The ivory, softy and smooth like the flawless jade, is the perfect material to be engraved and it’s hardly shattered. Hence, it was widely used by people since the Neolithic Age. Besides, in Chinese, the character ‘elephant’ is the homophonic word of the character ‘propitious, which also bestows the ivory products a propitious implication in traditional Chinese culture, that is, ‘bringing the good fortune and warding off the evil to relieve the uneasiness and bring peace and tranquilization’.

On April 16, 2019, ‘The Auspicious Art— Ivory Carving in Ming and Qing Dynasties’ will open up in Jinsha Site Museum. Many ancient ivory products and valuable ivory sculptures of Ming and Qing dynasties will be displayed. They come from six state-owned collecting entities including the Sichuan Museum, Chengdu Cultural Relic and Archeology Research institution, Dongguan Museum, and Chen Clan Ancestral Hall. They vividly show the magnificent and wonderful Chinese arts and crafts. Besides, the exhibition also corporates with International Fund for Animal Welfare. Through multimedia and interactive display, they also focus on elephant conservation, which is also a global issue, to implement the ecological civilization construction while carrying forward the culture and memory.

Such splendid and glorious artistic ivory cravings have witnessed the lights and shadows of thousands of years. Just like plucking the dawn blossoms at dusk, they leave the intoxicating beauty of art and crafts for the offspring. What’s more, this exhibition also reminds us to treasure the material carriers of this kind of art— the ivory and the elephant. The last part of this exhibition——‘Living with the Elephants’, specifically gives the account of related contents including the history and current conditions of elephant conservation, and the prohibition of elephant, reminding the audiences to focus on the destiny of elephants when appreciating this kind of Chinese intangible cultural heritage, and to object the meaningless chasing of the material of ivory itself.  

The exhibition will last until June 23rd.