The Tibetan Buddhism Thangka Art Exhibition Hall located in Inner Mongolia Baotou Museum was closed for upgrade recently, according to a Dec 12 report in the Baotou Evening News.

The exhibition hall will be reopened to the public around the time of the Spring Festival in 2020.

A thangka is a sort of Tibetan Buddhist painting, usually depicting a Buddhist deity, scene or mandala. Some thangkas are large in size and can be several meters in dimension. They are specially designed to be displayed at religious festivals.

The thangka-themed exhibition hall, being one of the special featured displays launched by the museum, is one of the six permanent exhibition halls of Inner Mongolia Baotou Museum.

The thangkas on display at the museum were mostly created in Qing dynasty (1644-1911). They mostly came from Qinghai province and Tibet autonomous region and travelled thousands of miles to Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

They are sacred idols worshipped by Tibetan Buddhist temples. A total of 118 thangkas were restored and were on exhibition in more than 10 provinces and cities including Guangdong, Hubei, Zhejiang and Fuzhou. Two of the thangkas were recognized as a First Grade Cultural Relic, 16 as a Second Grade Cultural Relic and 11 as a Third Grade Cultural Relic.

According to staff members at the museum, when the restoration of the exhibition hall is complete, the number of thangkas on display will be increased to 70. In addition, the renovated and upgraded exhibition hall will be combined with multimedia audio and video system for digital displays and comes equipped with highly intelligent interactive equipment.

Inner Mongolia Baotou Museum is a national second-level museum located in Baotou, in Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

There are eight exhibition halls in total, six of which are permanent exhibition halls –– the Baotou Historical Relics Exhibition, Inner Mongolia Ancient Rock Painting Exhibition, Tibetan Buddhism Thangka Art Exhibition, and the Baotou Ancient Stone Carving Cultural Relics Exhibition.

In 2008, the museum became one of the first museums in the autonomous region to scrap admission fees. In recent years, it has been constantly expanding its activities with inter-library exchanges and cooperation, as well as trying to send the museum's fine collections to museums abroad to showcase and celebrate the regional culture.

The Tibetan Buddhism Thangka Art Exhibition Hall at Inner Mongolia Baotou Museum [Photo/nmgbtbwg.cn]