Where statues sway in the wind
Xiaoxitian Temple's suspended sculptures come alive in a landmark Beijing exhibition blending ancient artistry with technology, Wang Kaihao reports.
Many people dub this temple on the Loess Plateau "the Sistine Chapel of the East".Well, it is probably an updated 3D version.
While those angels created by Michelangelo, vivid as they are, do not really fly along the chapel's ceiling, the deities in this temple of Shanxi province literally do sway in the wind.
Xiaoxitian (Minor Western Heaven) Temple in Xixian county in the southwest of Shanxi is also called Qianfo'an (A Temple of a Thousand Buddhas). In its main hall, 1,978 Buddhist statues jointly portray an ideal world in pilgrims' hearts. Perhaps, within a mere 169-square-meter space, they can see a universe.
The phenomenally popular video game Black Myth: Wukong, in which the temple was used for key scenes, brought overwhelming popularity to the 400-year-old site on the mountain. Now, the first thematic museum exhibition to comprehensively review relics of Xiaoxitian has opened in Beijing.
Awaken the Future: Treasures and Suspended Sculptures of Xiaoxitian Temple opened last week at the National Museum of Classic Books, affiliated with the National Library of China, and will run through May 8. In the exhibition, 84 cultural relics from the site are on display.
Suspended sculptures are indisputably the signature treasures of Xiaoxitian, and are also a representative example of cultural heritage from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in Shanxi.
