Maps as Knowledge Resources and Mapmaking as Process
The Case of the Mapping of Tibet
2021–2024
RFI07
The aim of this research project is to gain a new and more nuanced understanding of maps through a special focus on their materiality and processes of mapmaking. Using the example of the mapping of Tibet, it includes approaches from art history, cartography and cultural studies, and applies analytical methods from the material sciences, seeking to provide a comprehensive historical and analytical account of the maps’ production and significance. The project shows how different cultural and material conventions have influenced the formatting of contents and shaped maps of Tibet.
The different cartographic languages – the whole linguistic and graphic repertoire, including the cartographic frame – in the mapping of Tibet is examined by means of three different agents: the autochthon descriptive mapping by Tibetans themselves, the autochthon descriptive and ‘analytical’ mapping by Chinese cartographers, and the Western ‘scientific’ mapping done by Europeans. In this way, the project seeks to demonstrate, firstly, how different environmental elements and spaces were represented in different cartographic languages on maps of Tibet; secondly, how these different languages influenced each other; and finally, how translations between different cartographic languages led to the production of hybrid maps. The case of Tibet is of special interest in the context of map translations, as here we deal with the multi-directional cultural, political and cartographical interaction between Tibet, China and the West, and thus multiple hegemonial actors acting upon local mapmakers. The graphic content and the language are central to the identification of maps, as they can provide insights into the respective conception and system of rules, ideas and beliefs that led to their production. At the same time, the materials used provide clues about manufacturing processes and the practical and technical knowledge of the mapmakers.
The project also conducts scientific material analyses of writing supports, colours and dyes used for colouring. It thus traces and considers the involvement of a range of experts into the maps’ production, which allows insights into the technical knowledge of mapmaking at respective times. Furthermore, we trace further details about map use and map users. Eventually, through investigating both the materiality and content of the maps, the project provides the first systematic and comparative account of maps of Tibet, and illuminates the distinctive Tibetan cartographic tradition and its important place in the history of Asian cartography.
People
Project lead: Diana Lange