200 square meters of frescoes restored in Unesco-listed Mogao Grottoes

LANZHOU, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- About two hundred square meters of ancient frescoes found in the Mogao Grottoes in northwestern China's Gansu Province have been restored to their former glory in the past year, authorities confirmed on Monday. Experts explored new restoration techniques to save the degrading artworks both in caves and in the open air in the Dunhuang area of Gansu Province. They have made major achievements in rejuvenating the frescoes and protecting cultural heritage at the UNESCO World Heritage site, said Su Bomin, director of the protection institute of the Dunhuang Academy. In 2011, the restorers completed work on 125.91 square meters in 10 caves and another 109.1 square meters on the cliff, said Su. The 1,600-year-old Mogao Grottoes, or the Ancient Caves of 1,000 Buddhas, became China's first UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987. They feature more than 2,000 colored sculptures and 45,000 square meters of frescoes in over 730 caves spread across about 1,600 meters along a hill. Although most of the caves have been and remain closed to the public, many of the frescoes were showing various levels of degradation including flaking, fading and detaching from the walls. The Dunhuang Academy has brought together a group of professionals specializing in fresco restoration and explored a new technique to protect the artworks, said Su. Source: Xinhua

Blood writing in Buddhist scrolls

From The British Library "Untold Lives, Sharing Stories from the Past". 2 January, 2012

 Among the thousands of manuscripts uncovered from a walled up library cave at Dunhuang, northwest China, at the turn of the twentieth century, were a group of Buddhist scrolls copied by a man in his eighties. The texts are all linked by a similar colophons, identifying the old man as the scribe and documenting his advancing years. One of the scrolls, S.5451, today held at the British Library, shows the man at 83 years old demonstrating his piety by copying out a Buddhist scripture in his own hand, using ink mixed with his own blood. The colophon reads: Copied by an old man of 83, who pricked his own hand to draw blood [to write with], on the 2nd of the 2nd month of 'bingyin', the 3rd year of Tianyou (27 February, 906).

These documents illustrate a widespread belief in Buddhist cultures that by copying, or commissioning a copy of a Buddhist sutra, individuals would demonstrate their piety and devotion to the Dharma, or Buddhist doctrine, and in so doing accrue merit for their passage to the next life. Not only was it believed that by replicating the words or image of the Buddha one could demonstrate and build on one’s own piety but also that doing so might improve the karmic lot of one’s relatives or loved ones, alive or already passed. To this end, wealthy donors and patrons commissioned artists and craftsmen to decorate caves, create elaborate murals, and copy out Buddhist scriptures. More modest individuals achieved similar ends by spreading the word via the oral traditions of storytelling and music, or by copying out scriptures in their own hand. The most pious sometimes gave their own blood to do so, as a particularly demonstrative and efficacious means of accruing religious merit. The practice of blood-writing seen in this scroll seems to have been uncommon in other Buddhist cultures; while in China it actually predated the appearance of Buddhism. Acts of self-mortification also extended to more extreme practices of self-mutilation such as the amputation of fingers, and even self-immolation (burning oneself alive) as a means of demonstrating devotion and piety. The example shown in our scroll S.5451 is not common among the Dunhuang manuscripts held at the British Library but it demonstrates an important phenomenon among pious Chinese Buddhists, which continued through to the seventeenth century.

Abby Baker Education & Training Coordinator, The International Dunhuang Project

 Further reading

 Jimmy Y.Yu, Bodies of Sanctity: Ascetic Practices in Late Imperial China

 James Baskind, Mortification Practices in the Obaku School, Essays on East Asian Religion and Culture, Edited by Christian Wittern and Shi Lishan, Kyoto 2007

Dunhuang Workshop

Dunhuang Workshop from Axel Hoffmann on Vimeo.

Digging through the Directors' Correspondence: Letters from Aurel Stein

Digging through the Directors' Correspondence: Letters from the Archaeologist M. Aurel Stein
By: Virginia Mills - 02/11/2011

From the website of Kew Royal Botanical Gardens

Read about our trip to the British Library's International Dunhuang Project, the amazing scrolls discovered by archaeologist M. Aurel Stein, and some of Stein's letters that we recently unearthed from the Kew's Directors' Correspondence archive collection.

Recently, the Directors' Correspondence team decamped to the British Library to see some of the material they hold on the Danish botanist Nathaniel Wallich, which has been digitised as part of a collaborative project with RBG Kew and other institutions. Watch out for more news and blogs on the Wallich and Indian Natural History project coming soon.

We were also lucky enough to visit the International Dunhuang Project: a collaborative project digitising manuscripts and artefacts from Dunhuang and other sites on the Silk Road. This well established project has partners in China, Japan, Germany, Korea, Russia, France, USA, Sweden, India, Ireland and the UK allowing related but widely dispersed historical documents, photographs and relics, and treasures of all kinds to be brought together into a single digital collection of over 322,000 images and still growing!

