The picture shows the panorama of the Tianlongshan Grottoes.
National Treasure Archives
The Tianlongshan Grottoes were excavated in the Eastern Wei, Northern Qi, Sui and Tang dynasties, and are famous for their exquisite stone carving art and distinct regional style.
The buddha's head is low and flat, the face is round, the eyes are slightly closed, the lips are slightly pursed, the smile is subtle, the carving technique is skilled, the expression technique is delicate, and the characteristics of the times are distinct. Cave 8 is the only Sui Dynasty grotto in Tianlong Mountain.
In 2020
September 14
The monitoring found that the suspected lost cultural relics of the Tianlongshan Grottoes are planned to be auctioned in Tokyo
15 September to 10 October
Chinese experts have preliminarily confirmed that the lot is the loss of Buddha heads in the Tianlongshan Grottoes
October 14
Taiyuan Tianlongshan Grotto Museum sent a letter to the auctioneer, explicitly requesting that the auction be stopped
October 15
The State Administration of Cultural Heritage sent a letter requesting the termination of relevant auctions and publicity and display activities, and the auction house made a decision to withdraw the auction on October 16
October 31
Zhang Rong negotiated with the holders of Japanese cultural relics to complete the purchase and decided to donate the Buddha's head to the Chinese government
November 17
The Chinese Embassy in Japan held a ceremony for the transfer of cultural relics at 12 o'clock on December 12, and the Buddha's head arrived safely in Beijing from Japan
December 14
The State Administration of Cultural Heritage organized experts from relevant departments to conduct physical appraisal in 2021
February 11
The Buddha's head appeared at the Spring Festival Gala of the Central Radio and Television Corporation from February 12 to April 18 to meet the audience in Beijing
July 24
The Buddha head is collected by the Tianlongshan Grotto Museum in Taiyuan City
Tianlong Mountain is more than just a mountain.
The mountains are lush and lush. Standing between the mountains and forests, looking up at the grottoes, the large and small caves engraved with the traces of time, opened their vicissitudes and powerful arms, and welcomed the wandering "wanderers" home.
The Buddha's head has gone back and forth for nearly a hundred years. For Tianlong Mountain, no hundred years are so unforgettable; for the Chinese nation, no hundred years have been so painful and brilliant.
Moving forward in the accumulation of history, the returning Buddha's head is like a star, illuminating the journey to great rejuvenation.
The fall of a troubled world
A century of artistic treasures "in the wind and rain"
"On the top of the cliff, there are old niches." On the east wall of the front porch of cave 8 of the Tianlongshan Grottoes, there is a Sui Dynasty meritorious stele, which is the only inscription on Tianlongshan that has preserved a clear chronology, recording precious information such as the age of the completed grotto, the reason for the opening of the grotto, the merit lord, the beliefs of buddhist sects, and the humanistic and natural features of Tianlong Mountain.
The Buddha's head that returned this time came from Cave 8. The buddha's head is low and flat, the face is round, the eyes are slightly closed, the lips are slightly pursed, the smile is subtle, the carving technique is skilled, the expression technique is delicate, and the characteristics of the times are distinct. The subtlety of the Tianlongshan Grottoes can be seen here.
Excavated in the Eastern Wei, Northern Qi, Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Tianlongshan Grottoes are famous for their exquisite stone carving art and distinctive regional style. Among them, especially the elegant and soft, majestic and beautiful statues of the Tang Dynasty, which are flowing and colorful, are outstanding representatives, and are known as "Tianlong Mountain Style".
As the only Sui Dynasty grotto on Tianlong Mountain, the 8th cave was carved into the fourth year of the Sui Kai Emperor (584). At that time, the Sui Wen Emperor Yang Jian was about to destroy Chen Shubao of the Southern Dynasty, unify the whole country, and end the nearly 300-year division of China since the Western Jin Dynasty. The chiseling of Cave 8 reflects the vibrant style of the times.
However, it was also this exquisite and unparalleled that caused a catastrophe for the Tianlongshan Grottoes.
It was a stormy era, a past that could not be looked back on. In the 1840s, China began to degenerate into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, the mountains and rivers were broken, the people were not happy, and some people in the great powers frequently touched China's historical and cultural heritage in the name of exploration and investigation.
