Chung Tai World Museum

　　Buddhism’s profound teachings and culture have long inspired works of art. They not only record the history of spiritual cultivation, but form also a treasured part of our human heritage. The founder of Chung Tai Chan Monastery, Grand Master Weichueh (1928-2016), dedicated much of his life to restoring and preserving Buddhist art. He saw art as a medium to bring the calming, wholesome influence of Buddhism to the world. His vision inspired benefactors from many countries, who donated artifacts from the most significant periods in Indian and Chinese Buddhist history. In 2006, this led the Grand Master to create the Chung Tai Museum. As its collection continued to grow, the Chung Tai Museum expanded in 2016 to become the Chung Tai World Museum and Wood Sculpture Gallery.

　　The inauguration of the Chung Tai World Museum was a realization of the Grand Master’s vow to protect and spread the Buddhadharma through art. Today the museum continues his legacy by providing a platform to collect, preserve, exhibit, and research the art of Buddhism and its many traditions. As a steward of Buddhist history, the museum fosters cultural exchange between religion, academics, and art. Through images carved into wood or stone, cast in bronze, or set to paper with pen and ink, the museum’s collection embodies the Buddhadharma and gives life to the people and cultures touched by its long history.

　　The Chung Tai World Museum is an example of “spreading Buddhism through art”, one of the Five Approaches for Sharing the Dharma taught by the Grand Master. It is a bastion of Buddhist tradition, as well as a platform to promote spiritual peace and enlightened exchange in this modern world.

Architecture

　　The museum building was modeled after the Tang dynasty capital Chang’an and built using Western construction methods. This form of “Eastern design with Western construction” demonstrates the beauty of classical Chinese architecture with the power of Western building techniques. Greeting visitors from all over the world are imperial hipped roofs and ancient city walls, design flourishes that connect traditional and contemporary, East and West, spiritual cultivation and secular life. The building’s ramparts symbolically protect Buddhist history and culture. From afar, the museum blends into the surrounding mountain range and sits parallel to the Wood Sculpture Gallery and Chung Tai Monastery. These three buildings each manifest a different facet of Grand Master’s Weichueh’s bodhisattva vows.

　　The museum began construction in August 2012 and was completed in August 2016. It sits on 9 hectares of land and has 66,000 square meters of floor space. Its exhibition area totals 16,000 square meters, divided into 18 galleries. The Wood Sculpture Gallery (formerly the Chung Tai Museum) is located within the Chung Tai Chan Monastery, about 800 meters from the Chung Tai World Museum. It has 7,400 square meters of floor space and eight galleries.

Exhibitions

　　The Chung Tai World Museum’s permanent collection includes Buddhist statues, steles, stupas, calligraphy, paintings, and over a thousand stone inscription rubbings from the Xi’an Beilin Museum in China. The museum has 18 galleries, comprising 16 permanent exhibitions and two special exhibition rooms. The spaces are designed to represent the Lotus Treasury World, the pure land of Vairochana Buddha—the world as seen by buddhas and bodhisattvas. The exhibits themselves are organized into three categories: written words, images, and scriptures, which in turn represent three main themes: “carrying the Way with words”, “awakening the mind with images”, and “transmitting the Dharma through scriptures”. The collection includes pieces from most of the significant movements and periods in the Indian and Chinese artistic traditions.