Global Times: Historical relics in Xinjiang Museum show cultural exchanges and integration process since ancient times

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Jul 18, 2022, 07:30 ET

BEIJING, July 18, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Known as the "Western Regions" in ancient times, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is located on the famous "Silk Road" which connected ancient China with the rest of the world, making it a gathering point for different civilizations.

The Xinjiang Museum is an art palace that collects Xinjiang's historical and cultural artifacts and displays unique cultural features of the region. When visiting the museum on Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed that Chinese civilization is extensive and profound, has a long history stretching back to antiquity, and is composed of outstanding cultures of all its ethnic groups.

He added that we should make full and effective use of historical facts, archaeological objects, and cultural heritage on the exchanges between various ethnic groups in Xinjiang, to prove that this region, inhabited by many ethnic groups, has been an integral part of China since the ancient times, and that various ethnic groups in Xinjiang have been important members of the big Chinese family in weal and woe.
Opening the museum's door, we can start a cultural journey and appreciate the blossoms from different civilizations blooming in Xinjiang.

Xi Says:

We must promote integration among people from all ethnic groups in all areas such as culture, economy, society and psychology so that they will be closely united like the seeds of a pomegranate that stick together.

All the ethnic cultures in Xinjiang have their roots in the Chinese civilization.

Chinese civilization is extensive and profound, and has a long history stretching back to antiquity. It is the cultural identity of the Chinese nation, the foundation of the contemporary Chinese culture, the cultural bond holding all Chinese around the globe together, and it is the treasure trove inspiring cultural innovation.

Source: Xinhua

The Xinjiang Museum

The museum's total construction area is around 49,600 square meters
It holds over 50,000 items of various cultural relics and specimens, including textiles and colored drawing clay figurines.
The collections include nearly 400 national first-grade cultural relics

Central Plains culture

Painting of Fuxi and Nüwa

Tang Dynasty (618-907), Turpan city

The silk painting of Fuxi and Nüwa was completed in four colors, white, red, yellow, and black.

A culture hero in Chinese legend, Fuxi, is on the right and his sister and wife, Nüwa, who is credited with the creation of humanity, is on the left. The worship of these two ancestors in the legend was started by Chinese living in the regions of Central Plains and the discovery of the painting proves that such cultural symbols had spread to Xinjiang in ancient times.

Seal of Han Dynasty's state agency to manage the agriculture

Han Dynasty (206BC-AD220), Taklimakan Desert

The Seal of Sihefu (lit: Seal of the Han Dynasty's state agency to manage agriculture) was unearthed in 1959 near the Taklimakan Desert in Xinjiang.

The seal, two centimeters long on each side and only 1.6 centimeters tall, shows four Chinese characters, proving that the central government of the Han Dynasty (206BC-AD220) tasked a state agency to till farmland in the region.

It is a demonstration that the Han government exercised effective jurisdiction over the Western Regions [the regions west of Yumen Pass], indicating Xinjiang has been an inextricable part of the Chinese territory since ancient times.

Cultural integration

'Five Stars Rise in the East' arm protector ( Wuxing Chu Dongfang Li Zhongguo)

Han Dynasty (206BC-AD220), Taklimakan Desert

The Han Dynasty "Five Star Rise in the East" was a brocade arm guard used by ancient people to protect themselves when shooting arrows. Discovered in the Niya ruins in Xinjiang, it was a great discovery in Chinese archeology because it was knitted with five clear characters that depict "five stars rise to aid China" proving that Chinese culture had already been a symbol of belief to China's western region thousands of years ago. Along with its important symbolic value, even after many years, the multi-color knitted artifact still showed brocade patterns woven in the form of clouds and birds, and also the five mythical Chinese astrological terms, which were believed to bring the country success and luck especially when participating in military activities by the ancient Chinese. Researchers also believe that the relic came from the Shu region in Southwest China. It represents top-notch brocade making skills from the period.

Colored painted wooden pavilion model

Tang Dynasty (618-907), Turpan city

The 20 centimeter color painted wooden pavilion model bears witness to how the architectural expertise of the Chinese Central Plains was influential to China's western region against the backdrop of cultural, political, and economic exchanges, and that exchanges were burgeoning during the Tang Dynasty. The pavilion model incorporates Chinese wooden architecture's classic design of the Dougong structure that still can be seen on the buildings in the Forbidden City in Beijing. It has a red painted surface and a white base with exquisitely painted cloud patterns in blue, green, and red.

'Heaven King Stepping Ghost' wooden figurine

Tang Dynasty (618-907), Turpan city

The wooden figurine is an embodiment of the renowned Tang colored paints with China's western regional cultural aesthetics.

The "heaven king" figurine has vivid characters like its mustache, the peony flower painted on his armor, and his clothing style that depict classic Tang aesthetics. But, it also carries Chinese western region artistic details such as its cuff patterns. The figurine was believed to ward off evil, and was ingeniously made from more than 30 carved wood components – the tiniest one being the figurine's teeth – that assembled together.

Culture of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang

Female mummified corpse – The Princesses of Xiaohe

3,800 years ago, Lop Nor region

At 152 centimeters high, with light skin, and linen-colored hair, the mummified female corpse in Lop Nor region in Xinjiang was named "The Princesses of Xiaohe." DNA tests on the bones and teeth later showed that the beautifully smiling female, along with others in the mummified group discovered with her, had both Eastern and European DNA characteristics, proof of the exchanges between Xinjiang and Europe over 3,800 years ago.

'Maytri Simit' in old Uygur script - Huihu dialect

8th to 9th century, Turpan city

Plays performed on stage were a popular form of entertainment around the Turpan area in Xinjiang back in 9th to 10th century. Among them was the most famous one Maytri Simit, a play written in the Huihu dialect [an old Uygur script].

The Maytri Simit is a script that narrates the life and deeds of the Maitreya Buddha. It is academically considered the earliest play script across China.

SOURCE Global Times