Buddhism Museums.

Buddhism Museums.

Sri Lanka gallery unravels the history of Buddhism in Sri Lanka from the traditional belief of Lord Buddha’s visit to the present times. The development of Theravada Buddhism and the lesser known Mahayana practices the art and archaeology ritual systems followed in Buddhist worship etc are well demonstrated through explanatory panels and illustrations thus giving an insight to visitors of all walks of life. The India gallery is planned in a grandeur manner to exemplify the birth and spread of Buddhism over the centuries. Bangladesh (ancient Eastern India) Bhutan and Nepal provide the visitor with much firsthand firsthand knowledge of the practice of Buddhism through both vehicles Hinayana and Mahayana.

The modern political unit of Pakistan constitutes the ancient North West part of India which received most of Hellenist and Scythian cultural influences enabling the Indian traditions melted into novel artistic expressions as found in Gandhara. The Apollo like Lord Buddha images and Grecian norms infused into Jataka stories made headway to create a galaxy of art products of Mathura. Gandhara and Taxila remain the most well known cultural centers which are at present considered treasures of archaeology in modern Pakistan. Happily the Pakistan government through Embassy has established a noteworthy gallery in the Museum of World Buddhism.

In spite of the lack of space in the museum the section displaying the greatest achievements in ancient Afghanistan has been able to create an awe inspiring faith that existed in the past especially through rare illustrations of Bahamian range which are no more in existence due to terrorist activities. Yet the visitors to the museum are fortunate to witness these great achievements.

Central Asia or the region known as Chinese Turkestan forms the connecting link between china and Afghanistan through the Silk Road which constituted the longest and the most ancient trade route in the world. The vestiges left by Buddhist missionaries and pilgrims in the overseas cities of central Asia are of great interest. Visitor to the museum will be able to gain some insight into the state of Buddhism in this region.

The china Gallery of the museum provides a grand scenario of history of Buddhism in china as well as the vassal state of Tibet and occupies a fairly large space of the upper floor. The gallery is replete with many important artifacts that reveal the Buddhist ritual systems prevailing in China. The other two country galleries Korea and Japan too similar exhibitions that revel their individual religious practices one after the other.

The other important route through which Buddhism spread constitutes the south East Asia route well known for the propagation of Theravada or Hinayana practices. The Burmese gallery shows an understandable glimpse of its ancient and modern Buddhist practices as well as illustration of the monuments of pagan and swedagon pagoda. Thai Buddhism with its long history has had close relations with Sri Lanka and the visitor to this gallery as in the case of Burma would no doubt enjoy the respective country presentations with the help of explanatory texts.

Cambodia and Laos galleries in their own way present to the visitor the ancient and modern Buddhist history with a few but rare artifacts. These two indicates further expansion of the Theravada Buddhist practices but mingle with some Mahayana practices. Vietnam however was influenced heavily by Chinese Buddhism and turned out to be Mahayanic in outlook. The gallery attempts to illustrate this aspect appealing to the general public. With the small replica of Borobudur the largest Stupa in the world set up in the Indonesia gallery the museum enables the visitor to have a mind picture of the Mahayana philosophy symbolically shown by its architecture and sculpture. The Malaysia gallery provides the visitor with knowledge of the spread of Buddhism to a country of Muslim brotherhood.

It is obvious that all countries whether large or small where Buddhism flourished have been able to leave behind memorable monuments representing their own respective artistic expressions. The museum of World Buddhism apparently displays this phenomenon either pictorially or in model forms. These shown within a single site evidently unravel to the visitor the wonder that was the ancient World of Buddhism.

The creation of this museum has already resulted in gaining popularity among the Buddhists of all walks of life. As one could easily understand the visitors to the museum will witness for themselves the practice of Buddhism globally within a matter of few minutes or hours. The museum in this sense would serve as a visual education centre.