The Panthéon Bouddhique, also known as the Galeries du Panthéon Bouddhique or the Galerie du Pantheon Bouddhique du Japon et de la Chine, is a museum of Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese and Chinese

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 art works. It is a wing of the Guimet Museum

Guimet Museum

The Guimet Museum is a museum of Asian art located at 6, place d'Iéna in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France...

 located within the Hôtel Heidelbach at 19, Avenue d'Iéna

Avenue d'Iéna

The Avenue d'Iéna is a tree-lined avenue in the XVIe arrondissement of Paris, running from the Trocadéro to the Place de l'Étoile. Passing through Place d'Iéna, Place de l'Amiral de Grasse, Place de l'Uruguay and Place Richard de Coudenhove Kalergi on the way...

 in the XVIe arrondissement

XVIe arrondissement

The 16th arrondissement of Paris is one of the 20 arrondissements of Paris, the capital city of France...

 of Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

The museum is located within a former private mansion of banker Alfred Heidelbach (1852-1922), built in 1913 by René Sergent

René Sergent

René Sergent was a noted French architect.-Biography:Sergent was trained at the École spéciale d'architecture, where he concentrated on French architecture of the 18th century but also studied British contemporaries such as Robert Adam, then entered the architectural office of Ernest Sanson where...

. The hotel was purchased by the Ministry of Education in 1955 and renovated in 1991. In 2001 a tea pavilion was built in the garden, in which tea ceremonies are now performed.

Its collection includes some 250 Japanese works of art, plus Chinese artefacts, gathered in 1876 by Émile Étienne Guimet

Émile Étienne Guimet

Émile Étienne Guimet was a French industrialist, traveler and connoisseur.He was born at Lyon and succeeded his father in the direction of his "artificial ultramarine" factory...

. Icons are presented as they appear in Buddhist temples, within a hierarchy of six categories ranging from saint

Saint

A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...

s, Shinto

Shinto

or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...

 and Hindu

Hindu

Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...

 divinities, kings of science, bodhisattva

Bodhisattva

In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is either an enlightened existence or an enlightenment-being or, given the variant Sanskrit spelling satva rather than sattva, "heroic-minded one for enlightenment ." The Pali term has sometimes been translated as "wisdom-being," although in modern publications, and...

s, and buddhas

Buddhahood

In Buddhism, buddhahood is the state of perfect enlightenment attained by a buddha .In Buddhism, the term buddha usually refers to one who has become enlightened...

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