International Dunhuang Project

International Dunhuang Project
Established 1994
Location Directorate at the British Library, London, England
Branches Centres at Beijing, Berlin, Dunhuang, Kyoto, Paris, St Petersburg, and Seoul
Collection
Size over 135,000 catalogue entries
over 450,000 images
Other information
Director Susan Whitfield
Website idp.bl.uk

The International Dunhuang Project (IDP) is an international collaborative effort to conserve, catalogue and digitise manuscripts, printed texts, paintings, textiles and artefacts from Dunhuang and various other archaeological sites at the eastern end of the Silk Road. The project was established by the British Library in 1994,[1] and now includes twenty-two institutions in twelve countries. As of 1 March 2016 the online IDP database comprised 137,812 catalogue entries and 483,721 images.[2] Most of the manuscripts in the IDP database are texts written in Chinese, but more than fifteen different scripts and languages are represented,[3] including Brahmi, Kharosthi, Khotanese, Sanskrit, Tangut, Tibetan, Tocharian and Old Uyghur.[2]

Victor H. Mair, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at the University of Pennsylvania, has noted that there are many advantages of the IDP providing high resolution digital images of Dunhuang manuscripts online for access to all. Whereas in years gone by scholars often needed to travel long distances to access the original manuscripts, or could only access them by means of low quality reproductions, now anyone can access images from the convenience of their computer, wherever they are in the world. This not only makes research into these manuscripts easier, but helps in their conservation as there is far less need for them to be handled in person. Moreover, the high quality images provided by the IDP often show up details that would be difficult to see with the human eye.[4]

Activities

Digitisation at the British Library of the Rabbit Garden Imperial Book Repository 兔園策府, a Tang dynasty manuscript from Dunhuang

The main activities of the IDP are the conserving, cataloguing, and digitising of manuscripts, woodblock prints, paintings, photographs and other artefacts in the collections material from Dunhuang and other Eastern Silk Road sites held by participating institutions. Digitised images of the items in the IDP database are made available to the public on the IDP website. The digital images are intended to be at least as legible as the original manuscripts, and allow scholars to access the material from anywhere in the world without causing any more damage to the fragile items themselves.[3]

The central core of the project is the online database of catalogue records and images. This is intended to serve three main purposes:

In 2002, Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive Officer of the British Library, put forward the International Dunhuang Project as a good example of the sort of complex, collaborative, and international digitisation projects that the British Library was increasingly engaged in. She explained that none of the individual institutions participating in the project had the resources or facilities to allow scholars full access to all of the manuscripts in their collections, but by joining together and sharing knowledge and resources the institutions would be able to offer access to the combined collections of all the institutions by means of high-quality digital images. She noted that a digitisation project such as the IDP benefits both the institutions involved, who are often able to obtain more substantial funding than they would for an internal project, and also the scholarly community, who are given access through the digital images to fragile and often inaccessible items that might previously have been difficult or impossible to view.[6]

Cataloguing

Catalogue records are stored in XML format on a relational database using the 4th Dimension database management tool.[7] Records can be searched for by means of an online search form that allows users to restrict the search on the basis of a number of different criteria, such as type of artefact, holding institute, archaeological site, and language or script.[8] The database was updated to support Unicode in 2010, and the IDP website is now fully encoded using UTF-8, allowing characters from most of the ancient and modern scripts found in the manuscripts to be added to the catalogue records.[9]

Each online catalogue record incorporates a physical description of the item, catalogue records from existing print sources, translations if available, and bibliographic references. The IDP also encourages scholarly users to submit their own catalogue entries and research results on individual items for addition to the database.[8]

To facilitate the locating of items on the IDP database the project has also digitised a large number of catalogues and bibliographic sources, and made them available online, with links from the original catalogue entries to the corresponding online catalogue entry in the IDP database.[10]

Conservation

In order to better understand how to conserve the fragile materials that most of the items in the IDP database are made from (paper, textile, and wood), the IDP has supported a number of conservation projects (such as the analysis of paper and textile fibres), and has organised regular conferences on conservation issues at venues across the world.[11]

