Bhuri Singh Museum stands near the Chaugan as Chamba’s main cultural museum. Its galleries display Pahari miniature paintings (especially from the Chamba and Guler–Kangra schools), temple bronzes, inscriptions, folk artefacts, coins, royal costumes and arms. For visitors, the museum is the best place to understand Chamba’s arts and written history – you can see original copper-plate grants, old photographs of Minjar fairs, carved doorframes and embroidered rumals under one roof. The building itself has a colonial-era look with verandahs and sloping roofs, tying it visually to nearby administrative structures.
About this place
History & highlights
The museum was founded in 1908 during the reign of Raja Bhuri Singh, who donated his personal collection of paintings and artefacts to form its core. Dutch art-historian Dr. J. Ph. Vogel helped catalogue the collection and organise the museum, giving it scholarly credibility from the start. The institution’s original aim was to preserve the scattered cultural heritage of Chamba State – temple art, royal portraits, inscriptions and folk items that risked leaving the region. Over the last century, the museum has grown into a key research and conservation centre for Western Himalayan art. While palaces and temples show Chamba’s heritage in situ, Bhuri Singh Museum protects its movable treasures, ensuring that even if some shrines or mansions are altered over time, their artistic legacy survives for students, locals and tourists to study and admire.
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