World Culture Galleries

Bishop White Gallery of Chinese Temple Art

Level 1, Philosophers’ Walk Wing
This inspiring new space features one of the most important collections of Chinese temple art in the world—three of the world’s best-preserved Yuan Dynasty (AD 1271 – 1368) temple wall paintings from Shanxi Province and a collection of large, richly-painted wooden sculptures, depicting bodhisattvas (Buddhas-to-be and helpers of humankind) from the 12th to 15th centuries.

The Paradise of Maitreya, the largest (w. 11.6 m, h. 5.8 m) of the three murals depicts the Buddha of the Future (Maitreya, successor to the Buddha of the current age, Shakyamuni), who died in the 5th century BC) enthroned in his Paradise. The mural was acquired by the ROM in 1928, and installed on the gallery’s north wall in 1933. It was cleaned and conserved from June to December 2005.

The two other murals, both entitled Homage to the Highest Power, located on the east and west walls, are slightly smaller. Originating from northern China, the murals depict Daoist deities proceeding through an ethereal world. Created in about AD 1325, they were acquired by the ROM in 1937. These two paintings were dismantled, cleaned and conserved in 1981 during the ROM’s previous renovation and expansion.

The gallery is named in honour of William Charles White (1873-1960), the first Anglican Bishop from Canada to be stationed in Henan, China between 1909 and 1934, and subsequently the first curator of the ROM’s Chinese collections.

The Bishop White Gallery of Chinese Temple Art is one of four galleries featuring Chinese art and archaeology. The expanded and redesigned Chinese galleries also include the Matthews Family Court of Chinese Sculpture, the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Gallery of China, and the ROM Gallery of Chinese Architecture.