Central Asia Room displays a range of artifacts and relics excavated from Central Asia, a region situated in the middle of the Asian Continent. As this region that is mostly deserts and plateaus is very dry, organic matter such as papers, woods, and clothes are relatively

well-preserved even after 1000 years or longer. Sometimes they include precious old documents and art works. European archeological expeditions carried out investigations and collected relicts during the 19th century and the early 19th century. In this period, a Japanese

monk group called Otani (大谷) expedition explored the region three times to collect a lot of relics and some of the collections are now displayed in the National Museum of Korea. Most items of the Central Asia Room had been excavated from the place, currently called the

Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. The displayed artifacts are largely classified into religious arts, ancient tombs, dwelling places and include murals of stone cave temple, Buddhist paintings, Buddhist statues, earthwares, human figures made up of earth, practical

daily appliances, etc. The exhibition of the Central Asia Room will offer an opportunity to understand the features of cosmopolitan and complex Central Asian culture and arts, and to newly highlight Korean culture and art from the perspective of East-West exchange via the

Silk Road.