Shanxi Buddhist culture on display at Mount Wutai

The sacred Buddhist site of Mount Wutai held an exhibition on July 22, displaying various types of Buddhist art and cultural exhibits in North China's Shanxi province, according to chinanews.com.

This exhibition attracted more than 100 famous historians, sinologists and Buddhism researchers. Visitors came from over 20 countries including Canada, Great Britain and the United States. A group of trainees from an international summer camp also came to admire the exhibits.

At the exhibition, visitors can admire five exhibits from Buddhist culture including Pingyao polished lacquerware, Pingding sandstone pottery, wall paintings, homespun cloth and Pingyang hemp paper.

A craftsman demonstrates the production process for Pingding sandstone pottery. [Photo/chinanews.com]

As well as the five exhibits, calligraphy created by highly skilled monks and Buddhist works of arts were also showcased to illustrate the long history of Buddhism in Shanxi province, and to show how Buddhism has integrated with other local cultures.

"I have never seen so many treasures before," said Professor Huang Xiaoxing, visiting the exhibition from the Università degli Studi di Perugia in Italy.

Professor Huang was particularly excited to see two pieces of work created by Master Hongyi, a monk who had also been a famous calligrapher. Huang said he could see two sides of Master Hongyi both as an artist and as a prestigious monk, from two works completed in different periods of his life.

The organizer of this exhibition, Zhang Guoying, said to the media that Buddhism should be closely related to local culture instead of developing in isolation.

A foreign scholar admires the calligraphy in an exhibition held in Mount Wutai on July 22. [Photo/chinanews.com]

Zhang also provided some information about the exhibits, saying that the homespun cloth is suitable to be made into clothing for monks, the sandstone pottery can be used to produce a tea set and the hemp paper is often used by monks to practice calligraphy.

Zhang said, "One of goals for this exhibition is to manifest how Buddhism affects the aesthetics of local products and how these products are used in the temples."

Shanxi province, one of the cradles of Chinese civilization, has more than 17,000 protected historical sites. As the exhibition at Mount Wutai shows, Buddhism has been an important part of the local history and has helped shape the culture of the area.

Master Kuan Guang introduces a painting to visitors. [Photo/chinanews.com]