Among them, the Japanese Yamanaka Chamber of Commerce, headed by Yamanaka Seijiro, is the most rampant. Before 1924, the Yamanaka Chamber of Commerce had begun to acquire stolen statues of Tianlongshan, resulting in continuous excavation activities in the Tianlongshan Grottoes. In June 1924, Yamanaka Came to Tenryuyama for the first time to investigate, and bribed The Abbot of Tenryusan Seiseiji Temple, Jingliang, and others with money. Subsequently, large-scale excavation activities occurred in the Tianlongshan Grottoes. By 1930, almost all the heads in the grotto had been stolen and cut off, and some statues had even been stolen and chiseled, the most devastating of the Chinese grotto temples.
According to incomplete statistics, more than 240 statues of the Tianlongshan Grottoes were stolen and chiseled, and more than 150 statues became foreign museums and private treasures.
Yu Hao, director of the Tianlongshan Grottoes Museum, has been in the mountains for 24 years. The night in the mountains is the most tranquil, and he often walks into the grotto at this time, quietly staring at these statues, imagining their exquisite beauty. In his eyes, they were no longer cold stone statues, but flesh-and-blood, vicissitudes, compassionate wise men.
At that moment, Yu Hao was very eager for the statues that had been lost overseas to return to his hometown and unite his body and head.
On July 24, at the ceremony of the return of the Buddha head in the Tianlongshan Grottoes, Yu Hao received cultural relics from Lu Qiong, director of the Department of Policies and Regulations of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, and put them into the inventory. At this moment, the wish is fulfilled.
The home of the world
The "Chinese Wisdom" of Recovering Lost Cultural Relics
"I love my country. Letting the Buddha's head return to his homeland is the best praise for me. On July 24, at the ceremony of the return of the Buddha's head, Zhang Zhang, a donor of the Buddha's head and an overseas Chinese in Japan, was awarded the title of "Honorary Citizen" of Taiyuan City, saying, "I did what should be done." ”
This is a memorable return timeline.
On September 14, 2020, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage monitored and found that Japan's Toei International Auction Co., Ltd. planned to auction a "Tang Tianlongshan Stone Carved Buddha Head" in Tokyo, suspected of losing cultural relics from the Tianlongshan Grottoes;
From September 15 to October 10, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage organized the Taiyuan Tianlongshan Grotto Museum and related experts to identify the lot according to the auction release information, and preliminarily confirmed that it was the main Buddha head of the north wall of cave 8 lost by Tianlong Mountain;
On October 14, the Tianlongshan Grotto Museum in Taiyuan City issued a Letter on Stopping the Auction of the Buddha Head of the Tianlongshan Grottoes to the auctioneer, explicitly requesting the club to stop auctioning this Chinese cultural relic that was illegally stolen and lost;
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 actively cooperated and made a decision to withdraw the auction and terminate the relevant publicity. The State Administration of Cultural Heritage contacted Zhang Rong, chairman of the auction house, to encourage the return of cultural relics;
On October 31, Zhang Rong negotiated with the holders of Japanese cultural relics to complete the purchase. After full communication from the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, Zhang Rong decided to donate the Buddha's head to the Chinese government;
On November 17, the Chinese Embassy in Japan held a ceremony to hand over cultural relics, and Zhang Rong donated the Buddha head of the Tianlongshan Grottoes to the State Administration of Cultural Heritage of China free of charge and handed it over to the embassy for safekeeping. The State Administration of Cultural Heritage organized the China Cultural Relics Exchange Center and the Beijing Lu Xun Museum and other relevant units, with the full support of our Embassy in Japan and Beijing Customs, to obtain the cultural relics export permit of the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs;
At 12 o'clock on December 12, the Buddha's head arrived safely in Beijing from Japan, handed over to the warehouse, and returned to the embrace of the motherland;
On December 14, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage organized experts from relevant departments to conduct physical appraisal and assess the health status of cultural relics, confirming that the Buddha head belonged to the Sui Dynasty, and tentatively designated the Buddha head as a national first-class cultural relic;
On February 11, 2021, the Chinese New Year's Eve night of the Spring Festival in the Year of the Ox in the Lunar Calendar, the head of the Buddha on the north wall of Cave 8 of Tianlong Mountain, as the 100th lost cultural relics returned to the motherland in 2020, appeared at the Spring Festival Gala of China Central Radio and Television Corporation;
From February 12th to April 18th, meet the audience at the "Xiantong Sifu - Special Exhibition of National Treasures and Digital Restoration of Tianlongshan Grottoes" jointly organized by Beijing Lu Xun Museum and Taiyuan Tianlongshan Grottoes Museum;
On July 24, the Buddha's head was allocated by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage to the Tianlongshan Grotto Museum in Taiyuan City for collection, becoming the first lost overseas cultural relics to return to the original territory of Tianlong Mountain.
After escorting the Buddha's head back from Beijing, Yu Hao's tense heartstrings finally relaxed and he was quietly alone in the storeroom for half an hour. "I stared at it as if I had seen someone close to me who had been gone for a long time." At the special exhibition site on the 24th, standing on the side of the Buddha's head, Yu Hao choked up several times.
"The return of the Buddha's head is a typical case of the accumulation of cultural relics in China." Deng Chao, deputy director of the Department of Policies and Regulations of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and director of the Office of Cultural Relics Return, said that this has also contributed Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to the construction of more fair and just international rules for the recovery and return of lost cultural relics.
"A few months ago, the Buddha's head appeared on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala, which aroused great concern from compatriots at home and abroad, and when I saw the scene where the Buddha's head presented the stage, I was very excited in my heart, and a sense of national pride and honor sprang up." In the past 20 years, Zhang Rong has repeatedly promoted the return of China's lost cultural relics to the motherland, and at the return ceremony, he spoke firmly, "Let more lost overseas cultural relics return, Chinese is confident!" ”
The light of technology
Recreating the "Tianlongshan Style" with digital technology
On July 24, the Tianlongshan Grottoes returned to the Buddha's first special exhibition. Because the north wall of cave 8 where the Buddha's head was originally located is close to the cliff body, the cliff body fissure is more serious, and it will be difficult to avoid a certain degree of weathering when the Buddha head is put back in place, so the Tianlongshan Grotto Museum has specially restored the 8th cave in the second exhibition hall 1:1 through 3D printing technology, which will be preserved and permanently exhibited here.
On the wall on the side of the first exhibition hall, there is a large rectangular touchable screen. The screen shows a three-dimensional statue of a bodhisattva, which can be rotated and enlarged by simply tapping and sliding with your fingertips. From the style of the bun, to the texture of the clothing, to the text behind it, it has been meticulously and completely restored.
This is the bodhisattva on the south side of the east wall of Cave 6 of the Tianlongshan Grottoes, and is now in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art in the United States. Thanks to digital restoration, we can see it from across the ocean.
Since 2014, the Tianlongshan Grotto Museum has cooperated with academic institutions at home and abroad, which lasted for 6 years, collected more than 100 pieces of three-dimensional data of the lost statues of TianlongShan in more than 30 museums in 10 countries such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, realized the professional digital restoration of 11 caves, and returned the soul of the lost statue to Jinyang.
In July 2019, the Tianlongshan Grottoes Digital Restoration International Tour Exhibition Project was exchanged and exhibited in France and received praise. The project is a key project of the national "Chinese culture going out", and it has taken the lead in the country to walk out of the Taiyuan model that can be used as a reference.
The return of lost cultural relics data has made the Tianlongshan statues on the other side of the sky merge into one, and the exquisite and exquisite Tianlongshan grotto art of digital reproduction is about to become a reality. The statues are virtually reborn with cutting-edge technologies such as scanning, modeling, reconstruction and display, bringing the greatest comfort to the torn cultural heritage.
In the view of Liu Yuwei, secretary of the party group of the Taiyuan Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics, the return of the Buddha's head to the home shows the chinese power toward rejuvenation and prosperity. "When the country is prosperous, the culture is prosperous." The return of the Buddha's head to the motherland will surely gather strength, enhance cultural self-confidence and national pride, and stimulate the motivation to move forward. ”
All returns are calling; all searches will eventually echo. On the road to rejuvenation, people expect more "wanderers" to return home.
Reporter Cao Tingting
Advice
Experts and scholars gathered in Taiyuan to discuss the protection and utilization of the grotto temple
On July 24th, the academic seminar on "Research and Practice of Cave Temple Protection in the New Era" was held in Taiyuan. At the seminar, experts and scholars from the field of protection and utilization of grotto temples in China conducted in-depth discussions on the loss of cultural relics of grotto temples, the current situation and future development of grotto temple protection and utilization, and made exchange speeches on topics such as "The Pursuit of Lost Overseas Tianlong Mountain Statues", "Scientific Protection of Tianlongshan Grottoes" and "Legal Considerations on the Recovery and Return of Lost Cultural Relics of Grotto Temples", and jointly made suggestions and suggestions for the protection of grotto temples in China.
