Chung Tai World Museum in Puli Township, Taiwan - reviews,open hours,photo spots,things to do

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R. H.R. H.

This is one of humanity’s great museums. When paired with the National Palace Museum in Taipei, it offers a more complete view of the history of Chinese art than is available anywhere else in the world. The museum offers a comprehensive survey of 1000 years of Buddhist stone sculpture, from the emergence of representations of the Buddha in the first century A.D. through the great works of the Tang dynasty, ending around 900 A.D. The collection is vast, extremely well curated, and presents only the finest sculptures in pristine condition. Almost none of the sculptures, pagodas, or steles on display are damaged. Iconic sculptures of the Buddha begin in the first century BC in the border region between Pakistan and India known as Gandhara. The museum contains a large and exquisite collection of the best full-size Gandharan sculpture. This room alone is worth the visit. The main hall presents fine examples of seated and standing Buddhas and bodhisattvas and limestone pagodas. Other rooms on the upper floors show smaller Buddhist statues. The collection of Tang-era, three color sculptural ceramics is also probably unique in the world. The collection is housed in a monumental state of the art facility. It is marble throughout. The individual items are given plenty of space. The English language audio guide is a work of art. There are four or five different lecture tours through the collection, including one highly educational tour for children. A full day in the museum is enough to listen to all of the audio tours, but that allows a visit to only about 10 or 15% of the collection. like any great collection, it requires repeated visits. At the moment, the monastery is closed due to Covid, and that means that the collection of Buddhist wooden sculpture is also not accessible. The building has several bathrooms on every floor and many lockers available at the entrance. It’s only weakness in terms of facilities there is no café or restaurant, but instead a-nice area of tables and chairs with vending machines offering hot and cold beverages, sweets, and packaged noodles. The reason there is no restaurant is because this gorgeous museum has in very few visitors. This is the ideal moment to take advantage of it. Just two caveats. First, there is an entire floor devoted to Veryfine, full size rubbings of ancient calligraphy. These are huge black sheets of paper in which the incised stone Chinese characters appear white. Despite the efforts to make this calligraphy interesting to Westerners, most will find little of interest here. Second, some basic understanding of Buddhism is probably necessary to be able to appreciate the collection. That is true of all great museums. Without some understanding of Christianity, the Madonnas in the Uffizi would be incomprehensible, and without some understanding of Greek mythology, the ancient sculptures in the British museum would be somewhat mysterious. (I apologize for the typos. Google makes it difficult to edit a long text.)

Jason ChienJason Chien

It’s one of best place you may feel the awareness of your heart. It’s highly recommended to spend whole day with families to enjoy the peace all surrounding. There are 2 ChungTai museums nearby. Very nice arts inside, worth to spending time understand every history and detail of them. It’s a world Budda history. Building itself is huge and very beautiful. There is a vegetarian restaurant to enjoy lunch and tea time at. Parking is convenient. Specially, people met here all showed humble and nice personality, (suddenly and only here?!) and suppose it’s human nature when your life was given to earth. Enjoy the stay, enjoy the self awareness. 🙏🏻

Paul TPaul T

If you love historical Buddha figures on display then this place is for you. Hundreds if not thousands of buddhas made of sandstone , limestone wood and bronze to see, mostly dated back thousand years or so in China and India. Unfortunately they don't want you to take photos inside so I respect the rule and didn't take any. This place is amazing and huge, along with the wooden sculptures museum and an awesome awe inspiring monastery a bit further down the road with the same ticket.Staffs are super friendly and willing to help and explain. You have to come see it for yourself. This is a must place to visit in Taichung area.

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Reviews of Chung Tai World Museum

4.6

(1,355)

5.0

2y

This is one of humanity’s great museums. When paired with the National Palace Museum in Taipei, it offers a more complete view of the history of Chinese art than is available anywhere else in the world. The museum offers a comprehensive survey of 1000 years of Buddhist stone sculpture, from the emergence of representations of the Buddha in the first century A.D. through the great works of the Tang dynasty, ending around 900 A.D. The collection is vast, extremely well curated, and presents only the finest sculptures in pristine condition. Almost none of the sculptures, pagodas, or steles on display are damaged. Iconic sculptures of the Buddha begin in the first century BC in the border region between Pakistan and India known as Gandhara. The museum contains a large and exquisite collection of the best full-size Gandharan sculpture. This room alone is worth the visit. The main hall presents fine examples of seated and standing Buddhas and bodhisattvas and limestone pagodas. Other rooms on the upper floors show smaller Buddhist statues. The collection of Tang-era, three color sculptural ceramics is also probably unique in the world. The collection is housed in a monumental state of the art facility. It is marble throughout. The individual items are given plenty of space. The English language audio guide is a work of art. There are four or five different lecture tours through the collection, including one highly educational tour for children. A full day in the museum is enough to listen to all of the audio tours, but that allows a visit to only about 10 or 15% of the collection. like any great collection, it requires repeated visits. At the moment, the monastery is closed due to Covid, and that means that the collection of Buddhist wooden sculpture is also not accessible. The building has several bathrooms on every floor and many lockers available at the entrance. It’s only weakness in terms of facilities there is no café or restaurant, but instead a-nice area of tables and chairs with vending machines offering hot and cold beverages, sweets, and packaged noodles. The reason there is no restaurant is because this gorgeous museum has in very few visitors. This is the ideal moment to take advantage of it. Just two caveats. First, there is an entire floor devoted to Veryfine, full size rubbings of ancient calligraphy. These are huge black sheets of paper in which the incised stone Chinese characters appear white. Despite the efforts to make this calligraphy interesting to Westerners, most will find little of interest here. Second, some basic understanding of Buddhism is probably necessary to be able to appreciate the collection. That is true of all great museums. Without some understanding of Christianity, the Madonnas in the Uffizi would be incomprehensible, and without some understanding of Greek mythology, the ancient sculptures in the British museum would be somewhat mysterious. (I apologize for the typos. Google makes it difficult to edit...