Museums - Oriental Museum, Durham University

The collection efforts of the Oriental Museum began with the creation of the School of Oriental Studies at Durham University immediately after World War II. Championed by the School's founder, Professor T. W. Thacker, the museum received its own purpose-built structure in 1960. The museum's collections, which currently number more 30,000 items, include works from every sector of Asia as well as from ancient Egypt and Islamic North Africa. The Himalayan and Central Asian collections contain ritual objects, arms and armor, and prints from Tibet, Nepal, Mongolia, and Afghanistan. Southeast Asian holdings encompass material from Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, and Thailand, including ceramics, carvings, musical instruments, shadow puppets, arms and armor, and more.