On September 10th, the "Eastern Smile Spanning a Thousand Years - Buddhist Statue Art Exhibition" opened at the Gansu Bamboo Slips Museum. The exhibition features over a hundred cultural relics from more than 20 cultural and museum units, including four major grottoes and five Buddha statue cellars, showcasing the charm of Buddhist statue art from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Ming and Qing Dynasties for nearly two thousand years. This exhibition selects over 120 precious cultural relics and 3 replicas from the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and more than 20 cultural and museum units in 8 provinces including Gansu, Henan, Shanxi, and Sichuan. The exhibition takes "casting gold, carving stones, and carving walls" as the main theme, and presents Buddhist sculpture art in three panoramic units, showcasing the process of Buddhism's introduction to China along the Silk Road during the Han Dynasty and its continuous integration into traditional Chinese culture through changes and development. Feng Xuebin, Deputy Director of the Archaeology Research Office at the Maijishan Grottoes Art Research Institute, introduced that this exhibition has two highlights: firstly, it presents Buddhist statues from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with representative cultural relics from each era, a long time span, and a complete chronological sequence. Secondly, the exhibition for the first time gathered cultural relics from four major grottoes, namely Mogao Grottoes, Maijishan Grottoes, Yungang Grottoes, and Longmen Grottoes, as well as cultural relics from five Buddha statue cellars located in Wuzhuang in the north of Yecheng, Yongning Temple in Luoyang, Wanfo Temple in Chengdu, Longxing Temple in Qingzhou, and Longxing Temple in Jingchuan. The evolution of grotto temple statues can be seen from the changes and renovations of different eras, while cellar statues present a more primitive appearance due to being sealed in a relatively enclosed environment, complementing each other. The exhibition was directed by the National Cutural Heritage Administration and the Propaganda Department of the CPC Gansu Provincial Committee, hosted by the Department of Culture and Tourism of Gansu Province, the Administration of Cultural Heritage of Gansu Province and the People's Government of Tianshui City, and hosted by the Dunhuang Research Institute and Gansu Bamboo Slips Museum. The exhibition will continue until December 10th. (New Society)