Twinkling stars gather into history—Shandong Museum (Part 5): Buddhist Statue Art Exhibition

Shandong was a flourishing land of ancient Chinese Buddhist culture and art. Buddhism in Shandong went through three important developmental periods: the Northern Dynasties, Sui-Tang, and Northern Song. During the Northern Dynasties, Shandong Buddhism continuously integrated with Qi-Lu culture, creating a local style of Buddhist statues, among which the Xianglong Jialian decoration on back-screen statues and the 'thin clothing clinging' style of round sculptures were the most characteristic, standing out in the history of Chinese Buddhist statue art. The Sui-Tang and Northern Song were another two prosperous periods for Buddhist art in Shandong, represented by cliff carvings, pagoda underground palaces, and painted clay sculptures, all of which achieved high artistic accomplishments. There are many types of Buddhist cultural relics in Shandong, including back-screen statues, individual round sculptures, pagodas, sutra pillars, stone boxes, steles, etc., made of materials such as limestone, white marble, and gold-bronze, spanning over a thousand years from the Northern Wei to the Ming and Qing dynasties, reflecting the statue styles of different regions and times in Shandong. There are four types of Buddhist art relics in Shandong: grottoes, cliff carvings, sutra carvings, and individual statues, among which grottoes, cliff carvings, and sutra carvings are immovable cultural relics. Since the 1980s, numerous Buddhist cache pits and pagoda underground palace remains have been discovered in Shandong, unearthing a large number of Buddhist statues and related cultural relics. Particularly in 1996, the excavation of the Buddhist cache pit at Longxing Temple in Qingzhou City, Shandong Province, brought to light a large number of exquisitely crafted and lavishly adorned statues from the Northern Dynasties, attracting great national and even international attention, and sparking a wave of research into Shandong's Buddhist statue art in the academic world. The 'Buddhist Statue Art Exhibition' at the Shandong Museum focuses on individual statues, selecting representative forms of statue art from the Northern Dynasties period in Shandong, such as back-screen triad statues, individual round sculptures, white marble statues; Maitreya statues from the Sui-Tang to Song periods, statue steles, etc., showcasing the unique statue style of the Shandong region, as well as its brilliant achievements as the center of Eastern Chinese Buddhist art. Shandong Museum