Golden artifacts from Silla's millennium-long history are heading to Shanghai after a run in France, bringing the ancient Korean kingdom to Chinese audiences.
The Gyeongju National Museum, under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said on the 22nd that a special exhibition titled "Land of Gold Crowns: The Essence of Silla's Cultural Heritage" will open on the 23rd at the Shanghai Museum, the first comprehensive introduction to Silla's thousand-year history and culture in China. The show features 251 items in 88 sets of Silla's leading cultural heritage, including the gold crown from the Geumgwanchong tomb.
According to the Gyeongju National Museum, the Shanghai exhibition explores the essence of Silla culture through three themes: golden culture, foreign exchange and Buddhist art.
The golden culture section presents gold crowns and gold ornaments that represent Silla's brilliant tradition of goldwork, along with a range of metal craft pieces. Silla's gold crowns were more than lavish ornaments. The crowns and gold ornaments embody the dignity of royal authority and the standing of the ruling class, together with the worldview and aesthetic sensibility of the people of that era. The dazzling gold artifacts show the advanced craft techniques and original sense of form that Silla achieved.
The foreign exchange section shows how Silla did not remain confined to the Korean Peninsula but engaged actively with the surrounding world. A variety of foreign-origin objects excavated from Silla tombs show that its people traded actively with other regions, embracing new cultures and making them their own. These cultural traces reveal how dynamic and open a society Silla was a thousand years ago.
The Buddhist art section highlights how Buddhism, the spiritual foundation of Silla society, shaped its art and culture. The people of Silla envisioned an ideal world through Buddhism, and that aspiration found expression in Buddhist statues, craft objects and heritage associated with temples. The finely formed Buddhist artworks offer a window into the faith and spiritual world of the Silla people.
The exhibition is part of a touring show that opened on May 20 at the Guimet Museum of Asian Art in Paris under the title "Silla, Gold and Sanctity." The move from Europe to China carries particular weight, as the Paris show was the first special exhibition on Silla held in Europe.
The Paris exhibition, which closed on Aug. 31, charged a general adult admission of 15 euros, or about 24,000 won, and drew more than 42,000 visitors while attracting coverage from major local media and cultural outlets. The show is credited with introducing Silla, relatively little known in Europe, as a major ancient civilization of East Asia and with broadening local interest in and awareness of Korea's ancient culture.
Yoon Sang-deok, director of the Gyeongju National Museum, said, "We hope this exhibition will expand opportunities for Korea and China to understand each other's history and culture more deeply and to exchange with one another." The exhibition runs through Jan. 18 next year.
