Mongolian Buddhism

World Museum, William Brown Street, L3 8EN
Until 2nd October 2005

Reviewed by Colin Serjent

Intriguing images from Mongolia, taken by Liverpool-born photographer Barbara Hind, are on display at the newly opened World Museum.

But they are not given full justice in the way they are exhibited. The photographs are housed in uniform medium sized frames and all arranged in an unvarying line along two long walls of the room.

Hind, who has travelled to Mongolia 16 times, said: "The Mongolian Buddhist images have grown out of my personal association with the monasteries and nunneries i have visited. Through my photographs I try not only to represent my own experience of seeing other people's world but to also try and evoke the people's experience in those worlds."

The photographs, which offer an intimate portrayal of everyday life for Mongolian Buddhists, include depictions of the call to morning worship, Tibetan language classes and monk ordination.

The photographs from this exhibition have previously been on display at the National Museum of Mongolian History in 2001, where Hind became the first westerner to be invited to show her work. It gave the Mongolian people the first opportunity to see the photographs for themselves.

If you visit the World Museum to see this exhibition, also go along to look at the extensive display of Buddhist artefacts from Asia in the World Cultures gallery.