In addition to developing techniques for the conservation and preservation of documents and artefacts, the IDP hopes to foster good conservation practices and common standards amongst participating institutes, ensuring that artefacts are stored under the most suitable conditions, and are handled as little as possible.[12]

Digitisation

The IDP centre at the British Library set up a digitisation studio in 2001, and now similar studios have been established at IDP centres across Europe and Asia. In addition to making high-quality digital images of items, infrared photography is used for manuscripts with faded ink or which are otherwise hard to read in normal light.[12]

Education

The IDP also engages in various educational activities, organising exhibitions, workshops, and educational events for schools.[8]

In 2004 the IDP organised a major exhibition entitled "The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Faith", which was held at the British Library.[13] This was the most successful exhibition ever held at the British Library, and attracted 155,000 visitors.[14]

History

Detail of the Dunhuang Star Chart showing the North Polar region (British Library Or.8210/S.3326)

The foundations for the project were laid in October 1993 when an international conference on Dunhuang Cave 17 was held at Sussex University.[15] This conference brought together curators and conservators from across the world, including the British Library, the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the National Library of China, and in its aftermath an IDP Steering Group was set up by Graham Shaw (Deputy Director of the Oriental & India Office Collection at the British Library), Frances Wood (Head of the Chinese Section at the British Library), and Peter Lawson (Conservator at the British Library). Susan Whitfield was appointed to edit the newsletter. The first meeting of the IDP steering group was held on 11 April 1994, when the name International Dunhuang Project was adopted.[15] The first newsletter was published on 16 May 1994.

The IDP was initially founded with 3-year grant from the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation,[16] and had only one member of staff.[14] The following year the IDP database was designed and implemented, and in 1996 a grant from the British Academy allowed the hiring of a part-time research assistant to input catalogue data into the database.[14]

In 1997, with funding of £148,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund,[16] the IDP started to digitise manuscripts held at the British Library, and in 1998 the database went online with an initial 20,000 catalogue entries and about 1,000 images of digitised manuscripts.[14]

In 2001, with substantial support from the Mellon Foundation, work started on the digitisation of manuscripts held at collections in Paris and Beijing,[6] and in 2003 digital images of Dunhuang paintings held at the British Museum were added to the database.[14] By 2004 the IDP database included images of some 50,000 manuscripts, paintings, artefacts, and historical photographs.[17]

IDP Centres were opened in Beijing in 2001, in St. Petersburg and Kyoto in 2004, in Berlin in 2005, in Dunhuang in 2007, in Paris in 2008, and in Seoul in 2010.[14][18]

The current director of the IDP is Susan Whitfield.[19]

Participating institutions

The following institutions are participating in the project.[18]

IDP Centres

The International Dunhuang Project has centres in seven countries.[18][20] The London centre, based at the British Library, acts as the directorate for the IDP, and is responsible for maintaining the IDP database and the main English-language website. The other centres maintain local-language versions of the IDP website, currently Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korea, and Russian. Each centre is responsible for the conservation, cataloguing, and digitisation of Central Asian manuscripts in its country. The staff at these centres help train participating institutions in the use of digitisation equipment and computer software, as well as providing training in conservation and research techniques.

Centre Institution Established Website Images[1] Notes
London British Library 1994 idp.bl.uk/ 169,200 Also hosts images for those institutions that do not have their own IDP website, such as the British Museum and Princeton University.
Beijing National Library of China 2001 idp.nlc.gov.cn/ 125,017
Kyoto Ryukoku University 2004 idp.afc.ryukoku.ac.jp/ 17,364
St Petersburg Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences 2004 idp.orientalstudies.ru/ 22,672
Berlin Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and Berlin State Library 2005 idp.bbaw.de/ 69,470
Dunhuang Dunhuang Academy 2007 idp.dha.ac.cn/ 2,875 Responsible for manuscripts held by institutions in Gansu province.
Paris Bibliothèque nationale de France and Guimet Museum 2008 idp.bnf.fr/ 55,681
Seoul Research Institute of Korean Studies at Korea University 2010 idp.korea.ac.kr/ not yet available
Notes
1.^ Count of number of images in the IDP database as of 21 July 2015.[2]

In addition to these centres, it is planned to open an IDP centre in Sweden, and digitise the Central Asian collections held in Swedish institutions.[21]

Collections

The IDP database includes material from a number of important collections held by participating institutions of the IDP.

