Detail: In autumn of 2009 the museum celebrates the centenary of its founding with this a conference and a series of exhibitions. This show presents ink-rubbings of monumental texts which devout Buddhists chiselled into rocks in the mountains of Shandong province during the Northern Qi dynasty. The aim of this grand project was to transform the world into a Buddhist topography. Alongside these rubbings, the exhibition also presents Buddhist stone sculpture from the same period. Most of the exhibits from the collection of the Cologne museum were acquired by its founder, Adolf Fischer. Together with loans from the Museum Rietberg Zurich and loans from private collections they provide an insight into one of the great periods of Buddhist stone sculpture in China. Research of these rock inscriptions started only a few years ago. They cast a new light on the sculpture of that period. The exhibition was organised in collaboration with the Institute of East Asian Art History, Heidelberg University, the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and in cooperation with the Department of Historical Monuments of the City of Zoucheng in Shandong province.