Source: People's Daily Original manuscript
People's Daily Taiyuan, July 24 (Wei Yanxing) In the middle of summer in July, the peaks of Tianlong Mountain are stacked, and everything is beautiful. On July 24, the return ceremony of the Buddha head in the Tianlongshan Grottoes was held in Taiyuan, Shanxi. The Buddha head on the north wall of Cave 8 of the Tianlongshan Grottoes, which was unveiled at this year's Spring Festival Gala, finally returned to its hometown of Tianlong Mountain after being lost overseas for nearly a century.
The head of the Buddha is the head of the Buddha on the north wall of cave 8 of the Tianlongshan Grottoes. People's Daily Wei Yanxing photo
Li Qun, vice minister of culture and tourism and director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, pointed out that the return of the Buddha's head shows the path of rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, expounds the idea of cultural relics to pursue China, highlights the unity of the sons and daughters of China, and helps the protection and utilization of cultural relics on a new journey. ”
Li Qun delivered a speech. Courtesy of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage
Li Qun stressed that the lost cultural relics are an important part of China's cultural heritage, and the Chinese government reserves the right to recover cultural relics that have been stolen and illegally exported in history, including the lost cultural relics of the Cave Temple. The Chinese government firmly supports the return of lost cultural relics to its country of origin, and is willing to work with the international community to explore the establishment of institutionalized arrangements for properly resolving the problem of the return of historically lost cultural relics, and work together to build a more fair and just international order for the recovery and return of cultural relics.
Although the Head of the Buddha returned to the Tianlongshan Grottoes this time, the body of the Buddha was partially eroded by nature, so the Head of the Buddha will not be installed back to the Body of the Buddha, and will be exhibited in the special exhibition "The Return of national treasures on the road to rejuvenation" today. "When the audience sees the Head of the Buddha of Tianlong Mountain in its original place, the feeling will be more profound, and they can also have a more comprehensive understanding of the grotto art of Tianlong Mountain." Yu Hao, director of the Tianlongshan Grottoes Museum, said, "In the future, we will further do a good job in relevant conservation and research work. ”
The exhibition hall used 3D printing technology to restore cave 8 of Tianlong Mountain. People's Daily Wei Yanxing photo
A precious physical specimen of ancient grotto art
On December 14, 2020, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage organized experts from the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the School of Archaeology and Literature of Peking University, and the Academy of Fine Arts of Tsinghua University to carry out physical appraisal, and arranged for the China Cultural Heritage Research Institute to carry out cultural relics testing and analysis and health assessment.
After physical identification, scientific and technological testing and comparison with historical photos, experts agreed that the Buddha head originated from the Buddha statue in the north wall of Cave 8 of Tianlong Mountain and should have been stolen around 1924. Cave 8 is the only grotto in tianlongshan grottoes with a clear age of excavation (4th year of The Sui Kai Emperor, 584 AD) and the largest grotto.
The north wall of the 8th cave of tianlongshan grottoes is on the side of the main Buddha's head. People's Daily Wei Yanxing photo
According to reports, the head of the Buddha is 33.7 cm long, 30.4 cm wide, 44.5 cm high and weighs 55.5 kg. The Buddha's head carving technology is skilled, the expression technique is delicate, the characteristics of the times are distinct, with the remarkable characteristics of the late Northern Dynasty to the early Sui Dynasty, it is a precious physical specimen for the study of Tianlongshan Grottoes and even the ancient grotto art in China, with important historical, artistic and scientific value, and is tentatively designated as a national first-class cultural relic.
Looking closely at this Buddha's head, the facial expression is very kind, the corners of the mouth are slightly raised, and the eyes seem to be squinting into a slit. Hang Kan, a professor at Peking University's School of Archaeology and Archaeology and dean of the Yungang Grottoes Research Institute, who participated in the appraisal, once said: "We look around this Buddha's head repeatedly, no matter from which angle, she is smiling and very impressive. ”
The picture on the left is the current status of the main Buddha statue in the north wall shrine of the 8th Cave of the 8th Cave (right) in the album plate 35 (the picture on the right). Courtesy of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage
However, in the 1920s, driven by the Japanese antique dealer "Yamanaka Chamber of Commerce", the Tianlongshan Grottoes were stolen on a large scale, more than 240 statues were stolen, almost all the heads of the statues, and even the whole body of the statues were stolen and shipped abroad, and are now stored in Japanese, European and American museums and private hands, and the degree of destruction is the most tragic in the Chinese grotto temples. The return of the Buddha head is the first Buddhist sculpture lost from the Tianlongshan Grottoes that returned to the motherland from Japan in the past hundred years, which is of great significance.
Many parties helped to make the national treasure safely embark on the road home
The Tianlongshan Grottoes lost the Buddha's head and returned to the motherland, experiencing a tortuous and exciting process.
On September 14, 2020, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage monitored and found that Japan's Toei International Auction Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as the auction house) intends to auction a "Tang Tianlongshan Stone Carved Buddha Head" in Tokyo, and after organizing appraisal and research, it was judged that it should belong to the stolen Buddha head (Sui Dynasty) of the main Buddha statue on the north wall of the 8th cave of the Tianlongshan Grottoes. The State Administration of Cultural Heritage launched a recourse mechanism to determine the work goal of "stopping auctions and striving for return".
On October 15, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage sent a letter to the auction house, requesting that the auction and publicity and display activities related to the Buddha's head be terminated and the auction be withdrawn.
On October 16, the auction house made a decision to withdraw the auction and terminated the relevant publicity. The State Administration of Cultural Heritage contacted Zhang Rong, chairman of the auction house (overseas Chinese in Japan and from Hangzhou, Zhejiang) to encourage the return of cultural relics.
On October 31, Zhang Rong negotiated with the holders of Japanese cultural relics to complete the purchase, and after full communication with the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, decided to donate the Buddha's head to the Chinese government.
The Chinese Embassy in Japan held a ceremony for the handover of cultural relics. Courtesy of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage
On November 17, the Chinese Embassy in Japan held a ceremony to hand over cultural relics, and Zhang Rong donated the Buddha heads of the Tianlongshan Grottoes to the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China free of charge and handed them over to the Embassy for safekeeping.
On December 12, the Buddha head arrived safely in Beijing and returned to the embrace of the motherland, becoming the 100th lost cultural relics to return to the motherland in 2020, and the first Lost Buddha sculpture in the Tianlongshan Grottoes to return to the motherland from Japan in the past hundred years.
Zhang Xinwei, deputy secretary of the Taiyuan Municipal Party Committee and mayor, presented the title of "Honorary Citizen" to Zhang Rong, the donor of the Buddha's head. People's Daily Wei Yanxing photo
At today's ceremony, Zhang was awarded the title of "Honorary Citizen" by Zhang Xinwei, deputy secretary of the Taiyuan Municipal Party Committee and mayor. "I feel incredibly honored." Zhang Rong said, "I actually just did what I should do, and I hope that this donation will encourage more people to participate in the repatriation of cultural relics." ”