The International Dunhuang Background As Buddhism spread along the Silk Project: Chinese Central Asia Road from India into China at the beginning of the first millennium, Online monks and merchants adopted the Indian practice of paying for cave Susan Whitfield temples to be dug out from cliffs British Library, as an act of merit. These caves London were then painted from floor to ceiling with scenes from Buddha’s life and depictions from the sutras, Despite the excellent work of 80% of the material from and further adorned with statue scholars over the past century, the Dunhuang and a large part of the groupings showing Buddha with his archaeological legacy of the material from other archaeological disciples and guardians kings. The Chinese Silk Road has barely been sites will be available, with over Mogao cave complex at Dunhuang explored. There is so much 200,000 images, scores of was begun in CE 366, and by the material, with more being catalogues, translations, edu- ninth century there were over 500 discovered all the time, and it cational pages, photographs, maps cave temples with many residential covers so many subjects, and research. Chinese Central Asia caves for the scores of artisans, languages, religions, cultures and will be online. painters and sculptors working geographical areas, that decades there [Figs. 1, 6 (p. 7)]. will elapse before all its Dunhuang was one secrets are uncovered. among many such Silk The International Dun- Road cave temple sites huang Project (IDP) is but is unique because of now facilitating access the discovery in 1900 of to and study of this a library cave which had dispersed material by been sealed and hidden making it freely avail- in about CE 1000 [Fig. able on multi-lingual 2]. Containing tens of websites. IDP hopes thousands of manu- that by encouraging and scripts and the earliest promoting international dated printed book, this collaborations the is the world’s earliest importance of this Fig. 1. The northern section of the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang. and largest paper wonderful archae- Photo © Daniel C. Waugh 1998. ological legacy will finally be fully appreciated worldwide. The Silk Road is part of all our histories. IDP is bringing it online for everyone.
IDP re-launched its web site (http://idp.bl.uk) in December 2005 offering more powerful full- text search facilities, greater functionality, educational project pages and the personalised “My IDP” project space. The IDP’s web site is now hosted by sites worldwide and in English, Chinese, Russian, Japanese and German versions. After just ten years, IDP already holds information and images of over 50,000 paintings, artefacts, manuscripts, textiles and historical photographs from Dunhuang and other sites in Fig. 2. Aurel Stein’s 1907 view of Mogao Cave 16, with a portion of the Chinese Central Asia. By 2010 over manuscripts from Cave 17 (on right). Photograph © The British Library, Stein Photograph Serindia Fig. 200, used with permission. All rights reserved. © 2005 Susan Whitfield 3 archive [Fig. 3; for other images scientific and scholarly information graphers in Beijing. The Chinese- of some of these treasures, see the (for details see IDP News 24, language version of the web site articles below by Connie Chin and available free from IDP or online and online database were launched Jonathan Bloom]. It also contained at http://idp.bl.uk/pages/ on a local server in November 2002 hundreds of fine paintings on silk, archives_newsletter.a4d). To (http://idp.nlc.gov.cn). Institutions facilitate access IDP such as the NLC are founding decided to create a members and full IDP partners. comprehensive online Local staff at the IDP Centre in catalogue of all the Beijing add information about their material, linked to collections into their local database high-quality digital and local photographers digitise images and sup- the collections, using mutually porting information agreed IDP standards and which would be made procedures (published online on freely available to all. http://idp.bl.uk/pages/ Starting with a technical_resources.a4d). Data are grant from the Chiang synchronised between the Chinese Ching-Kuo Foundation and English servers. The NLC and a staff of one, the images, apart from the reference first few years of IDP thumbnails, are also kept on the NLC server. Fig. 3. Detail of the outer “envelope” of Ancient were spent designing Sogdian Letter No. 2 (BL Or. 8212/99.1), discov- and implementing a IDP acts as a host for some ered by Aurel Stein in 1907 at Watchtower T.XII.a cataloguing and image institutions’ collections. For on the Dunhuang Limes. Photograph © The British management example, the Chester Beatty Library, used with permission. All rights reserved. database. A British Library in Dublin and the Freer Academy-funded Gallery in Washington DC both hemp and paper. Numerous other research assistant started adding have three items from Dunhuang. ancient Silk Road sites in Chinese information about the British