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Buddhist statue museum to open in north China

Xinhua, September 21, 2015 Adjust font size:

A museum displaying Buddhist statues about 1,500 years old will open in north China's Hebei Province in early October.

The museum in Linzhang County will exhibit more than 200 statues and statue fragments in three showrooms, said Liu Haitao, a museum executive.

The exhibits are among nearly 3,000 whole statues and fragments unearthed in early 2012 at the site of Yecheng, an 2,500-year-old city located in what is now Linzhang.

Made of white marble and blue stone, most of the relics date back to the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi (534-577) of the Northern Dynasties (386-581). The discovery was deemed rare in terms of both the number and quality of the items.

Yecheng was built in the Spring and Autumn period (770 BC-476 BC) and served as the political center of China during the Three Kingdoms period (220-280) and the Northern dynasties.

Buddhism was very popular during the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi dynasties, when Yecheng served as the capital. It was especially prevalent in the Northern Qi, as the imperial family revered Buddhas.

During Northern Qi, there were about 30,000 temples and two million monks and nuns in China, while Yecheng had 4,000 temples and nearly 80,000 monks and nuns. Endi