The Stein Collections

The Mogao Caves at Dunhuang.

Aurel Stein (1862–1943) made four expeditions to Central Asia (1900–1901, 1906–1908, 1913–1916, and 1930–1931), during which he collected a vast amount of material, including a large number of manuscripts that he acquired from the 'Library Cave' (Cave 17) of the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang during his second expedition.[22] Some of the material that he collected, including murals, paintings, artefacts and manuscripts, was sent to India as his first three expeditions had been sponsored by the Indian government. Most of this material is now held at the National Museum of India in New Delhi, but a small amount of the material from his first expedition is held at the Indian Museum in Calcutta, and at Lahore Museum in Pakistan. The rest of the material collected by Stein was taken to England, and is now shared between the British Library, British Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.[23]

The British Library holds over 45,000 items collected by Stein, mostly comprising manuscripts, printed texts, and inscribed pieces of wood, written in a wide variety of scripts and languages, including Chinese, Tibetan, Sanskrit, Tangut, Khotanese, Tocharian, Sogdian, Uyghur, Turkic and Mongolian:[24]

The British Library Stein Collection also includes some artefacts such as textile fragments, sutra wrappers and paste brushes, as well as over 10,000 photographs, negatives and lantern slides taken by Stein.[23]

The British Museum holds a collection of over 1,500 archaeological artefacts collected from various Silk Road sites by Stein, as well as non-literary items from Dunhuang Cave 17, comprising more than 240 paintings on silk or paper, 200 textiles, and about 30 woodblock prints.[25] The museum also holds over 4,000 coins collected by Stein, about three quarters of which are Chinese, and most of the rest are Islamic.[26] Images of all of the paintings and some of the artefacts are now included in the IDP database,[1] and the coins may be added at a future date.[23]

The Victoria and Albert Museum holds a collection of more than 650 textiles collected by Stein from various Silk Road sites,[27] all of which have now been added to the IDP database.[1]

Many of Stein's personal papers and diaries are held at the Western Manuscript Department of the Bodleian Library at Oxford University.[28] A collection of personal papers and photographs held at the library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences have been added to the IDP database.[23]

The removal by Stein of so much cultural and archaeological material from China has caused anger in China, and there have been calls for the texts and artefacts collected by Stein from Dunhuang that are now in the British Museum and British Library to be repatriated to China. Although the Chinese government has not formally requested their return, in 2003 an official at the Chinese Embassy in London stated that "[l]ittle by little, we will expect to see the return of items taken from Dunhuang — they should go back to their original place".[29]

The Hoernle Collection

The Hoernle Collection, named after Augustus Hoernle (1841–1918), is a collection of Central Asian manuscripts collected by the Indian government. 22 consignments were sent to Hoernle in Calcutta between 1895 and 1899, and these were sent to the British Museum in 1902. A further ten consignments were sent to Hoernle in London after his retirement in 1899. The Hoernle Collection, which comprises over 2,000 Sanskrit manuscripts, 1,200 Tocharian manuscripts, and about 250 Khotanese manuscripts, as well as a few Chinese, Persian and Uyghur manuscripts, is now held by the British Library.[24]

The Pelliot Collection

Paul Pelliot examining manuscripts in the 'Library Cave' (Cave 17) at Dunhuang in 1908

Paul Pelliot (1878–1945) led an expedition to Kucha and Dunhuang from 1906–1908. In Kucha and elsewhere in Chinese Turkestan he collected hundreds of woodslips with inscriptions in Sanskrit and Tocharian, whilst at Dunhuang, arriving a year after Stein, he acquired thousands of manuscripts from the 'Library Cave' (Cave 17).[30] The items collected by Pelliot are held at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and are divided into the following sub-collections:[31]