They supplied IDP with large- Central Asia yielded other Library manuscripts in 1995. In format photographs of these, important artefacts, paintings, 1997 with a further grant from the which IDP then scanned and added textiles, coins and manuscripts in Heritage Lottery Memorial Fund, to its web site with cataloguing over twenty languages and scripts, IDP expanded and employed staff details. IDP also hosts images of and this and the Dunhuang to start work on the cataloguing the paintings from Dunhuang held material was dispersed to and digitisation of Chinese, Tangut in the British Museum and is just institutions worldwide, making and Tibetan materials from various starting to add images of the access difficult. The amount of Silk Road sites, and in October textiles from the Chinese Silk Road material, its age, fragility and 1998 the web site went online with in the Victoria and Albert Museum uniqueness also created a prob- details of over 20,000 manu- and other artefacts from the British lem for conservators. Throughout scripts. Museum. In all cases the holding the twentieth century much Other projects followed. A institution retains copyright on the remained in need of conservation grant from the Higher Education images and there is a clear link on and therefore also uncatalogued, Funding Council for England led to the IDP site to the institutions’ own unpublished and inaccessible. the launch of a map interface to websites. Information on the the database in 2000. In 2001, a participating institutions and their The International Dun- four-year grant from the Andrew collections is on the advanced huang Project — the First W. Mellon Foundation enabled IDP search page. Ten Years to establish a digitisation studio Other collaborations launched The International Dunhuang with the latest large-format during the past two years involve Project (IDP), with its directorate digitisation equipment. Two the Institute of Oriental Studies in at the British Library, was founded conservators, three photographers St. Petersburg, Ryukoku University in 1994 to address these problems and three Photoshop® operators in Kyoto, and the Staatsbibliothek by creating a partnership of all the were employed to work full-time and Berlin-Brandenburg Academy major holders of the material to on the Dunhuang material. of Sciences and Humanities in work together on conservation and Collaboration started with the Berlin. The online Russian, cataloguing and to increase access. National Library of China (NLC) in Japanese and German versions of To achieve the first, IDP organises the same year, funded by the Sino- the IDP site are hosted by these regular conservation conferences British Fellowship Trust, and the institutions. IDP hopes to start and has a publications programme skills learned in London were similar collaborations with the to disseminate conservation, passed on to the IDP photo- Dunhuang Academy, the National
4 manuscripts. and Loulan in the British Library Similar collections. IDP has also started endeavours digitising Sanskrit, Khotanese and are under- Tangut manuscripts and continues way on all digitisation of the thousands of the collec- historical photographs and maps of tions. the Silk Road and its sites made by Aurel Stein and others. IDP has All these achieved far more than it could scholars possibly have expected when Fig. 4. Administrative document in Kharosthi script, found at have agreed founded a decade ago, but the Niya by Aurel Stein. National Museum, New Delhi. Photograph that their collections are so rich that much © Daniel C. Waugh 2001. catalogues remains to be done. Museum, New Delhi [Fig. 4], the be available online, and the Museum for Indian Art, Berlin [Fig. relaunched IDP website enables In addition to conservation and 5], the Musée Guimet and the users to browse a catalogue and digitisation, IDP continues with Bibliothèque nationale de France. carry out full-text searches. It is scholarly work. In 2005 it At present, over 20,000 high- important to apply internationally- completed a three-year collab- quality images are being added accepted metadata to the online orative research project to annually to the database, but this catalogues, and more will come catalogue and digitise the Tibetan figure will be doubled if funds can online during 2006 as IDP staff tantric manuscripts from be secured to upgrade equipment complete this (the catalogues are Dunhuang. Carried out in and expand existing staffing in the prepared as XML documents). The conjunction with the School of UK, China and Germany. IDP will catalogues offered will include Oriental and African Studies at the add more institutions and include “legacy” catalogues — those University of London and funded in its database small and private published from as early as the by the Arts and Humanities collections throughout the world. beginning of the twentieth century. Research Council, this project by Systematic cataloguing of this Although some of the scholarship Dalton and van Schaik uncovered