‍Northern China's Shanxi Province is known for its large number of ancient painted sculptures – over 13,000 of them in various temples built in different dynasties. Many of these ancient sculptures were classics of their time with a history of more than 1,500 years.

Around 160 national and local officials, art experts, scholars and students arrived in the city of Changzhi recently to attend a forum on the protection and revival of China's traditional sculptures.

The forum aims to intensify protection on China's cultural relics of painted sculptures and brainstorm creative ways to revive the industry in modern China, hoping to enhance cultural confidence in this field.

Art experts in the forum pointed out that the sculpture teaching in many schools in China has long been dominated by European style. Art students have rare opportunities to learn Chinese traditional techniques. And now Changzhi decided to cooperate with some major art schools and institutions in China to build a practical training base for art students in the city, in a bid to provide a platform for research and talents cultivation to protect and revive the traditionally painted sculptures.

"We need to protect not only these cultural relics but also the techniques and pass them to the next generation," said Shi Yanchun, deputy director of the Religion Sculpture Art Research Center in China Academy of Sculpture.

The opening of the forum saw the unveiling ceremonies of the sculpture training base as well as the Research Center for Chinese Traditional Sculpture Art.

Many professors and students were invited to the event. They are from many prestigious art schools in China, including the Central Academy of Fine Arts, China Academy of Art and the Art School of Tsinghua University. It’s the first time for many of them to take such a close look at the ancient painted sculptures.

"I've seen some ancient painted sculptures before and I think these ones that I see here in Changzhi are the most well-preserved. That means Changzhi has made great efforts to protect them. And the painted sculptures in Changzhi are not only of high quantity, but also of high quality," Professor Yuan Yunsheng from Central Academy of Fine Arts said.

Changzhi is located in the south of Shanxi, with a history of over 2,500 years. The city is home to more than 2,000 painted sculptures in different temples built from the Northern Wei (386-534) to the Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, which spans around 1,500 years. And it's the only place in China that boasts religious painted sculptures made during the dynasties of Tang, Song, Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing.

The vice mayor of the city said the painted sculptures in Changzhi and those in the city of Dunhuang in northwest China's Gansu Province together make up the complete system of China's painted temple sculpture art.