With its immense history and vast territories, China preserves to this day a huge number of precious cultural relics spanning a period of several millenia. The forthcoming exhibition will present the essence of this culture in the form of some 150 outstanding artefacts, with the focus on Buddhist art and recent archaeological finds. Around the beginning of the Christian era, Buddhism, born in India in the fifth century BC, reached China, where it enjoyed a tremendous vogue. The Buddhist Art section of the exhibition comprises a comprehensive selection of outstanding works drawn from all over the country and dating from Later Han (1st-3rd centuries, the period immediately following the introduction of Buddhism); through the Three Kingdoms, Wei-Jin-Northern and Southern Dynasties, Sui and Tang periods; and on to the Five Dynasties and Northern Song periods (10th to 12th centuries). Here is a sweeping survey - the first ever - of the changes undergone during a period of some one thousand years by the Buddhist art of China, which exerted such a great influence on the Buddhist culture of Japan also. The section devoted to recent archaeological finds presents, from amongst the impressive archaeological discoveries that have been continuing year after year, a careful selection of particularly important works unearthed recently, wit emphasis on pieces never before shown outside China, or at least in Japan. The result is an array of cultural relics with an artistic appeal unique to China.