Cooperation in Conservation of and Research into Dunhuang Treasure-house
2 min readAs Dunhuang documents are wide in range and scope and are written in many languages, some are lost and some dead, concerted joint efforts and cooperation are indispensable in many aspects of research. Ying Cang Dunhuang Wenxian (Dunhuang Documents Collected in UK),E Cang Dunhuang Wenxian and Fa Cang Dunhuang Xiyu Wenxian (Dunhuang and Western Regions Documents Collected in France) are typical examples of such international cooperation. It may be said that no discipline requires international cooperation as urgently as Dunhuang studies, and no discipline has had international cooperation as wide and intimate as Dunhuang studies has, either.
International Dunhuang Project (IDP) is a crystal of the collaboration of international Dunhuang studies. In 1993, China National Library, British NationalLibrary and other collectors proposed to establish an international project of Dunhuang studies and in 1994, the British National Library set up a specialorganization-International Dunhuang Project. Now it has become an important department of the library. The founding of IDP has provided world Dunhuang document collectors with a platform of cooperation and communication on which issues of conservation and catalogue have been discussed and international academic conferences held. Meanwhile, all collectors proposed to set up an online database in which catalogues and high-quality digitalized images would be interlinked with attachment of other relevant data so that scholars all over the world could make a full use of all collections. After several years’ efforts, the online database was open in 2002. Now researchers may search for relavant Dunhuang documents and research achievements through the Internet.
International Liaison Committee for Dunhuang Studies founded in 2003 was organized and established to suit to Dunhuang research in the new era. It is currently made up of 12 members from 8 countries, an international liaison institution in the true sense.
Today, there are more and more opportunities for scholars from all countries to communicate and study common topics together. Foreign specialists asked us for advice in the restoration of ancient Chinese manuscripts, while American, French, Japanese and other specialists are making great contributions to the conservation of the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang. With the joint efforts of all Dunhuangologists and publishers, the plates of most Dunhuang documents have been published. IDP specialists are determined to ascertain Dunhuang documents scattered all over the world and make 3D simulations of them on the computer so that anyone interested may use them through the Internet instead of going overseas to read a file as our predecessors did.
