Pakistan in Washington’s Smithsonian Museum

Owais Mughal

Outside Pakistan any reference to mother land naturally catches our attention (see Beijing’s Pakistani Connections and Pakistani Towels in Missouri). Last week I got chance to visit Washington DC’s Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (NMNH). This museum was opened in 1910 and was among the first building built for Smithsonian to house national treasures. Among other treasures of knowledge and research preserved in the museum, there is a section dedicated to Pakistan. The whole theme of Pakistani pavilion is around a ‘bazaar’ being the center of social activities in a Pakistani village.

Shown above is a scene of Pakistani village depicted at Smithsonian Museum of Natual History in Washington D.C.

While the information given about Pakistan in the museum is correct and displayed articulately, my only comment is that it does not cover the whole story. It gives an impression as if Pakistan is all tribal or nomadic and it completely ignores the well-settled, pretty modern and educated urban centers. The display also seems to date back from 1960s or 1970s as evident from the truck photos below.

Pakistani Trucks Also Made it to the Smithsonian Museum:

As mentioned in one of our earlier posts, the indigenousTruck Art of Pakistan is also featured in the museum. I apologize for the average quality of photos but the originals were quite faded too. The truck photos seem to be from 1970s therefore they are not as colorful as present day truck photos. The trucks also show an interesting image of a boeing with PIA (Pakistan International Airlines) written on the tail. This got to be pre-1980 image because in 80s all trucks changed their aviation related art from commercial planes to F-16s and then in 90s to Titanic.

Scenes From a Pakistani bazaar:

As written above, a traditional village bazaar of Pakistan is featured and modeled in the museum. Following write-up on a plaque is how it is described in exact words. On another plaque it was written that people from all ‘quarters’ of a city meet at bazaar and mosque. The plaque reads:

People from all ‘quarters’ of a city meet at bazaar and mosque. Though they may live in separate, often walled and hostile, parts of the city, the various groups are economically independent. To satisfy the need for a safe meeting area, both customs and religious law guarantee the neutrality of the market. In addition to conducting business in the bazaar, people visit with friends or relatives, hear news or proclamations from the market crier, and conduct legal affairs with scribe, official witnesses and judges. Tea shops in the bazaar have long been the common meeting ground for men.

I doubt if the above plaque’s writing is completely true anymore. There is no village crier for sure. There are no more walled cities with hostile population. Only Lahore, Multan and Hyderabad have people living in walled cities now which also constitute less than 1% of the city population. That is why I think some of the information needs to be updated at the museum. Photo to the right above shows Smithsonian NMNH’s entrance.

Yet another plaque describes a Pakistani village bazaar as the center of economic activity in following words.

In the market the necessities of life, as well as the most expensive luxury goods are available. Though much of the material sold in bazaar is also made there, the owners of individual stalls ofter have special ties, based on kinship, to producers in oultying independent villages. These loyalties have often been in conflict with the aims of the central government, which throughout history has treated the bazaar as an important source of revenue through taxation.

Following photos show a bazaar scene as displayed in the museum. The photo to the left show various household items seen in a village bazaar for sale. The photo to the right is the wooden seat used on a camel.

A Balochi Village:

There is this life size black and white photo in the museum which shows a temporary village of nomads in Balochistan.

Reference:

1. Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History