Since the 1970s the Ethnographic Museum at the University of Zurich has held culturally significant collections of Heinrich Harrer (1912-2006) and Peter Aufschnaiter (1899-1973).

From 1945 until 1951 both lived in Tibet. Aufschnaiter then worked in Nepal, whereas Harrer undertook numerous expeditions. In the 1960s he travelled to Asia, South America and Oceania. In the artefacts brought back, craft skills as well as social organisational structures and world views from the local communities are represented.