The Yunju Temple Stone Scripture Museum in Fangshan district, Beijing is famed for its rich collections of stone slabs carved with the Buddhist scriptures known as the Tripitaka.
The museum houses 14,278 stone slabs of scriptures, which feature over 35 million characters, and are the largest collection of stone scriptures in China. Among these stone scriptures known as the Fangshan stone scriptures, 10,082 are housed in the underground chamber of the Yunju Temple, and 4,196 in nine caves on Shijing Mountain in Fangshan district.
The carvings of the stone scriptures began in the late Sui Dynasty (581-618) on Shijing Mountain (originally called Baidai Mountain) by monk Jingwan, founder of the Yunju Temple, and went through six dynasties, spanning 1,039 years before it was finished.
In addition to stone scriptures, the temple is also home to paper sutras of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), wood-carved sutras of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), and over 10 pogodas of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and the Liao Dynasty (916-1125).
Stone scriptures stored in the underground chamber of the Yunju Temple in Beijing. (People's Daily Online/Liu Dong)
The stone scriptures are China's cultural treasure and part of the precious world cultural heritage.
The Fangshan stone scriptures are vital for research on Buddhism, cultural relics, literature, calligraphy, history and geography, Li Shuping, deputy director of the administration of cultural relics at the Yunju Temple, told People's Daily Online. Li added that it's necessary to introduce the Fangshan stone scriptures to the world.
Since 2013, the Yunju Temple Stone Scripture Museum has held exhibitions titled “Miracle of Chinese Culture: History and Culture of Yunju Temple” across the country, and in Germany and Myanmar.
Li said the museum is preparing for cultural exchange activities in Italy to present profound traditional Chinese culture to audiences and cultural enthusiasts in the country.
Li Shuping (right), deputy director of the administration of cultural relics at the Yunju Temple, gives an interview to an Italian reporter with People's Daily Online. (People's Daily Online/Lu Yang)
The upcoming exhibition in Milan, Italy will focus on the thousand-year history of scripture engraving at the Yunju Temple to showcase the temple's rich historical and cultural heritage. An interactive area will be built at the exhibition, where visitors can have a virtual tour of the temple by wearing virtual reality (VR) glasses and learn the traditional Chinese printing techniques through an activity about woodblock print sutras.
Li hopes that the exhibition will encourage more people to love cultural relics, raise their awareness of the importance of preserving cultural heritage, and make the world appreciate the charm of profound traditional Chinese culture
