It was more than 1,300 years ago in the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907). After experiencing too many hardships, Chinese monk Hieun Tsang (AD 602-664) made his way to the sacred "western world," today's India.
With an unremitting faith in Buddha, he studied in the Nalanda Monastery for five years.
In AD 645, when he came back east to Chang'an, today's Xi'an of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, he brought 657 sets of sutras, which were later translated into Chinese.
The Tang monk's pilgrimage for Buddhist scriptures in the "western world" has become a household story in China because of the popular novel Journey to the West, by Wu Cheng'en (1504?-82), which elaborated and exaggerated it. The sutras Hieun Tsang translated have also turned out to be classics of Buddhist theory and literary translation.
In the many centuries that followed, Chinese people and their Indian neighbors have admired Hieun Tsang as an ambassador of Sino-Indian cultural exchange.
Nevertheless, people of later generations often neglected an important detail that is absolutely worth attention and represents a new chapter in the dialogue between China and India in the artistic sphere.
When the monk returned to China, he also brought back seven Buddha figures, three of which were probably made of gold and bronze, according to Wang Yong, a historian of Indian art and deputy director of the Institute of Fine Arts of the China Academy of Arts in Beijing.
"After Hieun Tsang, many Indian monks who came from the Nalanda Monastery to disseminate Buddhism also brought the patterns of Indian Buddha figures to Tibet and other areas of China," Wang said.
Although the influence of Indian sculpture can still be found in the styles of Buddhist sculptures of many places in China, the remains of the original Indian sculptures are difficult to find in China today, according to Wang.
Chinese audiences can now expect to see with their own eyes the beauty of Indian bronze sculpture, a most valuable tradition of Indian art, and to rediscover a neglected aspect of history in the cultural exchange between India and China, both with splendid ancient civilizations.
For the first time, a grand exhibition entitled "Soul of India: Bronze Sculptures" is bringing 80 priceless ancient statues, 15 of which were discovered in the remains of the Nalanda Monastery, all the way from India.
"As a new milestone of bilateral cultural exchange, the exhibition is co-sponsored by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and the Indian Ministry of Tourism and Culture. Most of the exhibits are on loan from the precious collections of the Indian Museum in Calcutta," said Pranay Verma, first secretary of the Embassy of India in Beijing.
Organized by the China International Exhibition Agency, the event started in December and is showing until February 7 at the Shaanxi Museum of History in Xi'an, provincial capital of Shaanxi, where Hieun Tsang started his pilgrimage to India.
After its debut in Xi'an, the exhibition will travel to Beijing and be staged at the China Millennium Monument from February 14 to March 17, according to Wan Jiyuan, vice-president of the China International Exhibition Agency. The exhibits will then be displayed at the Tianjin Art Museum in the neighboring municipality of Tianjin from March 24 to April 2.
"Ancient India was a land of mythology. Religion and philosophy were highly developed. As a result, the bronzes of ancient India were symbols of myths, idols of religion and metaphors of philosophy," Wang said.
The tradition of bronze making in India can be dated back to 2500-1500 BC. During the 9-6th century BC, Brahmanism (the predecessor of Hinduism), Buddhism and Jainism flourished in succession, providing a permanent theme for Indian bronzes and other art forms. The bronze sculptures are often made as a means of religious worship.
The medieval period of India (7th-13th century) was the golden age of bronze sculptures with the Pala Dynasty (750-1150) in northern India and Chola Dynasty (846-1279) in southern India as the two centers of Tantric Buddhism and Hinduism bronzes respectively.
"Most of the 80 bronzes in the exhibition were made in the Pala and Chola dynasties. What's most remarkable was that 15 precious bronze statues were found in a cave on the site of the Nanlanda Monastery. Since the monastery no longer exists today, they are witnesses of the first highlight of artistic exchange between China and foreign countries between the 7th-13th centuries," Wang said.
The Nalanda Monastery, located near Patna of Bihar State in Northeast India, was the highest academy of Indian Buddhism and also a workshop for bronze making.
The monastery is said to have developed since the 4th century and was already well known in the Buddhist world beyond India when Hieun Tsang arrived. During his time, 8,500 students and more than 1,500 teachers were in attendance at Nalanda.
The monastery and academy began to decline when Islamic armies invaded India in the 1190s and was ruined in war in the 13th century. The abandoned ruins of the once great monastery slowly crumbled into dust in the 20th century.
In addition to the historic importance, Wang said ancient Indian sculptures also boasted a high artistic value and were very influential in Asian countries.
The rhythmical movement and perfect artistic expression of ancient bronze sculptures of South India have even inspired many modern Western sculptors.
Besides the holy peacefulness and flowing outlines of sculptures such as "Buddha" of the Pala period, many of the Indian bronzes are also distinctive for their fantastic and surrealist shapes with the influence of local culture, which is quite different from indigenous Chinese styles.
The statue "Siddhaikavira Manjusri" was one of the objects discovered in the Nalanda Mondastry and can be dated back to the 8th century. The slightly curved body of the standing goddess displays a strong sense of beauty and tenderness.
The hollowed-out techniques also create a special visual effect with the contrast of light and shadows.
"Six-faced Karttikeya," a product of 10th century AD found in South India, features Karttikeya, a god who has six faces and 12 arms, sitting on the back of a peacock. Holding different weapons in his hands, the god's main hands in the front perform gestures of good luck, suggesting his role as a guard of peace and fortune.
As the first major exhibition of ancient Indian art in China, the exhibition opens a new mysterious world to Chinese people and will assist the study of Indian art and its influence in China, experts agreed.
"The greatness of Chinese culture lies in that it has enriched itself by always absorbing the influence of foreign cultures. The Indian bronze sculptures will help us better understand the past of our glorious culture," said Zhu Qingzhi, a professor of literature at Peking University in Beijing.
(China Daily January 27, 2003)
