page_title: Stele Forest
section_title: Steles
hierarchical_section_title: Stele Forest / Steles
caption_attribution_description: English: Stele Forest Museum, Xi'an. 2009
context_page_description: The Stele Forest or Beilin Museum is a museum for steles and stone sculptures in Beilin District in Xi'an, China. The museum, which is housed in a former Confucian Temple, has housed a growing collection of Steles since 1087. By 1944 it was the principal museum for Shaanxi province. Due to the large number of steles, it was officially renamed the Forest of Stone Steles in 1992. Altogether, there are 3,000 steles in the museum, which is divided into seven exhibitions halls, which mainly display works of calligraphy, painting and historical records.
context_section_description: It houses nearly 3,000 steles and it is the biggest collection of steles in China. Most of its exhibits are steles of the Tang dynasty. Ink rubbings of the steles are available for sale.
  Among the unusual examples is an 18th-century stele depicting a Yangtze River flood control project. Another appears to be a bamboo forest, but on examination the leaves and branches form a poem.
  The famous Nestorian Stele was moved to the Stele Forest in 1907, after the local authorities learned that the Danish adventurer Frits Holm was in town, trying to "obtain" the ancient monument and take it out of the country.
  Cao Quan Stele (曹全碑, Han Dynasty)
  Sima Fang Stele (司马芳碑, Jin Dynasty)
  Kaicheng Shi Jing Stele (开成石经碑, Tang Dynasty)
  Nestorian Stele (大秦景教流行中国碑, Tang Dynasty)
caption: Stele Forest Museum
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