The Kozlov Collection

Pyotr Kozlov (1863–1935) made an expedition to the Tangut fortress city of Khara-Khoto during 1907–1909. The city had been abandoned in the late 14th century,[32] and had been largely buried in sand for several hundred years. Kozlov unearthed thousands of manuscripts and woodblock prints, mostly written in the dead Tangut language, which had been preserved beneath the sands of Khara-Khoto. The collection of Tangut texts that Kozlov brought back from Khara-Khoto were originally housed in the museum of Alexander III of Russia in St Petersburg, but were transferred to the Asiatic Museum in 1911. They are now held at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts in St Petersburg. In addition to the several thousand Tangut texts, the Kozlov Collection includes about 660 manuscripts and printed books in Chinese, mostly Buddhist texts.[33]

The site of Khara-Khoto was excavated by Aurel Stein in 1917, during his third expedition, and several thousand Tangut manuscript fragments recovered by Stein are in the Stein Collection of the British Library.[33]

The Oldenburg Collections

Sergey Oldenburg (1863–1934), who was the first director of the Institute of Oriental Studies (formerly the Asiatic Museum) in St Petersburg, made two expeditions to Central Asia (1909–1910 and 1914–1915), which were to become known as the 'Russian Turkestan expeditions'. During the first expedition Oldenburg explored a number of sites around Turpan, including Shikchin, Yarkhoto and Kucha, and collected murals, paintings, terracottas, and about one hundred manuscripts, mostly fragments written in the Brahmi script. During his second expedition Oldenburg surveyed the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang, and revisited some of the sites in Turpan that he had visited during his first expedition. He found a large number of artefacts and manuscript fragments (nearly 20,000 fragments, some of them tiny) at Dunhuang, and also purchased about 300 scrolls from local people.[33]

Oldenburg's collections are shared between the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts and the Hermitage Museum. The Institute of Oriental Manuscripts holds the more than 19,000 manuscript fragments and 365 manuscript scrolls collected from Dunhuang by Oldenburg, as well as about thirty manuscripts collected by Sergey Malov during an expedition to Khotan during 1909–1910, and some 183 Uyghur manuscripts collected by N. N. Krotkov, the Russian Consul in Urumqi and Ghulja.[33]

The Hermitage Museum holds artefacts from both of Oldenburg's expeditions, including 66 Buddhist banners and banner-tops, 137 fragments of Buddhist silk paintings, 43 fragments of Buddhist paintings on paper, 24 murals, 38 pieces of textile, and eight manuscript fragments. Oldenburg's personal papers, diaries, maps and photographs relating to the two expeditions are also held at the Hermitage.[33]

Dunhuang Collections at the National Library of China

During 1907–1908 Stein and Pelliot had visited Dunhuang, and had both purchased large quantities of manuscripts from Wang Yuanlu (c.1849–1931), a Taoist priest and self-proclaimed guardian of the Mogao Caves. News of the discovery of these manuscripts was brought to the attention of Chinese scholars when Pelliot visited Beijing in 1909, and the renowned scholar and antiquarian Luo Zhenyu (1866–1940) persuaded the Ministry of Education to recover the 8,000 or so remaining manuscripts. In 1910 Fu Baoshu 傅寶書 was dispatched to Dunhuang to bring the remaining manuscripts back to Beijing, although he left the Tibetan manuscripts behind. Some of the manuscripts were stolen by the minister Li Shengduo 李盛鐸 shortly after they had arrived at the Ministry of Education, but soon after the Xinhai Revolution in 1911 the manuscripts were deposited in the newly founded Metropolitan Library (later to become the National Library of China).[34]

The 8,697 manuscripts that Fu Baoshu brought back from Dunhuang form the core of the Dunhuang collection in the National Library of China, but they have since been augmented by various purchases and donations over the years, so that the library collection now amounts to some 16,000 items, including 4,000 small manuscript fragments.[34]