Bundles of manuscript rolls from the walled-up temple library, Dunhuang. Digitised by the International Dunhuang Project. © The British Library.

Sir Marc Aurel Stein

At the beginning of the 20th century archaeologists began to excavate numerous sites along the Silk Road that had long been buried under the desert sands. One such archaeologist was Aurel Stein (1862 to 1943). His most famous acquisitions came from the 'Library Cave' at Dunhuang, and include the Diamond Sutra, the world's oldest dated printed book (A.D. 868). The British Library's Stein collection contains over 45,000 manuscripts as well as paintings and photographs taken by Stein on his travels all over central Asia.

Photograph taken by Stein in March 1908 of him and his researchers (and his dog Dash II) at Ulugh-mazar, China. Digitised by the International Dunhuang Project. © The British Library.

Letters from Stein in the Directors' Correspondence

Inspired by our trip to the British Library we looked up Stein within our very own DC collection and found a rather more modest two documents, which we thought were interesting none the less.
The letters from Stein in the DC collection date from October 1903 and concern ancient cereals which Stein found preserved within the ruins of ancient dwellings at Khotan, buried under drift sand in the Taklamakan desert. He explains that documents from the same site have allowed him to determine that the ancient city was ruined at about A.D. 269. Stein is interested to know whether the historic cereals are materially different from those grown in the area in the 20th century. Stein's labourers, from the nearest Oasis towns, had no difficulty in recognizing all but one of the cereals. This one was however familiar to one of Stein's party from the Kangra district in India, who identified it as a root used as a condiment. The fact that there was an Indian man within Stein's own party who recognised this condiment, apparently from an Indian plant, which Stein was digging up in China over 1500 years later, is just one small but striking illustration of how far reaching was the trade that once brought exotic commodities along the Silk Road.

Extract taken from a descriptive list enumerating the ancient cereal grains found by Stein and sent to Kew for identification. Annotations on the right hand side show that the experts at Kew identified one of the cereals as Panicum miliaceum, a form of millet still grown for livestock feed today. © RBG, Kew

Stein also enquired of Kew whether there was any truth to the stories that wheat had been grown from ancient seeds found in Egyptian tombs. If you are interested in finding out whether these enduring stories are fact or legend you can read the answer given by Kew's experts at the Millennium Seed Bank: how long can seeds live?

- Virginia -

What to See in a Buddhist Cave?

The UBC Kameyama Lecture Series, with the UBC Buddhism and Contemporary Society Program, presents a lecture by Dr. Eugene Wang, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Professor of Asian Art at Harvard University:

“What to See in a Buddhist Cave?”

Date: Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Time: 4:30 – 7:00 PM
Place: C.K. Choi Building, Room 120, 1855 West Mall, UBC Point Grey Campus
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

The cave murals in Dunhuang show episodes from the Buddha’s past and present lives: his bodily sacrifices, demon-subjugation, and so on. The pictorial program maps out zones of past and future, and features the images of a sinner emerging from hell and a prognosticator of rebirth who reads human skulls. What is the agenda? Why does the cave need these images? Most confounding of all is the question: why even bother to have a pictorial program there? The lecture will explore the relationship between the physical media (painting and sculpture) and their implied mental dimensions, such as meditation, repentance, and visualization, integral to Buddhist culture.

Professor Eugene Yuejin Wang is the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Professor of Asian Art at Harvard University. He was born in Jiangsu, China, completing his graduate studies at Fudan University in Shanghai (M.A. 1986) and at Harvard (Ph.D. 1997). He is also the Art History associate editor of the Encyclopedia of Buddhism (2004). His book on Shaping the Lotus Sutra: Buddhist Visual Culture in Medieval China (2005) has received the Academic Achievement Award in Japan. His articles have been published in The Art Bulletin, Art History, Critical Inquiry, Res: Journal of Anthropology and Aesthetics, Public Culture, and elsewhere, and cover a wide range of subjects including ancient bronze mirrors, Buddhist murals and sculptures, reliquaries, scroll paintings, calligraphy, woodblock prints, architecture, photography, and films.

UBC’s Buddhism and Contemporary Society Program events are made possible by the generous support of The Tung Lin Kok Yuen Canada Foundation, in collaboration with the Institute of Asian Research and Department of Asian Studies.

Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes - Full Picture of Beauty

Japanese with Chinese subtitles

Fan Jinshi, Lady of the Grottoes

ShanghaiDaily.com, 11 november 2011
A young woman with short-cropped hair looks up at the sky and places her left fist over her heart. A travel bag on her shoulder and cap trailing in her hand, she's ready for whatever comes.
She is the statue titled "Youth" standing at the entrance to the Dunhuang Academy, the institution in charge of protecting and researching the famous Mogao grottoes in the deserts of Gansu Province in northwest China.
The model for the sculpture - in her younger days - is the academy's president, 73-year-old Fan Jinshi, who arrived at Dunhuang at the age of 25. That was in 1963. She was ready for the daunting task of protecting the ancient, fading, crumbling, even looted grottoes, and ready for the harsh living conditions in the desert.
But the young archeologist didn't expect to stay there for 48 years.
Fan grew up in Shanghai and had no idea she would one day wish to spend the rest of her life in Dunhuang, like many of the academy's archeologists and artists from an older generation.
Dunhuang was an important stop on the Silk Road that connected ancient China with Central Asia and Europe and it gradually became a political, economic and cultural center of the region in the ancient times.
According to records, a Buddhist monk built the first cave in the fourth century AD after receiving a vision of a thousand Buddhas bathed in golden light. At the time, people called them the Mogao caves in Chinese, meaning the high spot in the desert. Over the years hundreds of caves, many filled with frescoes and statuary, were carved by monks and artisans in the sandstone mountains, reflecting different cultures through the Yuan Dynasty (AD 1271-1368).
To date, 812 caves have been discovered; they contain more than 2,000 colored works of sculpture and 45,000 square meters of preserved frescoes on walls and ceilings. Some of the most famous are the spectacular apsaras and celestial spirits.
For Fan, it is more than just labor of love.
"She (the caves) is like an old person, who needs to be taken care of constantly. Protecting the caves is an endless project, since you can never say how healthy an old person is. She can get out of the hospital today and go right back in tomorrow," Fan told Shanghai Daily.
"But it's very much worth the expense and difficulty because it is such an amazing collection of arts, where diverse cultures have come together and merged. It is priceless both in terms of its archive and artistic value."
Fan visited Shanghai for the opening of "The Highlights from Mogao Grottoes" exhibition, which features exact replicas of caves, frescoes and statuary; visitors can enter the caves, study the art and feel the ambience.
She spoke with Shanghai Daily and a few reporters about the past, present and future of Dunhuang and herself.

Past - Passion and legends
Gray-haired, diminutive Fan was energized, expansive and eloquent when talking about protection, archeology, artistry, religion and culture.
At times she would abruptly stand up and gesture to illustrate the size of the caves, or pace off distances and explain certain perspectives.
But she ran short on words when describing her own remarkable life.
"Hangzhou native (her father's family), childhood in Shanghai, college years in Beijing, stayed in Dunhuang thereafter. That is it – simple," Fan summed it up.
The Dunhuang expert was born in Beijing and spent the first 18 years of her life in Shanghai. She studied archeology at Beijing University and after graduation was assigned to the academy.
Fan's parents strongly opposed the assignment in the remote, desolate area without running water or electricity. Newspapers were often 10 days late. Dunhuang was virtually cut off from the outside world.
Her parents wrote to the university, pleading for reconsideration, citing Fan's health, which they described as frail.
But young and idealistic Fan tore up the letter. "I would go where the nation called me," she recalled in the interview.
"Some people call me an idealist. When I arrived at the academy, I was a naive 25-year-old woman, and now I have become a naive old lady, which is not bad," she said.
Fan was straightforward in expressing her dissatisfaction with Shanghai before local journalists. "No offense. But I'm aware that Shanghai people usually prefer Western culture than our own ancient culture and arts," Fan told surprised reporters, some of whom considered her impolite.
"I probably have stayed in the desert so long that I have become accustomed to the remote location. I hope to stay near the caves as long as I'm healthy and spend the rest of my life there if possible."
When she arrived, she didn't expect to stay so long - the university had promised to send a replacement in three years. But by that time, Fan had became engrossed with her work and decided to stay on. She was fascinated by the caves and touched by the total devotion and persistence of scholars and artists of the older generation. Many were producing superb reproductions of frescoes and sculptures so that more people could appreciate the treasures and scholars could study them.
Many excellent artists and archeologists went to the desert when they were very young, determined to do their part in protecting heritage.
"These masters could make millions if they went somewhere else, but they chose to stay on in a remote place, working anonymously with the academy. Thanks to archeologists and artists, more caves were protected from natural erosion and more people were able to see great reproductions that are nearly identical to the originals," Fan said.
Many of these artists from all over China continue to work, even after official retirement, and still live near the caves until they can no longer work. The oldest is 89 years old.
"I was moved by their passion, which was passed on to my generation at the academy," she said.
Some people called Fan a cold-blooded woman for choosing to stay with the caves, even at the price of separation from her family.
When she was assigned to Dunhuang in 1963, she said good-bye to her lover. The couple married a few years later but lived in different provinces, only seeing each other occasionally. Fan later sent her two children to live with her parents and in-laws because she had no time to care for them. There was no child care at the academy.
The family of four was separated for 23 years.
"I don't like talking about sacrificing something for something. It is simply a matter of choice, and I made my choice. Many employees with the academy today still face similar difficult choices, and many choose to stay," Fan said.

