"Company Advertisement on Buddhist Statue?"... The Truth Behind Suspicious Characters Found on Chinese Cultural Relic

Company Logo Found on Chinese National First-Class Cultural Relic

Museum: "Text from Newspaper Used to Cover Base 27 Years Ago"

Controversy arose in China after characters resembling the logo of a local home appliance company were discovered on a Ming Dynasty Buddhist statue, which is classified as a national first-class cultural relic. However, after an investigation by the museum, it was found that the characters in question were not advertisements engraved on the statue but rather text printed on newspaper that had been used in the past to cover the bottom of the statue.

During the reign of the Yongle Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, characters resembling the logo of Chinese home appliance company TCL were found at the bottom of a gilt-bronze Avalokitesvara statue. Screenshot from Pingtai News

According to Chinese media outlets such as The Paper on July 6 (local time), the controversy began with a gilt-bronze Avalokitesvara statue from the reign of the Yongle Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. The statue is currently on display at the "Plateau Silk Road: The Light of Gudam" special exhibition at the China Arts and Crafts Museum.

A visitor reported that when looking upward from beneath the statue, near the hem of the robe and the ankles, characters resembling the logo of the Chinese home appliance company TCL and the words "September 28" could be seen.

'TCL' Characters Found on Centuries-Old Statue

As related photos and videos spread online, suspicions arose that advertising slogans from a modern company might have been incorporated into the centuries-old cultural relic. Some speculated that advertising material might have been inserted during preparations for the exhibition or while transporting the artifact.

The statue in question is known to have been a royal Buddhist statue bestowed by the court during the reign of the Yongle Emperor to Gudam Temple, which is located in present-day Qinghai Province. Standing approximately 1.46 meters tall, it is one of the larger court-made gilt-bronze bodhisattva statues from the Yongle period remaining in China.

As the controversy grew, the China Arts and Crafts Museum confirmed that characters were indeed visible and informed the Qinghai Provincial Museum, which owns the statue, about the matter.

TCL also launched its own investigation, stating that it had no commercial cooperation, such as advertising or sponsorship, with the exhibition or the museum, and that it would look into how its brand name became visible on the cultural artifact.

It Turned Out to Be a 1999 Newspaper

Subsequently, after sending experts to the site, the Qinghai Provincial Museum determined that the characters in question were neither engraved nor attached to the statue itself.

According to the museum, the statue had been kept at Gudam Temple until the 1990s, after which it was transferred to the Qinghai Provincial Museum. At that time, the base of the statue had been damaged, raising concerns that the enshrined items inside, such as incense, might fall out.

To address this, monks at Gudam Temple used newspaper to seal the bottom of the statue, and the characters discovered by the visitor were confirmed to be text printed on a newspaper published in 1999. The museum explained that this had nothing to do with any packaging or advertising materials used for the recent exhibition.

The museum clarified that no advertising slogans had been incorporated into the cultural relic itself but apologized for the confusion caused to visitors.

After inspecting the condition of the statue, experts temporarily covered the bottom with preservation paper to prevent the newspaper text from being exposed. The museum plans to proceed with further measures that will not damage either the cultural relic itself or the historical traces remaining inside.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.