A huge replica of a Bharhut gateway stands at the entrance of the exhibit at the National Museum of History. This gigantic relief carving tells the story of the Sakyamuni Buddha's life. The actual gateway is the oldest religious structure in India. Buddhists believe that passing through this "door of worries" symbolizes transcending carnal desires. The stupa represents a "womb of Buddhist law" where one can personally feel the Buddha's spirit, and shake off the concerns of the human body. The design of the exhibition's "door of worries" is done in the hope that before the public enters the door, they will first lay down their recent worries and quietly enjoy an artistic baptism into Indian culture.

With regard to this exhibition, Huang Kuang-nan, the director of the National Museum of History, explains that even though Taiwanese know little about Indian culture, it contains the prototypes of many Chinese cultural archetypes, and is helpful for understanding the origins of our own culture. Huang gives this example: "The original forms of the monkey Sun Wukong from Journey to the West and the deity-monk Jigong (Crazy Ji) come from India. When you read the famous Indian epic poem Ramayana, it describes how the god Vishnu transformed himself into the hero Rama and came down to the world of men to expel the demons and save the day. In that story the monkey king Hanuman was Rama's best sidekick, and Hanuman is the basis for Sun Wukong. The sloppy deity Jigong, meanwhile, is based on images of ascetics in the Indian religion of Jainism.

When you enter the exhibition hall through the "Door of Worries," the first thing you lay eyes on is a gigantic photograph of the River Ganges in Varanasi. It makes people feel as if they've flown a thousand kilometers to India, where the sound of the Ganges' waters melds with the sound of sitars. The exhibition is divided into five main topics: "Indus Civilization," "Buddhist Art," "Hindu Culture," "India's Relationship to Other Cultures," and "Indian Customs and Ways of Life."

In the first exhibition area, the Mother Goddess, which symbolizes fecundity, tells of the rise of Indus Civilization. According to recent archeological discoveries, some three to four thousand years ago India was already supporting advanced cities built out of brick, and bronze was already prevalent as well. The second exhibition area, "Buddhist Art," contains stone carvings depicting the life of Prince Sakyamuni. In particular, the Bharhut carvings from the second century BC take the wheel of Dharma and the peepul tree to represent the Buddha and explain the religious art of Buddhism in the era before there were Buddha statues. These are among the Indian Museum's greatest treasures, important works which those interested in Buddhist art should not miss.

The most outstanding form of traditional Indian sculpture is Gandhara, a form that was strongly influenced by Greek statue carving. The style depicts figures with curly hair, wearing tightly fitting beautiful clothes. After Buddhism entered China, it became the source for a painting style used in Chinese ink-wash paintings.

The third section of the exhibition is "Hindu Culture," which has had the greatest impact on Indian culture. This section also has the largest number of exhibited items. These focus on the three major Hindu gods: Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. At the center of the exhibition space is the work "Nataraja, the King of Dances," which is one name for Shiva, the god of destruction. It is said that when Shiva starts to dance, the universe starts to shake and suffer destruction, and is reborn in the midst of destruction. This story contains the essence of Hinduism. This bronze statue from the 15th century portrays Shiva in a beautiful pose, with his raised foot representing the religious spirit's ability to elevate. The moving rhythm and peaceful expression on Shiva's face convey a sort of eternal harmony. This is one of the exhibition's most important works.

The three major gods have thousands of incarnations. For instance Vishnu can appear as fish, wild boar, dwarf, holy turtle and so forth, and Vishnu's wife-Durga the "inaccessible"-alike has multiple forms and godly powers: Devi, Parvati, Uma, and Kali are among her beautiful incarnations. It's truly hard to take them all in.

Apart from these religious statues with enticing poses, the fourth exhibition space presents sculptures and painting albums to show India's extensive impact on foreign cultures. For instance, the fine line drawings and calligraphy of India during the Mughal Empire period concretely show how Indian, Persian and European culture were mutually influencing each other.

The final section of the exhibition features displays of Indian instruments such as sitars, veenas and tambourines. These instruments are not only the main characters in Indian music and dance but are also a principal medium for honoring the gods and entertaining people. And the erotic paintings that cause people to blush at the museum are not only expressions of human carnal desires. They are even better illustrations of the many-layered Indian religious philosophy, which holds that gods rose out of the common human world.

With the outbreak of SARS in Taiwan, the number of people attending exhibitions has hit a new low. The National Palace Museum, a must stop for foreign tourists, has seen its daily total of visitors fall from over 10,000 to just a few thousand. Likewise, attendance at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum is only running about 30% of what is normal.

Under the circumstances, the National Museum of History, which is located in the Chungcheng District, is carrying out special disinfections of the museum during the run of the "Land of Spirituality" from April 23 to July 20, hoping to bring blessings from the gods so that the people can escape this plague.