Strengthen the protection and utilization of cultural relics of cave temples
Huang Jizhong, dean of the Institute of Basic Sciences for Cultural Heritage Protection of Shanghai University, said that important cultural relics protection projects such as the Tianlongshan Grottoes Emergency Reinforcement and Protection Project have been completed. The implementation of these engineering projects has fundamentally solved the stability problem of grotto rock mass and caverns, and the weathering treatment of grottoes should become an important task for the protection of Tianlongshan Grottoes in the future.
Li Fangyin, president of the Dazu Institute of Rock Carvings, said that in the current work of protecting and utilizing cave temples, it is necessary to further innovate the management system and mechanism of small and medium-sized cave temples, implement the full coverage of security facilities for small and medium-sized cave temples, carry out small and medium-sized cave temple protection projects at different levels, incorporate the protection and utilization of small and medium-sized cave temples into the construction of the rural revitalization system, and pay close attention to the rescue collection and collation of basic data.
Guo Qinglin, director of the Protection Research Institute of Dunhuang Research Institute, introduced that in the protection of grottoes, the protection and restoration of murals, monitoring and early warning, etc., Dunhuang Research Institute has established corresponding mechanisms and systems to do protection work and risk response, and then will improve and upgrade in all aspects, and explore a scientific path for the daily maintenance and maintenance of Grotto Temples in China.
Promote the recovery and return of lost cultural relics
At the seminar, Cui Jianfeng, deputy dean of the School of Archaeology and Literature of Peking University, made a comprehensive analysis of the "Main Buddha Head of the North Wall of Cave 8" of Tianlongshan Grottoes, and through the comparison of new and old photos, the comparison of the rock composition of the Buddha head and the Buddha's body, it is more certain that the return to the Buddha Head is the North Wall Buddha Head of the 8th Cave that was stolen and excavated from the Tianlongshan Grottoes.
Zhao Li, a researcher at the Xinjiang Guizi Research Institute, reviewed the history, current situation investigation and restoration research of the loss of Kyzyl Cave murals with the title of "Research on the Restoration of Kyzyl Cave Murals". She pointed out that the grotto is a synthesis of Buddhist art, consisting of a trinity of grotto architecture, frescoes, and painted sculptures, and that no part of them is a single work of art.
The search for the Statue of Tianlong Mountain is a long and complex process that cannot be completed in one day. Li Yuqun, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, suggested that international cooperation should be strengthened and more foreign academic institutions and people of insight should participate in it, especially overseas Chinese.
At present, China's recovery of overseas lost grotto temple cultural relics is facing domestic legal dilemmas such as proof of ownership of cultural relics, bona fide acquisition and limitation system. Huo Zhengxin, a professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, proposed that China should speed up the investigation of the lost cultural relics of the cave temples. Under the circumstance that the conditions are not yet ripe, museums should strengthen cooperation, bridge differences, explore the possibility of multi-channel return of cultural relics, advocate the international consensus on the return of lost cultural relics to the country of origin, improve the international discourse power of China's cultural relics recovery, and actively participate in building a new international cultural relics return order.
Promote the study of cultural relics of the Grotto Temple
The grotto temple condenses the brilliant achievements formed by the development of religion, culture and art. Li Chongfeng, a professor at the School of Archaeology and Archaeology of Peking University, believes that the ground Buddhist temples and cave temples are based on the creation of space as the basic means, with specific architectural imagery, which can be collectively called Buddhist temples. After systematic archaeological investigation and excavation, it is not only possible to clarify the original layout of wuzhoushan grotto temple, the relationship between ground buildings and grottoes, the original appearance of grottoes and the procedures for opening cave statues, but also to systematically explore the central position of Yungang Grottoes in China's early grotto temples, the value of the cultural heritage of grotto temples and related issues such as Cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries.
With the discovery and research of the archaeology of the capital city of the Northern Dynasty, further academic progress has been made in the planning, layout and chronology of the capital city. Zhu Yan, deputy director of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that the ruins of the Buddhist temple in the capital of the Northern Dynasty and the large-scale royal grotto Buddhist temples of the same period are not only closely related in space, but also have a close relationship in the planning, construction, religious dissemination and exchange of the grotto temples. However, the excavation work of the Pingdi Buddhist Temple in the capital of the Northern Dynasty is insufficient, resulting in the research on the correlation between the ruins of the Buddhist temple in the capital city and the archaeology of the cave temple, and the construction of the basic database in the research of large cave temples in the northern dynasty also needs to be strengthened.
Reporter Of this newspaper Ding Yuan
Draft: Liu Tiejun
Photo of this edition: Li Zhaomin, reporter of this newspaper
(Editor-in-charge: Candy, Li Lin)