Exhibitions
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The Collection
INNER ASIAN JADE ARTIFACTS is delighted to present this wonderful collection of unique, jade artifacts from European and Asian private collections for the first time. The artifacts on display dates from ca. 6500 BCE - 900 AD. Most part of the neolithic artifacts are sourced in the arid south-eastern and central part of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region (Nèi Menggu), others origin from the steppes and deserts of China's northern east-west corridor, stretching from the offshoots of the Ala-Shan-Mai desert in today's northernmost Gansu to the arrid, transitional forest–steppe zones of Manchuria. By their iconographic characteristics, the major part of the artifacts in collection are classified to pertain to the Hongshan, Zhaobaogou and Pre-Hongshan cultural remains of Inner Mongolia. read more
The INNAJA collection of jade is currently displaying over 100 artifacts which encompasses protective Hongshan Human and Humanoid Figurine amulets, Pig Dragons, Birds and other ritual archetypes. All artifacts in the collection testify the extraordinary and skillfull workmanship and technical brilliance of the ancient jade carvers. The figurines on display are among the finest known examples of Hongshan and Pre-Hongshan artifacts and are particulary interesting neolithic cultural testimonies. Their outstanding quality, abstract and unusual form, their vivid color permeation and their textural richness, surround these prehistoric jadecarvings with an enduring and transcending aura.
All exhibition objects have been carefully selected throughout various European and Asian private collections and has been photographed for the purpose of this internet-exhibition. Most jades in the innaja collection has never been on public display before, they had been collected by European and Asian collectors in the early and mid 20th century. The collection is on public view for the first time in this context. The online-exhibition is conceived as an integrated whole that should be continuously enhanced. The exhibition is non-commercial and non-for-profit. The aim of the collectors which had contributed artifacts to the exhibition, is to demonstrate the great beauty, splendor and supernatural spiritual awareness that is always present in authentic jade artifacts from Inner Mongolia and China.
Due to favourable environmental circumstances and the excellent jade quality used by the ancient artisans, many of the Hongshan, Xinglongwa, Zhaobaogou and Qijia artifacts has been unearthed in excellent conditions, revealing an almost completely smooth surface, thus, some of the jades on display are still, after thousands of years in pristine conditions, smooth and translucent.
Dynasty Jade Artifacts
On June 2009 one outstanding Song-Dynasty (960–1279 AD) celadon jade ring with the motive of a flying Apsara (Dakini) has been added to the collection. Religion in China during this period had a great effect on people's lives, beliefs and daily activities, and Chinese literature on spirituality was popular. The major deities of Daoism and Buddhism, ancestral spirits and the many deities of Chinese folk religion were worshiped with sacrificial offerings. Tansen Sen asserts that more Buddhist monks from India traveled to China during the Song than in the previous Tang Dynasty (618–907).
The Celestial Planisphere of King Yi Tai-Jo
This is the first available, comprehensive digital and scalable vector map of the ancient traditional Chinese and Korean planisphere's of the heavens. The map is diligently reproduced from the original Korean Star Map of King Yi Tai-Jo, finished in the the year 1395 A.D. Pictured are a total of 283 constellations and 1464 stars, many of them has been identified by Knobel, E. B. "On a Chinese Planisphere"; Rufus, W. C., "The Celestial Planisphere of King Yi Tai-Jo" and recently Park, Changbom, "Analysis of the Star Map in Chon - Sang - Yol - Cha - Bun - Ya - Ji - Do" (Chonsang Yolcha Bunya-Ji-Do). In addition the work of Sun Xiaochun and Jacob Kistemaker, "The Chinese Sky during the Han", has been extensively consulted for this facsimile digital reproduction. A complete reference of all identified stars and bibliography informations are included.
Tibetan Artifacts
A small number of Tibetan artifacts are on display, among them an ancient, siver-gilded, oracle ring.
Introduction
Official acceptance of the Hongshan culture (pinyin: hóngshan wénhuà), and with it the Neolithic cultures of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, dates back to 1935 when the Japanese Hamada Kosaku and Mizuno Seiichi start to unearth the Hongshanhou (pinyin: hóngshanhòu) site in Hongshan District, Chifeng, Inner Mongolia. The official discovery of the first Hongshan site however, dates back to 1908 when the Japanese archaeologist Torii Ryuzo discovered the Hongshan culture for the first time.
Today the area where Hongshan finds has been made includes more than three-hundred sites. Pre-Hongshan sites has been discovered more than two-hundred, stretching from south-western Inner Mongolia to western Liaoning of North-East China. Relatively few of this sites has yet been excavated and protected. Due to Randy Anderson from the La Trobe University, more than one hundred archaeological sites have thus far been identified as Xinglongwa, but only about ten have been excavated. In the case of Zhaobaogou sites, nearly one hundred have been identified so far, but, as with Xinglongwa sites, only about ten have been excavated. The Chifeng International Collaborative Archeological Research Project CICARP, studying neolithic regional settlement pattern in the Chifeng region and surrounding areas has located additional, previously undiscovered sites. read more