Beilin Museum (Forest of Stone Steles), Xi'an, China: July 9, 2014

Text and images (c) Robert Barry Francos / FFotos by Francos, 2014
All images can be enlarged by clicking on them

 Like many other "museums" in Xi'an, this is not just a building with artifacts, but a series of buildings that focus on writing though the ages, mostly on stone tablets (steles) that are about 10 feet tall and 4 or 5 feet wide. Some of them are on the backs of stone turtles.

One of the rarest of the collection is one of the first to discuss Christianity in China. There was also an example of the art of stone rubbings, where very accurate copies of the letters carved into stone are copied onto thin sheets of paper.

After we left, we walk down a street that had a market dedicated to writing and art, which in China is very closely aligned.

This day, we were escorted by another professor, Amy.



....on the back of a turtle, which holds up the world...

An odd object for a museum dedicated to ancient writing?

A mixture of old and new; iphone mediated stone tablets.

Getting a stone rubbing is an artistic process.



A collection of stone hitching posts where horses were once tied.

A collection of Chinese art, old and new.

This statue was put together in a similar manner to ancient Egyptian artifacts.

The detail in the stone carving here is amazing.

Many old buildings have colorful LED lights on them that are turned on at night. You can tell them by the wires that run along them, as with this one.

 

Once outside the museum and on the street that has the writing merchants, children are taught to write in classic Chinese by using brushes and water. They write on the street, and it will evaporate.

A text artist at work.

A store that deals in books and blank paper.

A writing brush dealer.

Manuscripts and paper.

Watercolor art.

Hand carving the sides of wooden piping instruments.

An estate along the street.

The front gate of the market street.