Present - Problems and solutions
As president of the academy, Fan promotes the caves wherever she goes and never tires of describing the spectacular culture. She recognizes the paradox between the need to protect and the need to promote.
"The grottoes are the cultural heritage that belongs to all people and we would love to share it with all visitors. But in terms of the protection, the increasing number of visitors poses a huge challenge," explained Fan.
The sculptures in the caves are made of earth, clay, grass and wood, and the colors of the frescoes and sculptures come mainly from minerals. Colors fade over the years and works crumble. The dry desert climate has helped preserve the artwork, but bad weather, such as sandstorms, damages the art.
Some experts predict that without intervention all frescoes and sculptures would disappear within 1,000 years. The tourism boom has also accelerated the deterioration of the sculptures and frescoes because people increase the warmth and humidity in the caves, not to mention the tramping of feet and vibrations. Touching and flash photography are banned, but occasionally, some visitors still do.
Since the caves were opened to tourists in 1979, the number of visitors has steadily increased; in recent years more than half a million people visit annually.
Studies show that the temperature inside a cave increases by five degrees Celsius if 15 people remain for 10 minutes.
"We are using more advanced technologies to protect the caves and we have achieved a lot. But the natural process is irreversible and we continue to face new challenges from the environment and crowds," she said.
Fan said the erosion is very apparent when one compares a photo of a fresco taken in 1908 with a photo of the same painting today. She cited the example of the carved inscription in cave 156, which was clearly recognizable in the 1960s, but has disappeared today. A lion sculpture that was intact in cave 61 in the 1960s today is only a lion's tail.
Fan's "solution" - still a work in progress - was to create a digital database and a multimedia presentation center. She hopes to complete a three-dimensional database of all caves for future studies and archives - and to allow visitors to take a virtual trip, rather than walking into the caves. To date, 43 of more than 800 caves have been completely photographed and digitalized. They are the most spectacular.
The multimedia presentation center provides 3D tour of selected caves "so we can share the amazing arts with visitors while limiting the damage."
In the early 1990s Fan initiated research into digitalizing the caves and worked with both domestic and international experts on dealing with the special, dark cave environment. The cave interiors are very complicated in shape, many containing niches, and there is little or no light - originally there were candles or oil lamps. It's virtually impossible for standard still and video cameras to capture interiors.
Experts took thousands of photos of each cave and put them together to recreate the images, then pasted them onto walls and ceilings of recreated grottoes. For example, a cave as large as 300 square meters would require more than 45,000 photos.
Fan is a perfectionist, insisting that the images are precisely reproduced.

Future – Talent
Fan does not hesitate when asked what the academy needs most.
"Talent," she said. "We are in urgent demand of talented people from all fields."
When Fan arrived, she was one of 48 employees. Today, the academy has more than 500 employees. In the past, most staff members were graduates of the prestigious Beijing University or Qinghua University. Some came from overseas universities and are well-established artists.
Fan, the academy's third president, cited the example of the academy's founder and first president Chang Shuhong (1904-94), a well-established oil painter who studied in France. In 1942 he was invited by the Kuomintang to establish the academy. Traveling thousands of miles, he arrived at the caves in March 1943 but authorities stopped funding less than one year later. Many people, including his first wife, left, but he stayed on and managed basic operation of the academy by selling his paintings.
In 1948, the KMT ordered Chang to retreat with them to Taiwan and take a selection of art. He refused and stayed on.
"It was the rare talents like Mr Chang who established the base for the academy when I was a girl. But today, it's difficult to attract graduates from prestigious schools - their salary demands are too high and we are too remote," Fan said.
She was also disappointed that some young artists went to the caves and painted for a few months and then left, rushing to sell their work.
"How can you encapsulate the essence of Dunhuang art if you lack the patience to wait for more than a few months?" she asked.
"Excellent graduates don't come. It's okay. We will train our own talents."
Fan spends around one-fifth of the government's annual funding on training. Most tour guides have only high school diplomas but they have been trained by experts from many fields and are familiar with archeology, history, art and culture and stories of the caves.
They were sent overseas to study languages, including English, French, German, Japanese, Korean and many others. Their in-depth knowledge and language skills impress visitors.
"Talent is key to protecting Dunhuang, more than equipment, money or academic levels," Fan concluded.
"But first of all, they must love Dunhuang. One will only stay at such a remote place if he or she truly loves it.