The Bronze Bell of the Northern Song Dynasty is the oldest original Buddhist bell collected by the museum. It dates back to the 10th year of the reign of Xining of the Northern Song Dynasty (1077).
The bell is 1.94 meters in height and 1,394 kilograms in weight. It is characteristic of primitive simplicity and close to the style of bells cast during the Tang Dynasty. The body of the bell is fairly straight. The upper part and the lower part are almost equally wide. An inscription cast in intaglio on the bell reads: "The Ekottarik Agama Sutra says, the stroke of the bell may stop all evil-doing and remove 50 billion capital crimes..." It seems that the stroke of the bell enables human beings to accumulate merits and do good and achieve vimukta (deliverance).