material is essential if it is to be a in these might now be superseded, many surprising results, including useful scholarly and educational they all contain much useful the possibility that most of these resource. The Chinese Section at information and are an essential manuscripts were transcribed in the British Library has been resource for any scholar. So, collaborating with Chinese scholars for example, by the middle for three decades to make material of 2006 Stein’s original more accessible. As a result, the entries on the Dunhuang previously unconserved and paintings will be accessible uncatalogued fragments from alongside Fred Andrews’ Dunhuang (Or.8210/S.6981 1933 catalogue and Professor onwards) were all conserved in the Roderick Whitfield’s detailed 1980s and cataloguing taken on by 1982-1985 Kodansha pub- Professors Rong Xinjiang (non- lication. Moreover, any Buddhist material) and Fang scholar working on items in Guangchang (Buddhist frag- the database is welcome to ments). The first catalogue was submit his/her research for completed in 1999 and Professor online publication, and an Fang’s is nearing completion. XML template and in- Professor Sha Zhi has also recently structions are available completed his catalogue of Chinese (http://idp.bl.uk/pages/ fragments. Dr. Jake Dalton and Dr. technical_resources.a4d). Sam van Schaik’s catalogue of the Apart from the continuing Tibetan tantric material is now digitisation of Dunhuang online and will be published next Chinese materials in year, Professor Tsuguhito Takeuchi collections worldwide, work has catalogued other non-Buddhist has been completed on the Tibetan material, and Professor Tibetan woodslips from Miran Oktor Skjaervø has catalogued the and elsewhere, Chinese Han- Fig. 5. Leaf from a 8th-9th-century Manichaean Khotanese fragments. Work is now dynasty wood shavings from book. Qocho, Temple K. Museum für Indische starting on the Sanskrit material. the Dunhuang limes, Kunst, Staatliche Museen Preussischer These are just some of the major Tocharian tablets, and Kulturbesitz, Berlin, MIK III 6368. projects on the British Library Kharosthi material from Niya Photograph © Daniel C. Waugh 2004.
5 the latter half of the tenth century children an opportunity to learn and we would like to take this by a small group of scribes. The about their local history. This DVD opportunity to say again how manuscripts were previously uses some of the resources grateful we are for this. We are generally assumed to date from prepared by 12-18 year-olds as particularly delighted by the the period of the Tibetan part of the 2004 Silk Road number of donors who have occupation of Dunhuang, from the exhibition educational project. renewed their grants or made mid-eighth to mid-ninth centuries. Next year IDP will collaborate with additional gifts. These results will form the basis a European Union-funded project In 2005 three major grants of the just-started palaeographical for children in schools throughout came to an end, and IDP has been research programme (see below). the EU. Also coming online in early actively fundraising to enable it to 2006 will be the “Silk Road Quest,” achieve its programme for the next a web adventure for older children Educational Outreach in the five years. It has grants promised devised by Gizella Dewath. Years Ahead from the Leverhulme Trust (for the In doing such projects IDP palaeographical project), the Ford Now the infrastructure and a hopes to bring a greater awareness Foundation (for promoting significant body of material has of this rich cultural legacy to the scholarly interaction between been established, IDP is planning people of the region and others India, China and Russia), the to reach out into the wider worldwide. The web database will Pidem Fund (for general IDP work) community by creating web-based be made even more accessible and from several other foundations educational resources — in local through the addition of the for smaller amounts. In addition languages and with local teachers personalised web space, an to grants from organisations, — and not only for higher interactive map interface, individual donations remain a vital education but also for school- photographs, music, video clips element of IDP’s funding (for a list children from Shanghai to and translations. We are looking see http://idp.bl.uk/pages/ Sacramento. One of the first IDP to make new partnerships with supporterslist.html). For example, educational resources to go online organisations and institutions with these donations have given us the was a history of Chinese book- expertise and presence in the flexibility to enhance the catalogue binding, illustrated by Silk Road region to maximise access and in response to new technologies manuscripts and written and understanding of this material. and requests from our users — as designed by Colin Chinnery. This Cataloguing will continue, and illustrated by “My IDP,” the continues to prove one of the most during the period 2006-2008 IDP personalised