Amazing would be a good epithet to describe one of the largest and most modern museums in China, the Shaanxi History Museum built to resemble a Tang Dynasty building; a most appropriate choice since Xian in Shaanxi province was an ancient imperial capital of China that was the seat of 13 dynasties including the Tang.
Started in 1983 the museum was purpose built to display artifacts from thousands of years of history of the area. Opened to the public in 1991, it has succeeded in bringing before the people the way of life of each historic period through its many spectacular displays of priceless artifacts.
The museum complex covers an impressive 65,000 sq m with 11,000 sq m set aside for its 370,000 exhibits organized as permanent, special and temporary. The permanent exhibits of 2,000 objects are dedicated to Shaanxi’s development from pre history to the Qing dynasty, (1840) a period of 150,000 years and are organized according to their antiquity. The collection showcases many truly awesome finds including the skull and jaw bone of the Lantian man from the Paleolithic period, one of the first examples of homo erectus, utilitarian elegant Neolithic ceramics produced during 6000 to 1000 BCE, the jade Empresses Seal from the Western Han Dynasty, a huge collection of bronzes including domestic utensils, mirrors, coins, weaponry, statues of religious personages and rulers, examples of calligraphy, rubbings, scrolls, fabrics, floor coverings, bone, wooden and lacquer articles, iron objects and early stone carvings. Reflecting the richness of one of the most illustrious periods of Chinese history, the Tang Dynasty collection includes objects in gold and silver and ceramics that showcase developments in glazing, firing and mixing of colours. Themed events such as the Silk Road Exhibition and the Yaozhou Porcelain Exhibition help visitors to connect with the cultural and technical developments of the area through the ages. The collections are supported by models and photographs of archaeological sites and digs.
The temporary and special exhibition halls hold short duration exhibitions of items from the museum’s own collection and those on loan to it from other museums. Displays have included 260 Shaanxi bronzes, 341 terracotta exhibits depicting Shaanxi through the ages and an exhibition of the area’s Buddhist heritage. An ongoing special exhibition includes 97 Tang Dynasty mural paintings over one thousand years old taken from tombs around Shaanxi that depict court life during the period including one of people playing polo. They are part of a collection of six hundred paintings taken from 14 Tang Dynasty tomb complexes owned by the museum. The clear cut figures, fluid lines and bold colours that have survived for centuries never fail to impress visitors.
Other than its well publicized exhibits, the museum’s functions include conservation, restoration, education, research and publicizing its collection through international exhibitions and exchanges.
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