Opened in 2008 in a unique building on Lisbon's riverside front, Museu do Oriente emerges as a multicultural museum devoted to preserving, in all its aspects, the material and intangible heritage of several Asian countries through the testimonies of its collections: Portuguese Presence in Asia and Kwok On. The cultural diversity on display shows a stimulating and enriching dialogue between the West and the East.
The Portuguese Presence in Asia Collection consists of more than 2,000 artistic and documentary objects, such as furniture, ivory, textiles, sacred art, porcelain, painting, and sculpture. The result of acquisitions and donations, it incorporates pieces of exceptional value, displayed along the 1st floor in nuclei organized by country (India, Sri Lanka, China, Macao, Japan, Korea, and East Timor), which highlight the eminently collectionist character of this exhibition, whose pieces range from 3,000 B.C. to the mid-twentieth century.
The Kwok On collection includes ca. 15.000 pieces ranging from Chinese opera; from the Indian Koothyattam and Kathakali to the Barong and the Indonesian Wayang Golek, Klitik, Orang, Topeng and Beber dances; from the numerous Asian puppet and masked theatres, from a variety of national and regional backgrounds, through Iran's Tazieh theatre, Japanese festivities and theatres such as Noh, Kabuki and Bunraku, the Thai Khon theatre, as well as a series of ritual, domestic and community objects, through which the most varied cults are performed.
