector of Tibetan scroll paintings, whose passion he carried all through his life.

 Dr Ernst started collecting Tibetan thangkas from late 1960, and his collection initially started with the purpose of trying to understand the chemical composition of their paint pigments. He used non-invasive techniques to see through certain layers of coloured paint in the paintings and for this his first love – NMR came in handy. He used the NMR Infra-red spectroscopy to study the layers of coloured paints in the Thangka paintings. Dr Ernst also used another technique - Raman spectroscopy, named after Indian Nobel Laureate Prof CV Raman who discovered a new type of inelastic scattering, the principle of which is used in developing the Raman Spectroscopy, which also allows the chemical composition of the paint to be determined non-destructively and enables distinction of the Nepalese and Tibetan paintings, each of which have their own signatures that are captured by Raman Spectroscopy.

Dr Ernst established from his research findings of the study of the Nepal and Tibet Thangka paintings that Nepalese paintings contain a green colour, which is a mixture of indigo (blue) and orpiment (yellow) pigments, while Tibetan uses malachite which is a bright green pigment. Although there were some objections to the study of these paintings using Raman Spectroscopy by some sections of the art conservators – due to the risks of using Raman spectroscopy is that holes can be burnt into the painting if the laser power is too high, Dr Ernst, convinced the conservators that the holes created during the object examination are so small that if he looks at another area and then returns, he can't find the holes again. Later in his career, Dr Ernst established a lab for investigating the Thangs paintings in his home. Dr Ernst has delivered many lectures around the world on the Thangka paintings to art audience shedding new light into these paintings.

Ernst's collection of thangkas is one of the most important collections in the world. It includes thangkas from all over Tibet, as well as from other parts of Asia. The collection is on display at the Ernst Museum in Basel, Switzerland. Ernst's interest in thangkas was more than just a hobby. He believed that thangkas were important works of art that deserved to be preserved and studied. He also believed that thangkas could play a role in promoting understanding between cultures. His collection serves as a valuable resource for scholars and students of Tibetan Buddhism and helps us to remind ourselves of the importance of cultural preservation, more so when Tibet is now under the control of the Chinese and there is a heightened fear of this culture getting lost once and for all.

Dr Ernst has also authored several essays and books on Thangka Paintings. His book, Thangkas: Tibetan Sacred Art, is a “comprehensive overview of thangka painting”. It covers the history, symbolism, and techniques of thangkas. In his scholarly article “Arts and Sciences. A Personal Perspective of Tibetan Painting”, Dr Ernst highlights the “relationship between the arts and the sciences from the standpoint of a scientist and passionate art lover”. He says that these “two playgrounds of human creativity have much in common and have cross fertilized each other over centuries”. He has subjected his own collections to scientific study and analysis of pigments and also the dating.  

Dr Richard Ernst truly defied CP Snow’s concept of  “Two Cultures”, which is exemplified in his interest in thangka paintings, which ultimately led to his appreciation for beauty, his love of learning, and his commitment to cultural preservation. His collection of thangkas is a lasting legacy that will continue to inspire and enlighten people for generations to come.

CSMVS Collections of Thangka 

Thangka Paintings: From the collections of CSMVS

Since my post on the love for Thangka Paintings of Dr Richard Ernst, was triggered by the Thangka Paintings which are in the collections of CSMVS, I am writing this foot note to high light the Thangka Paintings which are in the collection of CSMVS, for which my thanks and acknowledgement are due to Ms. Manish Madam and Ms Prachee of CSMVS, who very kindly shared the images of the Thangka paintings from their collection and so also information on these paintings. which I am adding in this post to highlight the love which Dr Ernst had for the Himalayan Thangka Paintings – both Tibet and Nepal Thangka paintings, that he was very fond of collecting, researching and documenting.

The two Thangka paintings, which are shown above at the end are the Green Tara an Embroidery on Cloth from Tibet, 17th century. The second Thangka painting is a painting on silk titled Chundhaa, Thangka from Nepal from the 17th century.

Green Tara is a 300 plus year old Embroidered Thangka which depicts the protective Tibetan deity, Green Tara, one who personifies transcendent wisdom and is often thought of as the universal mother figure to Buddha. The role of Tara is to guide and save individuals, especially monks and travellers from the perils of travel, both physically and spiritually. She is renowned as the protector from the Eight Great Perils. The perils represent actual physical dangers faced by monks and pilgrims in the Himalayas and are symbols of impediments to attainment of selfhood as well.

The second Thangka is a work titled Goddess Chundhaa, a deity related to Buddhist mysticism whose powers include elimination of epidemics and other diseases. She also purifies negative karma. This 200-year-old gum-tempera painting on cloth, is a tangkha, from Nepal. The tangkha is not considered complete without its mounting.

Images and Text for the CSMVS Thangka paintings : Courtesy : Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya.