Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c16: Section XIII Others
Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c16
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- v2.c16.s1 Museums — 6 parts
Section XIII Others
Museums
National Museum of China
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It is a comprehensive museum which attaches equal importance to history and arts as well as integrates collection, exhibition, research, archaeology, public education and cultural exchanges. It is under the supervision of Ministry of Culture of People’s Republic of China.
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National Museum of China was earlier known as the National Museum of History which was established in 1920. It was earlier located at Upright Gate and Meridian Gate. After the foundation of People’s Republic of China in 1949, its name was changed to National Beijing Museum of History. The Central Revolution Museum was established in 1950 in Circular City, Beihai Sea, and later was moved to West Flower Gate of Forbidden Palace. The new museum was established in the east of Tian’anmen Square in 1959, and Beijing Museum of History was changed to National Museum of History in 1960. Central Revolution Museum was renamed as China Revolution Museum and moved into the new museum. The two merged into the National Museum of China in 2003. The new museum was established in Muxidi outside Revival Gate in February 2010, and was formally opened in 2011.
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National Museum of China basically displays
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National Museum of China
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*Ancient China* and *Road of Revival* and it has permanent special topic exhibitions including *Ancient China Bronze Arts*, *Ancient China Jade Arts*, *Ancient China Porcelain Arts*, *Ancient China Classical Painting Arts* and more. Meanwhile, various kinds of specific exhibitions are held periodically. The special subject exhibitions including *Ancient China*, *Ancient China Buddhist Image Arts* and *Ancient China Classical Painting Arts* have contents of India-China cultural exchanges.
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(*Xue Keqiao*)
Quanzhou Maritime Museum
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Quanzhou Maritime Museum is the unique Chinese museum with the special topic of maritime history. It is named QZMM in short. It was founded in 1959 and its new museum was established in 1991. The museum is divided into two parts, ie
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Quanzhou Overseas Museum on the History of Communications in China
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New Museum and Old Museum. Old Museum is located in Quanzhou Kaiyuan Temple and is Ancient Ship Museum. The New Museum is located beside Quanzhou East Lake. The main building of New Museum is innovatively designed as a brigantine, and takes up 33,000 sq. m of floor space and has a built-up area of 7,300 sq. m.
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Permanent exhibitions of Quanzhou Maritime Museum include Quanzhou Ancient Ship Exhibition Hall, Quanzhou and Ancient Maritime Exhibition Hall, Quanzhou Religious Stone Carving Exhibition Hall, China Boat World, Quanzhou Exhibition Hall of Maritime Folk Customs and Culture etc.
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The ancient name of Quanzhou City, Fujian Province was “Citong” and it was an importance business port for foreign trade in ancient China and a starting point of the “Overseas Silk Road”. It had close business links with Southeast Asia, South Asia, Middle East and Europe. Quanzhou’s interactions with foreign countries were frequent in the period from Southern Song Dynasty to the early Ming Dynasty particularly ie during several hundred years between the 10^th^ century CE and the 15^th^ century CE. It played an important role in India-China cultural exchanges. Its Hindu stone carvings displayed in Religious Stone Carving Exhibition Hall are powerful historical witnesses.
Indian Museum
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Indian Museum, a multipurpose museum for art and archaeology in the second largest city of India, Calcutta (now Kolkata), is one of three national museums of India. It is also the oldest and largest museum in India having one of the richest Oriental collections. It displays the history of Indian history from prehistoric to the Muslim invasion. It was founded in 1814 by the Asiatic Society of Bengal in Calcutta. The building has a portico with columns
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The inner courtyard of the Indian Museum, Kolkata
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built in Italian style and was completed in 1875. Later on, it was expanded with rising number of collections. It has six sections: art, archaeology, anthropology, geology, zoology and botany, 35 galleries and more than 1,00,000 items. The mansion is a two-storey building, with a square atrium in it. The first floor contains: 1. Main Entrance; 2. Bharhut Gallery, showing the gate and fence of Bharhut stupa excavated in 1875; 3. Gandhara Gallery; 4. Buddhism Gallery; 5. Hinduism and Jainism Gallery; 6. Bronze Gallery; 7. Southeast Asian Gallery; 8. Maurya Historic Gallery; 9. Pre and Proto Historic Gallery; and, 10. Music Instrument Gallery. The second floor has: 1. Folk Painting Gallery; 2. Dyeing and Craft Gallery (pottery, ivory carving, wood engraving, silverware); 3. Zoology Gallery; 4. Economic Botany Gallery; 5. Fossil Gallery; and, 6. Geology Gallery. It is the largest museum in Asia that displays the world's most important geological collections. It has an extraordinary store of ancient coins having more than 50,000 in numbers and have been arranged chronologically. There is also an Egypt Gallery where mummies are exhibited, galleries for tribal life and works of art as well as paintings and ancient hand-drawn maps.
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The Maurya Historic Gallery, or Archaeology Gallery, has a number of stone sculptures of the snake-god couple. The figures have a human head and a snake body, with upper body hugging each other and the lower part twisted together, similar to but more complicated than Chinese drawing of Fuxi and Nuwa. Some works have a simple snake body while some have a twining one. The carving is so delicate that each scale of the sculpture is evident. The Museum is said to have some Central Asian objects discovered by Hungarian-British archaeologist and geographer, Sir Aurel Stein.
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From December 27, 2002 to February 7, 2003, an exhibition named as 'Soul of India: Bronze Sculpture' was arranged by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Indian Ministry of Tourism and it was held in Shaanxi History Museum for three months. Eighty bronze sculptures all from Indian Museum were displayed. Subsequently, the same exhibition was held at Beijing World Art Museum and Tianjin Municipal Art Museum, each for a period of one month. The exhibition was successfully concluded on April 2, 2003.
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(*Liu Jian*)
National Museum of India
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National Museum of India is a museum of arts and archaeology founded by the Indian Government in the capital city of New Delhi on August 15, 1949. It is one of the three national museums in India and reputed for its rich and valuable collections. It receives 7.4 million visitors every year and has about 2,00,000 works of arts, both of Indian and foreign origin covering more than 5,000 years. The roots of National Museum begin with an exhibition of Indian art and artefacts in London in 1947 and 1948, and later, it incorporated art and archaeological works of different historical periods and places. Its building fans out with an atrium inside and it houses 26 permanent galleries. On the first floor there are: 1. Harappan Gallery that has artefacts from Indus Valley Civilisation; 2. Maurya, Shunga and Satvahana Arts Gallery that has terracotta and sculpture of the Maurya and Shunga Dynasties; 3. Buddhist Artefacts Gallery that contains sculptures from the Kushan, Gupta and Pala Dynasties; 4. Hindu Artefacts Gallery that has Hindu sculptures from the Medieval Age; and, 5. Bronze Gallery that has bronze statues of the Chola Dynasty. On the second floor, there are: 1. Manuscripts Gallery with important papers in the Mughal Dynasty; 2. Miniature Paintings Gallery which can be divided into Mughal miniature paintings and Rajasthan miniature paintings; 3. Paintings Gallery that has copies of murals of Ajanta Caves and Ellora Caves; and, 4. Central Asian Gallery that has a part of works collected by Sir Aurel Stein from Central Asia and murals from Xinjiang and Dunhuang of China (large works of art are separately collected under Central Asian Archaeology). On third floor are: 1. Textile Gallery; 2. Coins Gallery that has more than 40,000 ancient coins; 3. Weaving and Dyeing Gallery; 4. Arms and Armour Gallery; and, 5. Wood Carving Gallery; 6. Musical Instruments Gallery. Its exhibitions show the outline of cultural development of India and even the entire South Asia. Besides galleries, there are collection rooms, research labs, libraries, lecture rooms and shops.
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National Museum of India, New Delhi
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The interiors of the National Museum of India
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Central Asian Gallery stands out in quality as well as quantity. Many of its collections are from Turpan of Xinjiang and Dunhuang of Gansu. It is a miracle that some silk drawings of Tang Dynasty (7^th to 10^th centuries CE), after more than a thousand years of wind and rain, are still well-preserved. Some paintings are illegible, some damaged and some still intact. There are three drawings of Fuxi and Nuwa with a human head and snake body and paintings and statues of Buddha. Some might not have been painted by professionals but they still have an important cultural and historical value. These Chinese works of art were collected by Sir Aurel Stein, during his three expeditions to Central Asia.
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In his expeditions in 1900-1901, 1906-1908 and 1913-1916, Sir Aurel Stein was sponsored by the British Museum and British Indian government, respectively. He went to China with a passport issued by British India and was accompanied by several Sikhs from Punjab. He discovered many historical documents and objects, even including Neolithic stoneware and funerary objects and textiles from 8^th century CE. He found 'Caves of the Thousand Buddhas' near Dunhuang which have a great store of paintings, temple banners and documents which were sealed up in 11^th century. Franches Wood, the curator of Chinese Collections of the British Library, included a note in his introduction to *A Catalogue of Dunhuang Texts Kept by the British Library* (Fang Guangchang, Religion Press, June 2000), to explain the origin of Chinese collections at the National Museum of India. It reads: “In his three expedition to Central Asia, Sir Aurel Stein was sponsored by the British Museum, where, for some time, part of materials he had collected were kept. In 1973, the British Library was established on the basis of British Museum’s Department of Manuscripts and Department of Printed Texts. Sir Aurel Stein’s materials were divided and assigned, along with
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An image of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva painted on Dunhuang tough silk, preserved in the National Museum of India
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manuscripts and documents to Department of Oriental Collections of British Library. In 1982, the Library of Department of Indian Affairs under British Foreign Office was incorporated into the British Library. Sir Aurel Stein was also sponsored by the British Indian government which, therefore, received some paintings from Dunhuang and other historical sites as well as a great number of Tibetan, Kharosthi and Sanskrit documents”.
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According to a prior agreement between British Indian government, British Museum and Department of Indian Affairs, Stein's murals, silk drawings, embroideries, wood engravings, potteries, wood carvings, coins and the like shall be equally divided between Indian Central Asian Archaeological Museum and British Museum. The division was finished in 1918. More than a thousand of Chinese works of art were sent to New Delhi, with most of them discovered in Xinjiang and some in Dunhuang. There are more than 200 original Dunhuang murals while only 20 of them are on display. However, these Chinese collections have not received due attention from academic circles in China. So far, Jin Ronghua from Taiwan is the only Chinese scholar who has ever seen and studied these objects. From 1982, he has visited New Delhi several times to study these collections. He finds, *A Catalogue of Paintings Recovered from Tunhuang by Sir Aurel Stein*, compiled by British Arthur Wailey in 1931, does not record all of them. “In New Delhi, some drawings of Buddhism are recorded but could not be found while some are not recorded at all”. No one in mainland China has systematically studied these treasures kept in India.
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(Left) *God of Wealth, Jubiluo, now preserved in the National Museum of India (Right) The stone image of Yakśa (Yaocha)*
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After decades of diligent work, Chhaya Bhattacharya-Haesner, an independent scholar and an expert on Chinese collections at the National Museum of India, has finished a book on its Dunhuang and Turpan collections and plan to publish it in Germany in 2014. She indicates, those displayed just account for one-tenth of the total collections and most of them are objects rather than books and manuscripts, and the arrangement is already finished. They could help find out ancient culture, tradition and religious belief in relevant regions.
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At the Harappan Gallery, among relics of the Indus Valley Civilisation, there are many red potteries that are painted with various patterns. Fish is a popular pattern, and similar to the basin unearthed at Banpo Village, China. In pre-historic time, it was unlikely that there was any cultural exchange between China and India, but this object at least indicates, peoples living along the Indus River and the Yellow River all took fish a favorite food, and as Zhao Guohua alleged, all had a kind of worship for fish. It also holds some religious articles from Tibet, China.
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National Museum of India has exchange and cooperation with more than 160 countries, including China, and its articles were displayed at Beijing World Art Museum for a considerable period of time.
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*(Liu Jian)*
Salarjung Museum
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Salarjung Museum is an art museum located at Darushifa, on the bank of the Musi river in the city of Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. It was founded on December 16, 1951, and is one of the three national museums in India. Its collections include more than 1 million objects, and cover a span of more than 2,000 years, and most of them are of the period after 1ˢᵗ century. In addition to Indian ones, it is also known for its collections from China, Japan, Burma, Nepal, Iran, Egypt, Europe and America. It once was the world’s large private collection, and derives its name from the Salar Jung family, which had five of its members serving as Prime Ministers to the Nizam of Hyderabad. Nawab Mir Yusuf Ali
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*The exterior of the Salarjung Museum in Hyderabad, India*
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Khan, i.e. Salar Jung III (1889-1949), served as the Prime Minister of Hyderabad for a short time. His private collections form the basis of the Museum. He remained as a bachelor, and within 35 years, spent a lot in acquiring works of art. It is believed, present collection only constitute half of the original store, and the other half was either stolen by his employee or lost during the shifting to the present site.
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In early 1968, its collections were moved to the present site, and provided with descriptions in English, Urdu, Hindi and Telugu. It is a semicircular four-storey building, with 38 galleries on the first and second floor. On the first floor, Gallery 3 is for Indian textile and bronze, with treasures such as bronze statue of Vishnu, the founder of Jainism Mahavira, nine-head cobra, Shiva as Nataraja and Vinayaka in the late Pallava Dynasty and Cola Dynasty in 9ᵗʰ century CE; Chamber A of Gallery 3 is for Indian sculpture, including a column with a decree of Asoka inscribed on it, and stone sculpture in the Sunga and Gupta Dynasty. Gallery 4 is for minor Indian art, mainly including temples’ artefacts carved from sandalwood, yellow sandal and other wood of fine quality. Gallery 6 is for printed, dyed articles and glassware. Gallery 9 and 10 are for kid toys; Gallery 12 is for animal specimens. Gallery 14 is for ivory sculpture. Gallery 16 is for arms, including a great variety and quantity of ancient weapons. Gallery 15 is for metal utensils. Chamber A of Gallery 17 is for modern Indian paintings, including those by important Indian painters in the 19^th and 20^th century CE, such as Ravi Varma, Abanindranath Tagore and Sunil Prakash. Gallery 18 is for Indian miniatures, including Mughal and Rajasthan miniatures and palm-leaf manuscript of Jainism. On the second floor, Gallery 20 is for European art. Gallery 25 is for jade, including fascinating Indian and Chinese Jade. Gallery 26 is for European Bronze. Gallery 28 is for clocks. Gallery 29 is for manuscripts, with more than 7,500 manuscripts in ancient Persian, Arabic and Urdu, including a manuscript of *Koran* from the 9^th century and a manuscript of *Koran* from the 13^th century signed by Jahangir, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb. Gallery 31 is for Far East porcelain, with Chinese celadon shipped to Europe in the 13^th century. Gallery 32 is for Kashmir. Gallery 33 is for Far East Sculpture, with the birth of Buddha and other Buddhist sculptures.
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In addition to a great amount of chinaware, jade and silk fabrics from China, Salarjung Museum also has a collection of Chinese furniture. There is an exquisite polished cabinet, which is a present from a Chinese merchant in the Qing Dynasty to his Indian friend. Such treasures are important objects for the study of ancient Chinese arts and China-India traffic.
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As arranged by Archaeological Survey of India and State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China, an ancient China treasure exhibition was successfully held at Salarjung Museum in the summer of 2011.
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(*Liu Jian*)
Xuanzang Memorial Hall
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Xuanzang Memorial Hall is erected on the ruins of Nalanda in the southeast of Bihar, India to commemorate Xuanzang, an eminent Buddhist monk, traveller, translator and founder of the Faxiang school. In 631, Xuanzang arrived in Magadha in the central India and went to Nalanda, then the religious centre of India and stayed there for five or six years to study Buddhist texts under Silabhatra and to teach. In 645 CE, he returned and brought 657 CE sutras back to Chang’an and then devoted to translation. He made a great contribution to India-China cultural exchange.
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*Statue of Xuanzang in front of the Xuanzang Memorial Hall, Nalanda, Bihar, India*
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Nalanda was built in the Gupta Dynasty in the first half of 5^th century, and was a centre of Buddhist learning and the world’s earliest international university. It had been successively expanded and was reputed for grand buildings and rich collections. According to *Eminent Monks* (Vol. 3), “Nalanda occupies 48 *li*, has nine temples and one entrance gate, and was built by Sakraditya”. At its peak, it has thousands of excellent scholars and tens of thousands of students studying Buddhism and other disciplines, but it was ransacked and destroyed by a Turkish Muslim army in the 12^th century. In early 20^th century, based on relevant records in Xuanzang’s *Great Tang Records on the Western Regions*, that the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) excavated, brought Nalanda to limelight again.
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In 1954, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and India Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru exchanged visits to promote friendly intercourses between the two nations. The Buddhist circles were delighted and inspired. J Kashyap, the rector of Nalanda Institute, was the first to propose a joint effort to build a Memorial Hall for Xuanzang. Mr. Zhao Puchu, a lay Buddhist representing the Chinese Buddhist circle gave an active response. Such interaction received due attention and support from both countries. Zhou Enlai and Nehru decided that a memorial hall be erected at Nalanda, where Xuanzang had studied and worked, so as to commemorate his extraordinary contribution to cultural exchange between China and India.
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On November 23, 1956, a delegation of Chinese Buddhists visited India. In the afternoon of January 12, 1957, a solemn ceremony was held at Institute of Pali and Buddhism which was newly erected near the ruins of Nalanda. The Dalai Lama, on behalf of the Chinese government, offered a relic of Xuanzang’s skull, 1,335 volumes translated by Xuanzang, a set of *Qisha Tripitaka*, a draft design for the Memorial Hall and a sum of RMB 3,00,000 Yuan for the construction programme and Nehru accepted these on behalf of the Indian government. The relic of skull was cherished and later, was carefully kept at Xuanzang Memorial Hall. Xuanzang’s stories are included in India’s elementary textbooks and are very well-known among the people. However, due to various reasons, the construction of the Memorial Hall has not been finished.
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The interior of the Xuanzang Memorial Hall
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After nearly half a century, the Memorial Hall was in urgent need of repair. In 2000, China and India included it into the plan for mutual cultural exchange. At the end of 2003, Indian government granted Rupees 30 million for interior furnishing and landscaping of the building. In 2005, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reiterated the renovation of Xuanzang Memorial Hall as a programme of mutual cultural exchange. It was decided that relevant work should be finished in 2006, the year for India-China Friendship. On Chinese side, State Administration for Religious Affairs would take charge of the matter, while India would set up a construction and maintenance committee for Xuanzang Memorial Hall. The main buildings of the Memorial Hall covers an area of 4.5 hectare and at the request of the construction and maintenance committee, Indian government granted the neighbouring 27-hectare lake to the Memorial Hall free of cost. Thus, its total area is more than 30 hectare. Besides, Indian government assigned 47.5 hectare in the neighbourhood of the Memorial Hall to Nalanda International University. Thanks to experts, scholars, artists, engineers, Buddhist and businessmen in both countries, repair and renovation of Xuanzang Memorial Hall was accomplished on time at the end of 2006.
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Now, the Memorial Hall appears brand new. Its main buildings is placed on the huge base of white marble and have a style of royal palaces in the great Tang Dynasty. At the entrance, a Chinese-style arch is erected which is made up by 14 tonne of bronze. On the two sides of the court there are three monuments: Xuanzang Monument, Tang Sanzang Sacred Order Monument and Origin Monument for Xuanzang Memorial Hall. The bell pavilion has a huge bell on which the Heart Sutra is inscribed in both Chinese and Sanskrit. In front of the main entrance, there is a bronze statue of the pilgrim Xuanzang. Right in front of the lobby are a white-marble relief of Maitreya debating over *sutras* and a bronze statue of Xuanzang preoccupied with translating *sutras*. On the side wall are copper-plate murals describing the life of Xuanzang. A number of art collections and historical articles are on display including *Tripitaka* from Chinese government.
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Xuanzang Memorial Hall is a witness to India-China cultural exchange and a symbol of traditional India-China friendship. On February 12, 2007, more than 300 eminent monks and officials from both sides attended a solemn ceremony to inaugurate the completion and opening of Xuanzang Memorial Hall.
Linked texts (1)
- Prajñāpāramitāhṛdaya — Sanskrit