Sichuan Daxue Bowuguan (Sichuan University Museum)

Description:

• Construction of a new provincial museum is underway, but it will be hard to match Sichuan University's fascinating, well-presented collection, which includes Han and Tang dynasty Buddhist carvings; important Daoist documents, ritual instruments, talisman blocks, and clothing worn by shamans from the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220) to the Qing dynasty (1644-1912); bronzes from Ba and Shu cultures; a shadow puppet theater; and an ethnology collection featuring artifacts from a dozen central China minorities. Rarely are costumes displayed in such a dignified manner and without mannequins.

  On the first floor, in the Hall of Stone Carvings, look for the exquisite 2m (7-ft.) carved Tang dynasty figure of a bodhisattva draped in cloth and jewels. On the second floor, there are several standouts. In the small room of ancient pottery from the Eastern Han dynasty, look for the life-size clay dog with hanging jowls and bulbous nose. The Tibetan trumpet made of a human femur can be found in the Exhibition Hall of Tibetan Artifacts. In the Daoist room, don't miss the stone certificate of purchase for a piece of subterranean real estate. In the bureaucratic netherworld, these funerary land deeds were taken to the grave as the deceased's proof of ownership of the land in which he or she was buried. Lastly, located in the same room is a circular jade disk (bi) from the Shang dynasty, symbol of Heaven (thought to be round), which was used in worship and burial (when it was probably placed beneath the corpse's back).

• © Frommer's 2012

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Recommended 2010