Guangshan County Buddhist Art Museum

Guangshan County Buddhist Art Museum

The Guangshan County Buddhist Art Museum is situated 22 kilometers southwest of Guangshan County, adjacent to the east of Jingju Temple, the cradle of the Tiantai sect of Buddhism. Covering a land area of about 32,800 m² and a total construction area of around 1,410 m², the museum features Qing-style Huizhou architecture infused with religious artistry, all set within a tranquil and spiritually uplifting natural landscape. It offers inspiration, transcendent ideals, and a cleansing of the soul, serving as a scenic tourist resort that integrates leisure, entertainment, and sightseeing.

The Guangshan County Buddhist Art Museum is divided into an east hall, a west hall, and an open-air section. The east hall is dedicated to the display of Buddhist relics and performances of Buddhist culture; the west hall focuses on Buddhist cultural experiences, exhibits artifacts from the eight major Buddhist sects, provides explanations of various Buddhist scriptures and sect doctrines, and promotes Buddhist knowledge and local cultural heritage. The open-air section includes, to the north, a cultural corridor showcasing the glorious life of Sakyamuni Buddha from birth to nirvana and a photo wall of the Twenty-Four Filial Exemplars. Between the corridor and the wall stands a over two-meter-tall stone statue of the Bodhisattva Manjushri and an ancient Qing Dynasty stone lighthouse. To the south of the corridor and wall are ten stone sutra pillars from the Tang Dynasty, a 5-meter-tall stone Liberation Gate, a Peace Tree, and another stone lighthouse.

The museum houses a collection of over 3,000 religious artifacts, including statues of Buddhas and bodhisattvas, Buddhist longevity plaques, sutras, thangkas, shrines, chimes, alms bowls, incense burners, and ritual instruments, among which nearly 100 are classified as national third-grade relics or above.

In 2013, it was rated as a “National Third-Grade Museum” by the National Cultural Heritage Administration and recognized as a “Henan Province Intangible Cultural Heritage Exhibition Base” by the Henan Provincial Department of Culture.

Further Reading:

· China’s National Third-Grade Museums