Abstract: Ancient buildings are precious historical and cultural heritage, but lightning disaster is one of the main factors threatening the safety of the ancient buildings.In this paper, the overall research progress of lightning disasters and lightning protection technologies in ancient buildings were introduced.The damage characteristics and mechanism of the lightning on ancient building components, as well as the causes, methods, and influencing factors of lightning fire disasters in ancient buildings were reviewed, respectively.The analysis method of numerical simulation is recommended to study the basic problems of lightning damage based on the lightning simulation experiment.Then the two methods of the insulation protection of ancient buildings and the use of lightning protection devices to flash and discharge were analyzed.The latter is considered to be more scientific and reasonable.The research progress of the lightning protection technologies of ancient buildings were summarized, and the new technical methods and devices of lightning protection on ancient buildings were given.The current situation of lightning protection technical standards of ancient buildings was analyzed.Finally, the main topics for further research on the lightning protection of ancient buildings were proposed, including research on the damage mechanism of lightning, practical new technologies for lightning protection, lightning selectivity of ancient buildings, and refined monitoring and early warning of lightning, especially strengthen the study of new technology on the lightning protection of ancient buildings.It is very critical and necessary to do a good job of lightning protection while minimizing the influence of the original appearance of ancient buildings as much as possible.