The Ōtani Collections

Ōtani Kōzui (1876–1948) was a hereditary Buddhist abbot from Kyoto, Japan, but he had studied in London, and after meeting the explorers Aurel Stein and Sven Hedin (1865–1952) he decided to explore Central Asia himself from a Buddhist perspective. In 1902 he left England to return to Japan overland via St Petersburg, and together with four other returning Japanese students he made his way to Kashgar. From Kashgar the expedition divided into two groups, Ōtani and two others travelling to Srinagar and India, before returning to Japan; and the two others exploring the region of Khotan and Turpan, and excavating the previously unexplored site of Kucha, before returning to Japan in 1904. Ōtani became abbot of the Nishi Honganji Monastery in Kyoto on his father's death in 1903, and so was unable to personally take part in any further expeditions, but he financed further expeditions to Chinese Turkestan in 1908–1909 and 1910–1914. The final expedition excavated the tombs of Astana outside the ancient city of Gaochang, taking back to Japan nine mummies and many grave goods and funerary texts.[35]

The three Ōtani expeditions produced a large collection of manuscripts (especially Buddhist sutras), woodslips, murals, sculptures, textiles, coins, and seals. These items were originally deposited in the Nishi Honganji Monastery, and later at Ōtani's residence, Villa Niraku in Kobe, but in 1914 Ōtani resigned as abbot due to a bribery scandal, and much of his collection was moved to Ōtani's villa in Lüshun, China. His collection was later dispersed to various libraries, museums and collections across Japan, Korea, and China.[35]

The Berlin Turpan Collections

Four German expeditions to Turpan were made in the years 1902–1903, 1904–1905, 1905–1907, and 1913–1914, the first and third expeditions led by Albert Grünwedel (1856–1935), and the second and fourth expeditions led by Albert von Le Coq (1860–1930). These expeditions brought back to Berlin a huge amount of material, including murals and other artefacts, as well as about 40,000 manuscript and woodblock fragments written in more than twenty different scripts and languages. The items collected during these four expeditions are now divided between two institutions in Berlin.[37]

The IDP has digitised over 14,000 items from these collection, mostly the Chinese, Brahmi and Sanskrit fragments. The Middle Persian, Old Turkic and Mongolian fragments have been digitised as part of the Digital Turfan Archive hosted by the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and the Tocharian fragments have been digitised as part of the TITUS project of the Goethe University Frankfurt.

Notable items in the IDP database

The following are some of the notable items in the IDP database.

Institution and pressmark Title Description
British Library Or.8210/P.2 Diamond Sutra (Chinese: 金剛般若波羅蜜多經; pinyin: jīngāng bōrěbōluómìduō jīng) The oldest known dated printed book in the world, dated 868.
British Library Or.8210/S.3326 Dunhuang Star Chart The first known graphical representation of stars from ancient Chinese astronomy, dated to the Tang Dynasty (618–907).
British Library Or.8210/S.5574 Dunhuang Go Manual The earliest surviving manual on the strategic board game of Go.
British Library Or.8210/S.9498A
British Library Or.8210/S.13683		 Testament of Ba The earliest known fragments of an account of the establishment of Buddhism in Tibet during the reign of King Trisong Detsen (r. 755–797/804), dated to 9th or 10th centuries.
British Library Or.8212/161 Irk Bitig (Book of Omens) A 9th-century manuscript book on divination written in the Old Turkic script.
British Library Or.12380/1840 The General's Garden A unique 12th-century manuscript translation in Tangut of a Chinese military treatise.
National Library of France Pelliot chinois 4504 Sutra of the Great Virtue of Wisdom (Chinese: 摩訶般若波羅蜜經) One of the oldest existing Chinese Buddhist sutras, dated to the 5th century CE.
National Library of France Pelliot chinois 3532 Wang ocheonchukguk jeon (Chinese: 往五天竺國傳; pinyin: wǎng wǔtiānzhúguó zhuàn) A travelogue by the Korean Buddhist monk Hyecho, who traveled to India in the years 723–727/728.
National Library of France Pelliot tibétain 1287 Old Tibetan Chronicle A semi-fictitious record from the 11th century of the early kings of Tibet
National Library of France Pelliot tibétain 1288
British Library IOL Tib J 750		 Old Tibetan Annals A year-by-year account of important events in Tibet during the years 650 to 764, dated back to 11th century.

