The museum is situated to the northwest in the Martyrs' Park, covering an area of 50,000 square meters. This is one of the important museums at home and abroad. Pottery and porcelain articles, bronze articles and works of calligraphy and paintings from through ought the ages are kept in the museum. Particularly, the relics unearthed from a Western Han tomb in Mawangdui are on display here. The form of layout in the museum is unique and the temperatures and humidity in the exhibition halls are kept constant. The female remains unearthed from the Western Han tomb is one of the rarest exhibits in the world. And the relics of that time are also wonderful.
T-shaped Silk Painting Unearthed at Mawangdui
The T-shaped silk painting was called as "not apparel" in the document accompanying the buried mistress. It probably meant it looked partly like a dress and partly not. The whole painting is 205 cm, and its upper part 92 cm wide while the lower part 47.7cm wide. The painting can be divided into three sections from top to bottom, each depicting the scenes of the Heaven, the world, and the underground. As a whole, the theme of the painting is to lead the soul of the dead to ascend the Heaven. Though full of superstition, this is a work of high artistic level.
Hunan Provincial Museum White Buddhist Clothing of Gauze
The white Buddhist clothing of gauze unearthed in 1972 from the No.1 Han tomb in Mawangdui in Changsha is 160 cm long with a pair of 195-cm-long sleeves. It is designed with an interlaced collar, and a front piece that opens on the right side, a straightforward down front and back, and a pair of long sleeves. It was woven with white gauze. Its collar and sleeves were all trimmed with pink brocade. The clothing weighs only 49 grams and it is as thin as a cicada's wings. It is the earliest and lightest Buddhist clothing ever found in China. It is now kept in the provincial museum.