Museum of Russia: The updated exposition “Culture and Art of Central Asia” opened at the State Hermitage Museum

February 14, 2013 at the State Hermitage Museum opened an updated permanent exhibition “Culture and Art of Central Asia”.

The exhibition includes about one thousand exhibits from different regions of Central Asia – the Eastern Turkestan (Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region), Dunhuang (Gansu Province), Tibet (Tibet Autonomous Region), Hara-Hoto (modern province of Inner Mongolia, China), Mongolia.

The exposition included items of everyday life and religious worship, jewelry and other items made of precious metals, textiles, carpets, clothing, weapons and amours. The exhibition widely presents the Hermitage collection of archaeological monuments of Mongolia from the first centuries of our era to the middle of the XIV century. Ancient findings belong to the cultures of different nations. According to the compilers of the exhibition, from the monuments of Turkic time of greatest interest is the stone head with a runic inscription, dating from the VI - VIII centuries. The unique exhibit is the subject of research scientists - the inscription on it has not been read and translated yet.

A large section of the exhibition is dedicated to the works of art belonging to the special Tibetan-Mongolian form of Mahayana Buddhism. At the beginning of the XIX century, in Inner Mongolia, in the residence of the Beijing Lama started the production of Buddhist sculpture in the art of tapping. This sculpture, made of silver, the Buryat clergy donated to the royal family.

Two halls housed one part of the collection collected in the Buddhist Mogao cave monastery in the Chinese province of Gansu. Here are shown brightly colored wall paintings, stucco and painted sculpture, painting scrolls, banners and fragments of images on canvas, silk, paper and fabric. A separate gallery includes monuments of East Turkestan, being in the focus of European scientists in the late XIX - early XX century. The exposition features monuments of culture and art of Khotan, Kucharski, Karashahr and Turfan oasis, located along the passage through the territory of East Turkestan Silk Road.