Turpan Museum

Turpan museum is the second largest museum after Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Museum. The cultural relics of the prosperous period of the Silk Road in the museum can not only prove the prosperity of this great trade road, but also let you know the past of Turpan.

However, you are most interested in the 11 mummies on display in the ancient corpse exhibition hall. From the spring and Autumn period and Warring States period to the Qing Dynasty, the mummies are mainly from the Astana Hala and Zhuo tombs, the SUBASHI tombs and the Yanghai tombs. The treasure of Zhenguan here is the most complete skeleton fossil of rhinoceros in the world. You must go and have a look.

Turpan Museum

Turpan museum is located at 1268 munar Road, Gaochang District, Turpan City, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. It is the second largest museum in Xinjiang, a national first-class Museum, a national 4A tourist attraction, a national social science popularization base, and a patriotic education base at the autonomous region level. It is a state-owned comprehensive museum integrating the functions of cultural relics collection and exhibition, cultural heritage protection and research, and social science publicity and education.

The first batch of national primary and secondary school students' research and practice education bases.

Development history

Turpan museum was founded in 1956, and its site has formed its present scale. The current site is located at 1268 munar Road, Gaochang District, Turpan City, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. It was officially completed and opened to the public free of charge in September 2009.

In 2017, it was promoted to the third batch of national first-class museums.

architectural composition

Turpan Museum covers an area of 17571 square meters, exhibition area of 4278 square meters, warehouse area of 539.45 square meters. In the northeast corner of the museum, there is a viewing tower with a height of 56 meters. The curved outer wall is inlaid with four 1000 year old relief sculptures of Turpan, which is magnificent.

Collection

Turpan Museum has 20637 cultural relics and 707 precious cultural relics (including 120 first-class cultural relics, 149 second-class cultural relics and 438 third-class cultural relics). There are 35 kinds of collections, including stone tools, pottery, clay sculptures, wood, bronze, iron, gold and silver, documents, wood carvings, clay figurines, paintings, ancient corpses, grain, dried fruits and all kinds of food, clay sculptures, textiles and dried corpses. The world-famous beautiful giant rhinoceros fossils, unearthed documents, woolen fabrics, painted pottery and mummies of Turpan are the treasures of our museum. Now there are the earliest prosthetic limbs in the world, the earliest moon cakes and the earliest grapevine in China, with distinctive features and exquisite works.

The early culture of Turpan is represented by painted pottery and plain pottery, which has obvious regional and ethnic characteristics. There are many kinds of silk fabrics in Turpan Museum, which is a typical cultural heritage of the important town of the silk road. Most of the decorative drawings are round, such as pairs of birds, camels, peacocks, red deer and double ducks, which are common in the western regions. Among them, the common life bird embroidery in the 16 Kingdoms period and the flower and bird embroidery in the Tang Dynasty are rare treasures.

The documents unearthed in Turpan are famous all over the world. Among them are official documents, appointment books, registered residence, grain paste, prescription, personal letters, Buddhist classics, sales contracts, list of funeral clothes, etc., which involve all aspects of social life such as politics, economy, culture, religion, nationality, custom, etc., and are important historical materials for understanding and studying western regions and ancient Turpan society. There are 24 kinds of writing in these documents, including Sogdian, Uighur, Sanskrit, Xixia, Mongolian and Chinese. Among them, the fragments of painted Sutras of Sogdian Manichaeism unearthed from the bozikrik grottoes are rare treasures.

Many coins were unearthed and collected in Turpan. In addition to the currency commonly used in China and used in Turpan, there are also currency popular in Central Asia, Western Asia and Europe along the silk road. All these are important physical evidence of the cultural integration and economic prosperity of the silk road.

The thousand year old mummies on display in Turpan Museum, from the spring and autumn and Warring States period to the Qing Dynasty, are mainly from the ancient tombs of astanahara and Zhuo in Turpan, the ancient tombs of subeixi and the ancient tombs of Yanghai. As a precious specimen, it has important scientific value for the study of anthropology, archaeology, medicine and other disciplines, especially for the study of Xinjiang history.

The beautiful giant rhinoceros fossils of Turpan on display in Turpan museum were discovered at Feiyue railway station in Eastern Turpan during the construction of Lanzhou Xinjiang Railway Double Track in 1993. Turpan beautiful giant rhinoceros is the largest terrestrial mammal ever lived on the earth. It lived in the Oligocene 24 million years ago, with a body length of about 9 meters, a body height of about 5 meters, and a living weight of about 30 tons. The beautiful giant rhinoceros fossils of Turpan in the exhibition hall of giant rhinoceros fossils are the treasures of Turpan Museum. According to textual research, this is the most complete skeleton fossil of a giant rhinoceros unearthed in the world.

Basic Display

There are 9 exhibition halls in Turpan Museum, and 5 basic exhibition halls are open. They are Turpan general history display, giant rhinoceros fossil display, unearthed documents display, ancient coins display, unearthed mummies and their funerary relics display.

