HK Palace Museum unveils "Gazing at Sanxingdui"

Video by Wang Haolan

The Hong Kong Palace Museum (HKPM) officially unveiled the special exhibition “Gazing at Sanxingdui: New Archaeological Discoveries in Sichuan” (hereafter referred to as “Gazing at Sanxingdui”) on Tuesday, with an opening ceremony held at the museum that afternoon in West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HRSAR).

The entrance to the "Gazing at Sanxingdui: New Archaeological Discoveries in Sichuan" exhibition at the Hong Kong Palace Museum. Photos by Wang Haolan except otherwise stated

The exhibition, open to the public from yesterday to Jan. 8, 2024 in Gallery 8 of the HKPM, features new archaeological discoveries at Sanxingdui in Sichuan Province, displaying 120 artifacts such as bronze, jade, gold, and pottery objects excavated from the Sanxingdui, Jinsha, and Baodun sites, dating back 2,600 to 4,500 years.

“Gazing at Sanxingdui” is co-organized by the HKPM, the Sanxingdui Museum in Sichuan’s Guanghan City, and the Jinsha Site Museum in Chengdu, with the support of the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the Chengdu Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. The Bank of China (Hong Kong) is the sole sponsor of this special exhibition.

A bronze Mask with protruding pupils (1,300-1,100 B.C.) excavated in 1986.

Among the 120 artifacts on display, 100 were unearthed from the Sanxingdui site and 20 from the Jinsha sites, including Baodun. Twenty-three of them are grade-one national treasures, which include the bronzes unearthed in 1986 that are on loan from the Sanxingdui Museum in Guanghan: a bronze head with gold mask, a mask with protruding pupils, a figure with an animal headdress, a zun-vessel, and the stand of the bronze tree No. 2. Additionally, relics unearthed in 2001 and loaned from the Jinsha Site Museum in Chengdu are also exhibited, such as bronze eye-shaped objects and jade yue-axes from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties (1600 B.C. -256 B.C.), which have been loaned to another organization for the first time.

The bronze tiger-headed dragon (1,300-1,100 B.C.) with upturned body is the tallest bronze animal yet found at Sanxingdui. It was excavated in 2021.

A gold mask (1,300-1,100 B.C.) unearthed in 2021.

Among the 120 artifacts on display, 55 important items were unearthed between 2020 and 2022 in the most recent excavations at the Sanxingdui site. Almost all of them are displayed outside of Sichuan for the first time, such as the mythical creature, eye-shaped objects, dragon-shaped object, hybrid tiger-dragon figure, as well as the jade rectangular stand with an animal face and phoenix-bird motifs. These iconic objects were recently on display at the new Sanxingdui Museum, which opened in late July this year in Guanghan. Among them，a 180-kilogram replica of a giant standing figure，is the world’s tallest known bronze human figure from its time period.

Dr. Jiao Tianlong, head curator of the HKPM, leads media on an exhibition preview Tuesday. Yang Mei

Dr. Jiao Tianlong, head curator of the HKPM, told the media during a preview tour Tuesday that he expects visitors along with archaeologists to gaze at and to be inspired by Sanxingdui through the exhibition’s four thematic sections and to have conversations with the archaeologists.

The first section of the exhibition, “Timeless Gazes,” features various bronze human heads, masks, and depictions of deities. In different forms and shapes, they are expressive and magnificent, futuristic yet ancient. These gazes suggest stories now lost to history, guiding us through time and space. 

The second section, “Urban Life at Sanxingdui,” reconstructs Sanxingdui’s urban landscape as one of the largest Bronze Age metropolises in East Asia. This urban center housed modest dwellings as well as one of the biggest palatial or ritualistic constructions of its time in China. The section displays a large number of bronze, jade, gold, and pottery objects created by the city’s finest craftsmen. 

The third section, “Gods and Shamans at Sanxingdui,” explores Sanxingdui people’s religious activities and their understanding of the cosmos. Through advanced technologies, archaeologists have restored bronze altars and statues to recreate the rituals conducted by the people of Sanxingdui. 

The final section, “The Origin and Inheritance of Sanxingdui,” traces Sanxingdui’s origins and legacy and explores how the Sanxingdui culture and other closely connected cultures influenced and integrated into each other over time, forming the “diversity in unity” developmental pattern of Chinese civilization. The exhibition also summarizes the archaeological discoveries in and research on Sanxingdui and other areas of ancient Sichuan, celebrating a century of achievements in modern Chinese archaeology.

Essential to the exhibition’s story-telling strategy are over 10 innovative multimedia displays.

One display utilizes a 3D holographic projection to recreate a 1:1 grand scene of the sacred bronze tree, one of the iconic treasures housed in the new Sanxingdui Museum in Guanghan.

In this exhibition, visitors will see a 1:1 3D projection of the digitally reconstructed object: a bronze figure of a mythical creature holding a zun vessel above its head. A naked-eye 3D sand table map of the Sanxingdui site provides in a dynamic manner the historical background of the ancient Shu civilization. A number of documentary videos invite visitors to learn more about the latest developments in excavation and conservation work at the Sanxingdui site. Together, these multimedia displays bring the stories about the ancient Shu civilization and Sanxingdui archaeology to life.

Accompanying the exhibition, the HKPM also presents an extensive range of over 100 Sanxingdui-themed cultural and creative products, ranging from keychains, bookmarks, stationery, mystery toy boxes, tote bags, magnets, kung-fu tea sets and mugs inspired by the iconic bronze tree and bronze mask, to ice popsicles and chocolate lollipops shaped like the human head with the gold mask and the bronze mask.

This is the largest Sanxingdui bronze mythical creature unearthed to date. It was excavated in 2022.

Tickets for “Gazing at Sanxingdui” special exhibition are priced at HK$150 (US$19) for adults and HKD75 for visitors eligible for discounts. In anticipation of the high visitor flow during the National Day Golden Week holidays, the HKPM will remain open Oct. 3 (Tuesday); the museum is normally closed on Tuesdays. The tickets for this special exhibition at Gallery 8 will allow access to the thematic exhibitions in Galleries 1 to 7 as well.

Tickets to the exhibition can be purchased through the HKPM website, the West Kowloon Cultural District website or mobile app, the online ticketing platform Cityline, and the online platforms of ticketing partners China Travel Service (Hong Kong) Limited, Fliggy, KKday, Klook and Trip.com.