Author: Zhihang Du, ARCH volunteer 

On May 22, I visited the exhibition National Treasures from Afghanistan at Peking University in Beijing. At the entrance, before the visitor can see the title and the description of the exhibition, a beautiful sentence was written in gold on a dark wall: “A nation stays alive when its culture stays alive.”

The Afghan national treasures survived the Soviet invasion by being hidden in the secret vaults of Afghanistan’s Central Bank, and in 2003, they were able to return to the spotlight of the public. Since 2006, they have been visiting the museums around the world. After being exhibited in France, America, England, Australia, Japan and Korea, the treasures arrived in China two years ago and have resided here since.

The exhibition ran from April to late June, and archaeological discoveries from Tepe Fullol, Ai Khanoum, Tillya Tepe and and Begram were displayed with detailed explanation. The exhibits stunned me with their fineness and luxuriousness. Gold decorated by calaite and agate; a dancing beauty carved out of ivory; a bubbling glass fish shinning in blue; a scale weight that depicts a Greek woman wearing a Medusa armor. One of the treasures that amazed me most is a small golden antelope. The antelope is tiny, with a pair of powerful horns sprouting from a sharp and masculine face, but what made me gasp was its “fur”, the small dashes that were evenly carved around the body. The direction of the dashes naturally follows the shape of the body, as if the artist had already studied the position of the fur on a real antelope. All of a sudden, I see an Afghan antelope standing on a snow-covered cliff looking down on me through the frozen mountain air.

Three thousand years ago, King Mu of Zhou, the king of ancient China traveled to the “West”, which was approximately somewhere near Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. “How can the utensils, clothes, ornaments, and jewelries here be so fine and delicate!” (器服物佩好无疆) he exclaimed. Three thousand years from then, when standing in front of the relics of civilization, I still can’t help opening my mouth with the same exclaim!

I’m glad to find Mes Aynak mentioned at the end of the exhibition – even though archaeological findings from the site weren’t showcased. But showing precious artifacts from Afghanistan indirectly raises awareness about the importance of Mes Aynak, too, because an exhibition like the one I visited opens up new worlds to the visitors and inspires them to explore more.

“A nation stays alive when its culture stays alive”, the sentence is engraved at the entrance of the Afghan National Museum in Kabul. I wish I could visit Afghanistan in person one day and hopefully by that time, the national treasure of the country will already have returned home, and we will meet again.