佛教考古是中国考古学的分支“宗教考古”的重要组成部分。佛教考古学的体系化建设有三个主要方面,其一是建设系统、全面的佛教考古体系和中国佛教考古的理论与方法;其二是建设中国佛教考古的区系类型;其三是建设中国佛教考古多学科交叉融合的学科分支。中国考古学经历了百年发展,在增强文化自信、建设新时代中华民族现代文明的进程中,适时地回顾和展望中国佛教考古所取得的成绩及其未来发展的方向,对建设具有中国特色、中国风格、中国气派的考古学具有十分重要的意义。

As essential part of the religious branch of archaeology in China, Buddhist archaeology confronts three challenges in the course of systematization. The first one is to gradually build up Buddhist archaeology as a discipline with complete disciplinary, academic and discourse systems both to international standard and with Chinese characteristics. The second is to establish the typological system of cultural areas for Buddhist archaeology. The third is to nurture subdisciplines of Buddhist archaeology as an interdisciplinary science. After the century-long development, the Chinese archaeology from time to time requires an retrospect of what Buddhist archaeology has already achieved until now and an outlook of where it will go in the future. In the course of bolstering cultural self-confidence and developing a modern Chinese civilization for a new era, this must be of great significance for developing archaeology with Chinese features, style and ethos.