The Maias, Ceiba and Cosmos exhibition, on display at the Henan Museum in Central China, has enchanted visitors by showing the meeting points between Maia and Chinese cultures. With 209 pieces from four Mexican museums, 90% displayed in China for the first time, the show offers an immersion in the rich inheritance of the Mayan civilization.
Highlights include painted ceramics, sculptures, jade artifacts, murals and architectural components that reveal religious, political and philosophical aspects of the Maia classic era. For MA Xiaolin, curator of the museum, the exhibition allows us to understand the worldview of this civilization that flourished in the tropical jungles of Central America and became known as the “Greece of the Americas”.
Despite the geographical distance, the curators point out striking cultural affinities: the Mayan worship to Ceiba, a sacred tree that connects heaven and earth, echoes in the Chinese legend of Jianmu, narrated in the classic mythological Shan Hai Jing. Astronomical observatories, such as Mayan Pyramids and Dengfeng Solar Clock in Henan, also reveal common ancestral interests.
According to Mexican researcher Alejandro González Villarruel, Henan’s choice as a place of the exhibition is due to the importance of the province as the cradle of Chinese civilization. It is expected that the event, open to the public until October 8, receives hundreds of thousands of visitors and strengthens the cultural exchange between China and Mexico.
In addition to promoting interest in foreign cultures, the show reflects a growing trend in China to value high -level international exhibitions, especially among young people. For Professor Chen Shaofeng of the University of Beijing, museums act as “reception halls” where civilizations dialogue and enrich each other.
Source: https://www.chinahoje.net/exposicao-sobre-os-maias-promove-dialogo-cultural-com-a-china-em-henan/
