Soft Decoloniality and Decolonising the Displays at Chiddingstone Castle, Kent

In the UK many popular misconceptions concerning Buddhist thought, practice, and material culture endure based on colonial-era understanding of ‘Buddhism’ originating from long 19th century. While academic Studies has taken a more critical stance since 1960s, nuanced not, by large, percolated out academia dislodged earlier simplistic ideas. Decolonising exercises such as those undertaken national museums in go some way to addressing this presenting cultures dynamic varied, contextualising colonial images Buddhism. This constitutes form ‘soft decoloniality’ that addresses global cognitive justice contrast ‘hard activist movements social justice. article unpacks these ideas discusses them context an exercise decolonise displays collection at Chiddingstone Castle, Kent: small, independent museum collections late Denys Eyre Bower (1905-1977), whose Buddhism was influenced his close friend, Christmas Humphreys.