Bearded deities and stone Buddhas: Ethnology museum features Asia

Published: 2006-06-23

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Where would you find a gilded Taoist altar sheltering a bearded deity, a grinning wooden Confucius surrounded by dragons breathing fire, or a stone Buddha seated on a lotus flower? How about in the heart of the Catholic Church at the Vatican. To the surprise of some, the Vatican Museums do not just display frescoes of saints and statues of Christ; they also house an enormous collection of religious and ceremonial objects from Asia, Africa, the Americas and Oceania. After years of being closed to the public, the Vatican's Missionary-Ethnological Museum re-opened its exhibit on cultural artifacts from China, Japan, South Korea, Tibet and Mongolia June 20. Its collections of religious objects from the rest of Asia and other non-European continents will gradually undergo extensive restoration and be put back on display over the next four years.

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