On September 26th, "Finding Dunhuang in the World - Dunhuang Diaspora Overseas Cultural Relics Reproduction Exhibition" is being exhibited in Dunhuang. Photo by Ding Si
Dunhuang, Gansu, 26 September (Reporter Ding Si Li Yalong) Why are the lost cultural relics in the Dunhuang Tibetan Scripture Cave returned? On the 26th, the "To find Dunhuang in the World - Dunhuang Diaspora Overseas Fine Cultural Relics Reproduction Exhibition" is being held in Dunhuang, Gansu Province, bringing back to the hometown for the first time more than 200 reproductions of high-quality cultural relics scattered overseas and more than 100 pieces of cultural relics from the Tibetan Scripture Caves treasured in China, so that audiences at home and abroad can appreciate the charm of Dunhuang culture and art at close range.
In 1900, the Tibetan Scripture Cave was found in the Mogao Caves, which contained more than 60,000 cultural relics of various types. Due to historical reasons, nearly 50,000 cultural relics have been lost to dozens of institutions in many overseas countries. In the past hundred years, with the joint efforts of Dunhuang academic circles at home and abroad, through investigation, editing, and publication of catalogs, catalogues and researches on the loss of overseas Dunhuang cultural relics, the quantity, content and value of the cultural relics in Dunhuang Tibetan Scripture Cave have been basically clarified, but the fate of Dunhuang cultural relics lost overseas and stored in many places has not changed.
The exhibition is organized by Gansu Jiuquan Municipal Bureau of Culture, Sports, Radio, Television and Tourism, Jiuquan Municipal Cultural Relics Bureau, and Jiuquan Museum. The exhibition is mainly divided into three units: "Discovering the Tibetan Scripture Cave", "Scattered Art Treasures" and "Reproducing Dunhuang Art", which sorts out the historical context of the continuous inheritance and promotion of ancient Dunhuang culture.
"Some people have concluded that the most cultural relics are hidden in Britain, the most refined in France, the most miscellaneous in Russia, the most hidden in Japan, and the most scattered and chaotic in China." Ji Yanan, director of the Exhibition Department of jiuquan city museum, said in an interview with reporters that in order to better protect and inherit Dunhuang's artistic treasures, over the past hundred years, generations of Dunhuang scholars have gone through countless hardships to copy rubbings, sort out and collect cultural relics scattered overseas, let them return in various ways, let more people understand Dunhuang, understand the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation.
The exhibition also uses scientific and technological means to restore the scene of the "Tibetan Scripture Cave" and "move" the Mogao Caves into the exhibition hall. Photo by Ding Si
Ji Yanan introduced that the core part of the exhibition is mainly to exhibit replicas of dunhuang tibetan scripture cave cultural relics collected by foreign collection institutions such as the British Museum, the British National Library, the French Jimei Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, usa. In the exhibition area of 1500 square meters, adhering to the principle of reproduction of the original primary color, various cultural relics such as silk paintings, paper paintings, linen paintings and scripture scrolls of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Sui and Tang Dynasties, Five Dynasties and Northern Song Dynasties lost from dunhuang Tibetan Scripture Cave were reproduced in high definition through 3D non-destructive scanning technology, and "returned home" through digital means.
"In order to allow the audience to have a deeper understanding of the history of the Cave, we also exhibited for the first time more than 100 pieces of cultural relics and Buddhist cultural relics that exist in China." Ji Yanan said that most of the scriptures preserved to this day are fragments and are very "brittle", but seeing these Dunhuang relics and objects can make people understand the history and value behind the Dunhuang Scripture Cave, as well as the efforts of Chinese scholars to help return home.
What is more worth mentioning is that the exhibition also restores the scene of the "Tibetan Scripture Cave" through the use of sound and light and other scientific and technological means, exhibits and displays Dunhuang ancient musical instruments and their performances, costume art modeling, Dunhuang trick music exhibition and performance, etc., using modern artistic expressions to make the millennium Dunhuang "cross", and display the charm of Dunhuang culture and art in multiple levels.
It is reported that in order to realize the "digital return" of the cultural relics of dunhuang Tibetan scripture caves, the Dunhuang Research Institute also launched the "Digital Dunhuang: DigitalIzation project of cultural relics of the Tibetan scripture caves - digital return of lost overseas Dunhuang cultural relics". The total budget of the project is 250 million yuan, which is planned according to the 10-year implementation period. The project is also the first Chinese-led digital regression project. (End)
Source: China News Network