The Lost Buddhas

The Lost Buddhas exhibition which is currently to be seen in Sydney's NSW Art Galery is one of its kind and definitelly worth the visit.

In 1996 one of the most significant archaeological finds of the 20th century was discovered when construction workers in the Chinese town of Qingzhou were levelling a sports field. Found by accident, like the terracotta warriors discovered at Xi’an in 1974, this extraordinary discovery brought to light a cache of some 400 stone Buddhist sculptures on the site of the long-destroyed Longxing (Dragon Rise) Temple in Qingzhou in Shandong province in eastern China, one of the cradles of ancient Chinese civilisation.

Created in the 6th century, these remarkable sculptures were carefully wrapped and buried in a purpose-built pit during the 12th century for reasons that still remain unclear. They are a stunning reflection of the Buddhist beliefs which permeated many levels of local life, and of the dramatic stylistic changes in sculpture that occurred during a time when Buddhist art in China reached its apogee.

On loan from the Qingzhou Municipal Museum, 35 of the best preserved and most exquisite sculptures from the Qingzhou discovery will be on display at the Art Gallery of New South Wales from 29 August to 23 November. Seven have not been seen outside China before and indeed all will be seen in Australia for the first time.