Awards

In November 2010 the IDP was awarded the Casa Asia Award by the Spanish governmental consortium, Casa Asia, for its work in digitizing and preserving manuscripts.[38]

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Wang & Perkins 2008, p. 8
  2. 1 2 3 "IDP Statistics". International Dunhuang Project. Retrieved 2012-10-19.
  3. 1 2 "Silk Road treasures united on the web". BBC News. 11 November 2002. Retrieved 2011-02-08.
  4. ↑ Mair, Victor H. (2010–2011). "The Impact of IDP on Dunhuang Studies". IDP News. International Dunhuang Project (36–37): 4–5. ISSN 1354-5914.
  5. ↑ Carpenter, Shaw & Prescott 1998, p. 170
  6. 1 2 Brindley 2002, pp. 31–32
  7. ↑ Whitfield, Susan. "The IDP Database" (PDF). Retrieved 2011-02-02.
  8. 1 2 3 "Advanced Search". International Dunhuang Project. Retrieved 2011-02-02.
  9. ↑ "IDP UK" (PDF). IDP News (35). Spring–Summer 2010. ISSN 1354-5914.
  10. ↑ "IDP Show Catalogues". Retrieved 2011-01-20.
  11. ↑ "IDP Conservation Projects". International Dunhuang Project. Retrieved 2011-01-22.
  12. 1 2 "Activities". International Dunhuang Project. Retrieved 2011-02-02.
  13. ↑ Whitfield, Susan (2004). The silk road: trade, travel, war and faith. British Library. ISBN 978-0-7123-4866-9.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "IDP Timeline". International Dunhuang Project. Retrieved 2011-01-19.
  15. 1 2 "'Cave 17' Conference". IDP News (1). 16 May 1994. ISSN 1354-5914.
  16. 1 2 Day, Alan Edwin (1998), Inside the British Library, Library Association Pub., p. 188, ISBN 978-1-85604-280-2
  17. ↑ "IDP 10 Years On". IDP News (24). Autumn 2004. ISSN 1354-5914.
  18. 1 2 3 "About IDP". International Dunhuang Project. Retrieved 2011-01-17.
  19. ↑ "IDP People". International Dunhuang Project. Retrieved 2011-01-17.
  20. ↑ "Online Silk Road Reaches Korea". British Library. 2 December 2010. Retrieved 2011-01-22.
  21. ↑ "IDP Wordwide News". IDP News. International Dunhuang Project (36–37): 14. 2010–2011. ISSN 1354-5914.
  22. ↑ Whitfield & Farrer 1990, p. 15
  23. 1 2 3 4 "British Collections". International Dunhuang Project. Retrieved 2011-01-19.
  24. 1 2 Wang & Perkins 2008, pp. 3–4
  25. ↑ Wang & Perkins 2008, p. 10
  26. ↑ Wang & Perkins 2008, p. 12
  27. ↑ Wang & Perkins 2008, p. 26
  28. ↑ Wang & Perkins 2008, p. 29
  29. ↑ George, Marcus (22 October 2003). "The original Chinese takeaway". BBC News. Retrieved 2011-02-08.
  30. ↑ Whitfield & Whitfield 2000, p. 45
  31. ↑ "French Collections". International Dunhuang Project. Retrieved 2011-01-19.
  32. ↑ "Khara-Khoto — The Black City". IDP News (2). January 1995. ISSN 1354-5914.
  33. 1 2 3 4 5 "Russian Collections". International Dunhuang Project. Retrieved 2011-01-19.
  34. 1 2 "Chinese Collections". International Dunhuang Project. Retrieved 2011-01-19.
  35. 1 2 "Japanese Collections". International Dunhuang Project. Retrieved 2011-01-19.
  36. ↑ "Korean Collections". International Dunhuang Project. Retrieved 2011-01-19.
  37. ↑ "German Collections". International Dunhuang Project. Retrieved 2011-01-22.
  38. ↑ "The International Project Dunhuang and the Philippine Senator Edgardo Angara, winners of the Casa Asia Award 2010". Casa Asia. 2 November 2010. Retrieved 2011-09-03.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to International Dunhuang Project.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/30/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.