Turpan general history exhibition: it consists of seven cultural units and eight parts. The first part is the Silk Road and Turpan main cultural relics protection map. The other parts are divided into seven units according to the historical period. They are: the first unit is the activities of early human beings; the second unit is the discovery of Gushi culture; the third unit is the Cheshi under the jurisdiction of the capital of western regions; the fourth unit is the exhibition of Turpan general history ——Gaochang county and Qu's Gaochang state; the fifth unit: the prosperity of economy and culture in tangxizhou; the sixth unit: the development of Uighur culture; the seventh unit: the king of Turpan in Qing Dynasty. Turpan is located in the east of Xinjiang, at the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains. It is an important transportation hub of the ancient Eurasian road. It is an important town of the Silk Road, a gathering place of eastern and Western economies, and a meeting point of four major civilizations in the world. Due to the dry climate and scarce rainfall, the ancient relics and relics on the ground and underground can be well preserved, becoming the living fossil of the splendid Chinese civilization and the exquisite "Museum" of the Silk Road in the western regions. As early as the stone age, there were human footprints here. It entered the Bronze Age about 3000 years ago. In 60 BC, it was under the jurisdiction of the Han Dynasty and officially included in the territory of China. Gaochang county was established in 327 A.D., and Gaochang kingdom was established in 460 A.D. until the unification of the Tang Dynasty in 640 A.D., it was put under the jurisdiction of Xizhou. After 840 ad, the Uighurs established their political power. In 1884, the Qing Dynasty established Xinjiang as a province. Since ancient times, it has been a multi-ethnic area with many religions. Cheshi, Sai, Hun, Han, Qiang, Shi, Uighur and other ethnic groups, as well as the nine surnamed Zhaowu people from Central Asia, such as sogdi, an, Shi, MI, get along well with each other, unite and cooperate with each other, create the civilization here with their own labor and wisdom, and make contributions to maintaining the reunification of the motherland and economic and cultural prosperity. The exhibition hall of general history mainly displays the cultural relics unearthed, collected, collected and donated in Turpan since the founding of the people's Republic of China. The whole exhibition takes time as a clue, from the ancient time of slash and burn cultivation to the prosperous tangxizhou and then to the king of Turpan in the Qing Dynasty, to show the audience the splendid and long-standing cultural heritage of Turpan.

Giant rhinoceros fossil display: it shows the natural history of Turpan. The exhibition hall of giant rhinoceros fossils is divided into four parts, namely, the exhibition area of ancient animals, the exhibition area of giant rhinoceros fossils, the exhibition area of the origin of life and the exhibition area of the origin of primates. The exhibition hall uses modern display technologies such as acousto-optic.through various display means such as physical objects, pictures, scenes, models, multimedia query and phantom imaging, it emphasizes to shorten the distance between the museum and the audience and increase the audience's interest in visiting. The giant rhinoceros fossil on display here was discovered at Feifei railway station in Eastern Turpan during the construction of the Lanzhou Xinjiang Railway Double Track in 1993. It was the largest mammal ever living on land. It lived in the Oligocene 24 million years ago, with a body length of about 9 meters, a body height of about 5 meters, a body weight of about 30 tons, and ate about 500 kg of green food every day. Giant rhinoceros fossil is the treasure of Turpan Museum. According to textual research, this is the most complete skeleton fossil of a giant rhinoceros unearthed in the world.

Display of ancient coins: a number of fine ancient coins unearthed from the tombs of Yanghai, jiaohegouxi and Astana in Turpan, as well as 35 sassanpersian gold and silver coins donated by the famous coin collector Mr. Du Weishan are displayed.

Turpan unearthed documents display: mainly displays Turpan unearthed documents. Among them, contracts, accounts, official documents, private letters and other exhibits are important materials for studying the history of Wei, Jin, southern and Northern Dynasties as well as Sui and Tang Dynasties. Ancient written documents such as Sogdian, Uighur and Sanskrit are precious materials for studying the development, exchange and integration of multi culture in ancient western regions.

Exhibition of mummies and burial clothes unearthed in Turpan: there are a large number of mummies on display with rich ethnic groups. From the Shang and Zhou Dynasties to the Qing Dynasty, it mainly comes from the tombs of astanahara and zhuogu, the tombs of subeixi and the tombs of Yanghai. Because of the special climate and geographical characteristics of Turpan, Turpan has become one of the regions with the largest number, the best quality and the richest age of preserved mummies in the world. In addition, a large number of human bone specimens have been well preserved here.

Permanent exhibitions: national unity exhibition, Xinjiang aid exhibition, Jiaohe Ancient City and Gaochang ancient city exhibition on the silk road.

Venue features

Turpan museum is the second largest museum in Xinjiang. Turpan society of China, Turpan academy and Turpan research magazine are also located here

Chinese PinYin : Tu Lu Fan Bo Wu Guan