IDP web space. visited pages of the web site. Web Similarly, “Sponsor a Sutra” (http: pages on Dash, Stein’s canine will also work with scholars and universities worldwide to create a //idp.bl.uk/forms/ travelling companions, and on sponsorSutraChoice.a4d) Buddhism in Central Asia, have new field of palaeographical studies for East Asian manuscripts. donations have enabled us to been added in the past few years conserve and digitise a number of and also proved popular. The This will include a database of millions of Chinese characters and unique and fragile manuscripts, second of these has now been ensuring they can be accessed by adapted by Sam van Schaik tens of thousands of Tibetan syllables digitally “cut out” from scholars and the wider public now following his teaching of the and in the future. subject at the School of Oriental the manuscript images, along with and African Studies and will form full details about the physical IDP now has a skilled and the opening project on the “My aspects of the manuscripts, committed staff working worldwide IDP” personalised web space in including laid and chain lines, type, and is within sight of its primary early 2006. Educational outreach colour and size of papers. The objective of finally making the projects will be started with the dataset will be freely available and Dunhuang and other Silk Road Dunhuang Academy and the be used by IDP used to test manuscripts, paintings, textiles National Library of China for hypotheses about the date and and artefacts readily available to Chinese schoolchildren. provenance of the manuscripts. all. However, IDP urgently needs The tools prepared on this project, to secure further funding to realise In 2005 IDP collaborated with such as the cutting-out software, this. IDP can celebrate its the Gansu Basic Educational will also be freely available for achievements of its first ten years. Project (GBEP; http://www.gbep. others scholars to use. It is hoped that funds are soon org/en/about.asp) to produce a forthcoming to ensure that the full bilingual booklet and DVD Funding potential of these is realised over containing text, images, music, the next five. and video telling the story of From its inception, IDP has Dunhuang. This is now being been an externally-funded project. About the Author distributed to primary-school The generosity of our supporters teachers in the poorest townships has enabled IDP to accomplish all Susan Whitfield is Director of the of Gansu and will give school- that has been achieved to date, IDP and author of several books,
6 including Life along the Silk Road Fang Guangchang. Ying guo tu shu Asia and westernmost China (1999), Aurel Stein on the Silk guan cang dun hang yi shu mu lu. carried out and described under Road (2004) and a forthcoming (S.6981-S.8400) (Catalogue of the orders of H.M. Indian Historical Dictionary of Exploration Buddhist manuscripts in the government by Aurel Stein. 5 vols. of the Silk Road. She edited the Dunhuang collection of the British Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1921. catalogue for the British Library’s Library not included in Lionel Giles’ Silk Road exhibition which she catalogue. First volume [Or.8210/ Tsugohito Takeuchi. Old Tibetan helped organize in 2004, The Silk S.6981-8400]). Beijing: Zongjiao Manuscripts from East Turkestan Road: Trade, Travel, War and wenhua chubanshe, 2000. in the Stein Collection of the British Faith, a volume which contains a Library. 3 vols. The Centre for East number of stimulating essays Rong Xinjiang. Yingguo Tushuguan Asian Cultural Studies for Unesco, presenting the results of new cang Dunhuang Hanwen fei fojiao The Toyo Bunko & The British research in the material IDP is wenxian canjuan mulu (S.6981- Library Board, 1997-. making accessible. 13624) (Catalogue of the Chinese Non-Buddhist Fragments [S.6981- Roderick Whitfield. The Art of References 13624] from Dunhuang in the Central Asia: the Stein Collection British Library). Hong Kong Studies in the British Museum. 3 vols. Fred H. Andrews. Catalogue of Center for Dunhuang and Turfan: Tokyo: Kodansha, 1982-1985. wall-paintings from ancient shrines 4. Taipei: Shin Wen Feng Print Co., in Central Asia and Sistan 1995. recovered by Sir Aurel Stein. Delhi, 1933. Prods Oktor Skjaervø, with How you may support contributions by Ursula Sims- Jacob Dalton and Sam van Schaik. Williams. Khotanese manuscripts IDP Catalogue of the Tibetan Tantric from Chinese Turkestanin the Manuscripts from Dunhuang in the British Library: a complete Details of IDP’s funding appeal Stein Collection. First electronic catalogue with texts and can be found on http://idp.bl.uk/ edition. [London:] IDP, 2005, translations. London: The British pages/about_funding.a4d. All online at
Fig. 6. Façade of Mogao Caves, including Cave 96, photographed in 1908 by Charles Nouette. Source: Mission Pelliot en Asie Centrale. Les Grottes de Touen- Houang (Paris: Geuthner, 1914; facsimile ed. 1997).
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